My story in recipes: Halloween Party

Even though it seems a little anti-climatic, today's blog features the highlights from last night's Halloween festivities at my house. (My way of hanging on to October as long as I can.)

The evening started with the neighbors gathering for a chili dinner before the trick or treaters started to ring on doorbells. Our dining room table was filled with salad, pumpkin rolls and of course, treats!

I put pots of steaming hot chili on the stove. There was Italian chili, White Chicken Chili, Red Chicken Chili, Texas Chili and Vegetarian Chili.


Italian Chili

Chicken Chili


Texas Chili


Vegetarian Chili

I also put together an Olive Garden Salad.

There were baskets of freshly baked breads. Pumpkin rolls and foccacia bread seemed appropriate for our Halloween chili feast. (Pumpkin roll recipe will be on the blog this weekend.)

An idea stolen from pinterest - a pumpkin dip served inside of a pumpkin.

Now that my kids are older, I can no longer raid their trick or treat bags without going unnoticed. (Darn) Since most of the adults at our Halloween supper were in a similar situation, I decided to provide some "treats" for those of us who would not be trick or treating. My menu featured:

Candy corn cookies

Pumpkin Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Gingersnap Cookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

Chocolate Dipped Apple Slices

Chocolate Drizzled Popcorn

Chocolate Crackles

After dinner, everyone hit the streets with bellies full of warm chili and a few sweet treats. My strategy was to fill the kids up with big bowl of chili so they wouldn't be able to eat as much candy. (I don't think it really worked out that way.)