Halloween Haunts: Halloween Spirits—and Snacks to Serve with Them or Just Let Professionals Do It, Kate! by Kate Jonez

Halloween is a great excuse to throw a party. These themed cocktails and cute snacks to serve with them are a welcome addition to any celebration—in theory.

Vampire’s Kiss

This sophisticated and elegant beverage looks as though it will be as delicious as it is beautiful.

Ingredients:
3 ounces of vodka
(vanilla, whipped cream or cake flavored is best)
Strawberry sundae syrup
Red sugar
Plastic vampire teeth as a garnish

Preparation:
Dip a martini glass in the strawberry syrup. Drizzle some on the inside of the glass so it drips. Press the edge of the glass into red sugar. Wash that mess off and try again. Go slower this time. Freeze the glasses. Pour the vodka over ice and shake well. Strain into prepared martini glass. Add teeth on the side of the glass as a garnish.

Tips:
For best results do not add vanilla to cheap vodka. No amount of strawberry sundae syrup will make this taste less like gasoline. Also, do not depend on the dollar store to have plastic vampire teeth when you need them. Even though they had them last week.
*note* I know that’s not a martini glass.

Candy Corn Cordial

This cocktail combines all the sugary plasticy goodness of candy corn with the noxious flavor of tequila.

Ingredients:
1 ounce tequila
½ ounce butterscotch schnapps
½ ounce crème de cacao
2 ounces fresh orange juice
Cocoa powder
4 pieces of candy corn

Preparation:
Dip the rim of the glass into orange juice then into cocoa powder. In a cocktail shaker (or whatever) add tequila, liqueurs and orange juice. Add ice and shake well. Strain into the prepared glass. Garnish with candy corn

Tips:
If a list of ingredients sound like they would not taste good together, trust your instincts. Also candy corn sinks to the bottom and looks nothing like a garnish. Throw all this stuff in the blender for a frozen beverage that will stand up to the corn. Drink at your peril.

Brain Hemorrhage

This cocktail looks so disturbing, who could resist?

Ingredients:
1 ounce peach schnapps
1 teaspoon Bailey’s Irish Cream
2 drops grenadine

Preparation:
Pour schnapps into a shot glass. Slowly pour in the Bailey’s Irish Cream. Don’t mix. After the cream clumps together in the shape of a brain add grenadine

Tips:
This is lots of fun to make! Do not put this in your mouth, especially the brains part.

Spider Eggs

Ingredients:
Eggs
Mustard and mayonnaise
Pitted whole black olives

Preparation:
Hard boil eggs and cut in half. Mash the yolks with mustard and mayonnaise. Spoon mashed yolk into egg whites. Cut pitted olives in half. Place an olive half in the center of each egg. Cut thin slivers of olive and arrange like spider legs around the olive halves

Tips:
Look up a real recipe for deviled eggs. Don’t add as much mayonnaise as I did or the filling will be sloppy. Slivering olives is boring and time consuming. I could be writing or something, right?

Cheesy Bones

Ingredients:
1 package or tube of soft bread sticks
¼ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1 one cup of ranch dressing
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce

Preparation:
Separate breadsticks. Stretch each to 5 inch length. Tie a knot at each end. Sprinkle with cheese. Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Mix ranch dressing and hot pepper sauce to serve as dip. Cool breadsticks slightly. Discard or eat all penis-shaped breadsticks before guests arrive.

Tips: Tie the knots carefully.

Black Cat Sandwiches

Ingredients:
1 loaf of black bread
Sandwich filling of your choice

Preparation:
Make sandwiches. Or even better, have someone else make sandwiches. With a metal cookie cutter in the shape of a cat, cut sandwiches. A bat shaped cookie cutter would work too. Serve.

Tip: These are really cute!

TODAY’S GIVEAWAY: Kate is offering two copies of her Shirley Jackson Award nominated novella Ceremony of Flies. Enter for the prize by posting in the comments section. Winners will be chosen at random and notified by e-mail. You may enter once for each giveaway, and all entrants may be considered for other giveaways if they don’t win on the day they post. You may also enter by e-mailing membership@horror.org and putting HH CONTEST ENTRY in the header.

KATE JONEZ is the Bram Stoker© and Shirley Jackson Award nominated author of Candy House and Ceremony of Flies. Visit http://katejonez.com to learn more. Make sure to sign up for news and giveaways.

Kate is also chief editor at Omnium Gatherum a small press specializing in dark fantasy, weird fiction and horror. Learn more at http://omniumgatherumedia.com.