My roommates, friends, and I all love any excuse to get together and eat too much food, listen to good music, and enjoy each other's company. This could mean a game night, a movie night, a themed dinner party, or just our weekly Sunday dinner. Sometimes we choose themes to follow. I think this is important because it ultimately makes picking the movies and games easier, makes the treats more fun, and results in the cutest instagram pictures.
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This night we had a spooky Halloween themed movie night- I can post our carefully crafted seasonal movie lists if anyone finds that interesting.
I made a spooky treats board, Halloween trail mix, and caramel apples to add to our popcorn for the night. The themed treats made us all excited for the season and, in my opinion, made the movie that much better.
For this board I followed the same assembly and grocery list process, noted in my "Charcuterie Boards” post. I took note of some of mine and my friends favorite desserts. I worked through each snack I was creating, and made a list for each, starting with the main component, and noted the non-negotiables for each. For our caramel apples, we needed apples (obviously), caramel, melting chocolate, and apple toppings.
We started by unwrapping all of our treats, taking inventory of what needed to be started right away and what could be left off for a while. I melted chocolate and caramel for the apples, as well as some extra for dipping. I skewered our apples and dipped them, setting them aside to allow them to freeze (learned this the hard way, put them directly in the freezer, otherwise you’ll end up with caramel-less apples and concrete on your plates). Next, I moved onto cutting up fruit, cookies, and other larger treats into bite-sized pieces.
After all of the prep work was done, the fun could begin. I chose to start with my trail mix because there was nothing that needed to be hot, and it could therefore be left alone until served. To create this trail mix, I mixed a bunch of small Halloween snacks - candy corn, M&M’s, Reeses Pieces, teddy grahams (don’t knock it till you try it), pretzels, and peanuts- in a large bowl. Next up was the snack board. I followed my three board-building steps and began with my dips and large treats; in this case, I placed ramekins of melted chocolate, peanut butter, and caramel in the center. I then began stacking and arranging the cookies, baked goods, and fruit slices in mirrored piles around the board. From here I was left with a few spaces too small for my larger snacks, which I filled with Halloween gummy candies and chocolates. After these two more simple tasks were completed I decided to begin undertaking the caramel apples. I took my -cooled- and dipped apples out of the freezer and dipped them one last time in caramel, placing them back in the freezer while I created our apple building station. I put our toppings on small plates to allow for easy coating (ours included sprinkles and chocolate chips, but get creative here, candy pieces would be awesome too). Once the apples were cooled, dipped in chocolate, and topped, I placed them all on a second large cutting board, so we could all share our creations. Finally, I popped some popcorn, made some spooky hot chocolate, and forced my friends to decide on a movie (my least favorite task).
All of the snacks were devoured, and everyone loved the Halloween vibes. I loved creating this spooky, sugary, special night to pair with my favorite Halloween movies.
Grocery List:
Trail Mix
Candy corn (or other Halloween candies)*
M&M’s
Reeses Pieces
Teddy grahams
Pretzels
Mixed nuts or cocktail peanuts
Spooky Snack Board
Cookies
Halloween oreos
Chocolate chips*
Caramels*
Halloween candies
Apple, oranges, grapes, or cherries*
Caramel Apples
Apples (I like honeycrisp)*
Caramels*
Chocolate chips*
Halloween candies*
Popcorn
Hot chocolate mix
Optional: food coloring & sprinkles
**** starred items are used multiple times, and may need to be bought in larger quantities, depending on personal preference