Halloween Cocktail Party II

Several weekends of being out of town or having guests in town wreaked havoc on my house. In fact, I had to recruit my sister to come over and help clean things up. I must have the best sister ever to drag her butt out to the burbs and clean my kitchen in exchange for Indian food. SO, my house is finally clean and my favorite new diptyque candle is burning, while I plan my party menu for my little Halloween fete.

Drinks

• Cosmo punch made with black vodka
• Pink Champaign
• A selection of Belgian beers
• Shirley Temples
• To go cups filled with hot caramel apple cider at the end of the night

Premade Snacks

• Chocolate covered pretzel bites sprinkled with little round rainbow sprinkles
• Dean and Deluca Creme Brulee Almonds (they are to-die-for)
• D&D Dark Chocolate Rum Balls
• Kookaburra licorice in Mango and Strawberry
• Red Fire Pecans from Vosges
  
• Humus in two flavors with D&D spiced pita chips
• Chips of some sort
  

Heavy Hors d'oeuvres

• Cheese Fondue with different veggies and breads for dipping, including rosemary breadsticks
• Pumpkin risotto topped with roasted pumpkin seeds served on individual spoons
• Butternut squash soup topped with spiced unsweetened whipped cream served in individual cauldrons
• Bite size insalata caprese served in mini phyllo cups
• Mini quiches in 3 flavors
• Sweet potato steak fries topped with caramelized brown sugar, served with a bacon creme fraiche dip

Dessert

• Warmed chocolate and caramel sauces with chocolate marshmallows, dried strawberries and miniature apples (a melon baller is used to scoop little spheres out of a normal sized apple...I saw it on iron chef) for dipping into the sauces and then into crushed nuts or crushed cookies
• A friend might supplement dessert with some red velvet cupcakes! Yum!

All of this is to be prepared in about 2 hours on Wednesday after work...oh to be an unambitious hostess.