Trick or Treat Open House© Keetha DePriest Reed
Oct 19, 2001
Invite your favorite trick-or-treaters in this year for a casual buffet and send them off with a homemade gift of food.
Call and invite or mail casual postcard invitations about a week or two before Halloween or trick or treat night, if they aren’t one and the same. Be sure to let guests know that the open house is for both parents and children alike.
I’m planning a similar get-together this year and want to serve foods for both youngsters and adults. For the kids, try peanut butter and jelly sandwiches – cut into ghost shapes using a sharp-edged cookie cutter. Pimiento and cheese sandwiches are another good idea. Cut those into pumpkin shapes. For the grown ups (although they may opt for PB&J and pimiento cheese), make ham and cheese sandwiches on dark rye bread and cut into bat or cat shapes.
Serve potato chips and Chex mix, along with sausage balls or other small snack items.
If you use a lot of carved pumpkins around the house, save the pumpkinseeds and toast them for a savory snack, too. Simply rinse well, place in a single layer on a baking sheet, lightly spritz with olive oil or vegetable spray. Lightly season with lemon pepper, seasoned salt and other seasonings (your favorites– it’s hard to mess these up). Bake at 350 degrees until lightly toasted, shaking pan and turning seeds a couple of times while cooking. Let cool. Can be prepared a day or two in advance and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
For a fast, eye-catching centerpiece, paint a terra cotta pot white using acrylic paint. Let dry. Get out the handy glue gun and a big bag of candy corn. Go to work gluing candy corn around the rim of the pot. Line with purple tissue paper and fill with sausage balls, potato chips or crackers. Or reserve your hand-decorated pot for candy. Heap it high and place near the front door.
If you have the time, grab a few of those miniature pumpkins, orange or white, the grocery stores usually have. Cut a round, about 1/2-inch deep, in the top. Before inserting a votive candle, use an ice pick to make three small holes around the edge to thread wire through. These mini lanterns can be hung from a tree or on a porch for an inviting look.
Don’t forget to have a camera close by, too. Next year display the pictures of all the fun that was had.
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The copyright of the article Trick or Treat Open House in Gifts of Food is owned by Keetha DePriest Reed. Permission to republish Trick or Treat Open House in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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