Two years ago it was Halloween and Justin and I had nothing to do. Having no kids we didn’t have to go trick or treating and we had no other plans. I like Halloween and I wanted to do something fun. I decided to make our own plans. While at work I got the idea to have a dinner party with my husband, my cousin, and her husband. I planned it all within a few hours and it turned out great! I decorated with some simple halloween things me and my mom had. I made a meatloaf zombie head for the main course with mashed potatoes, roles, and a cheesecake dessert. The week of this party I found out I was pregnant. All the food especially the meatloaf was so unappetizing but at least it looked cool and was good for everyone else! That first Halloween party two years ago started a tradition for us! This year was our third annual Halloween party. I thought I would share with you a few fun Halloween party tips and recipes! Halloween is next week so hopefully these can be of help to you for any parties you have this weekend or on Halloween. I have to first apologize that these pictures are not that great. I wish I would have taken some more. I was so rushed to get everything done that I only had a few minutes to snap some pictures. I was literally finishing dinner while people were arriving and I still didn’t have my costume or make up on🙈. Here is our table setting. I covered the table with black plastic table cloths and then black halloween nets that I found at the dollar store. I placed multiple black candle sticks on the table. The table was set with pewter plates that I got from my mom. I placed the napkins inside Dracula teeth that were also from the dollar store. I will talk about our drinks later.  Here is one of candle holders we had placed in the center of the table. This one was my favorite. It was so medieval looking that it fit the style I was looking for perfectly. I added Halloween decor throughout my house. In our entertainment center I filled the shelves with clear glass containers that I had gathered from around my house. I filled them with creepy halloween things. There were mini skulls, plastic rats, worms, pigs feet, bugs, water with food coloring to represent potions. Again I wish I had some more pictutes to show you but this was the only one I got. In other areas of the house I filled them with candles, pumpkins, skeletons, and spider webs. Now onto the food! I tried to make the food creepy but still appetizing and delicious. For the main course I went with these intestine looking empanadas. I got the idea of the intestines from Pinterest but went with a different recipe that I have had before. Justin, my husband, served his mission in Argentina. They are known for making empanadas. This is a recipe that we have had a few times and I thought it was perfect for our intestine filling. The recipe I used can be found  here. I just used the filling portion of the recipe. Since I wanted to save time, for the dough I bought pizza dough from Winco. The pizza dough didn’t have the same texture as an empanada but I thought it was still just as good! To make the intestines  I made the filling recipe first. Second I rolled the dough out into a long, skinny, flat piece. It was about four inches wide and the length of my table. I then placed spoonfuls of the filling in the dough and pinched the dough shut. I placed the filled dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I placed the dough in the shape that is above. I also made a dipping sauce for the empanada. Here is where I found the recipe for the chimichurri sauce. The sauce was to die for and the perfect compliment to the empanada intestines. For one of the sides we made a red jello. We added  whipped cream and eyeballs that were also found at the dollar store. For another side I made these tomato mozzarella eyeballs. I started by splitting cherry tomatos in half and hollowed them out. I created mozzarella balls and placed them on top of the tomato. I then placed a slice of a pimento olive on top. I spray painted a box black and placed the eyes on the board with toothpicks. They didn’t turn out perfect but they were still good and somewhat resembled eyeballs. I thought we needed one more side so I simply put together a veggie tray and added some more eyeballs to it. For the beverage my cousin, Amanda, created these bloody mocktails. She made these by first filling the glasses with Ginger Ale. In a bowl she mixed half a bottle of Kool-Aid liquid with about 24-30 ounces of sprite. You just want to add the Sprite until the mixture looks bloody. Fill the syringes and place them in the glasses. Let the guests squirt however much of the Kool-Aid mixture that they want. It was very rich, so they may want to only squirt a little. I bought the syringes at Walmart in the Halloween section if you were wondering.  For dessert I kept it simple and made chocolate cupcakes and frosted them with chocolate frosting. I placed a dollop of raspberry jam and placed these candy fingers on them. I also found these candy fingers at Walmart. Our house is so small we had to have the dinner in our living room. It worked out perfectly in there. We had such a fun group of guests. We ate the yummy dinner and had some fun laughs. It was a perfect Halloween Dinner party that was kid free. It was a blast! Here is a picture of us and our guests all in our great Halloween costumes. I hope you try out some of these fun ideas for Halloween. Let me know how they turn out if you do! I hope you have a fun Halloween 🙂