Chatelaine Kitchen

Six recipes fit for a ghoulish Halloween meal

Inspired by the spookiest dinner I've ever eaten, I created a fun and frightful meal you can make at home

Irene Ngo Updated October 29, 2011

Andreas Trottmasndorff

I love Halloween, and always have. As a kid, I loved dressing up and going trick-or-treating, and today I still enjoy masquerading and going to Halloween parties. However, despite my appreciation for costumes, I am not a fan of ghosts, zombies, and the best way to make me leave a room is to turn on a horror movie on TV.

So naturally, I was a bit apprehensive when I was invited to dine at a Cleveland, Ohio graveyard two weeks ago. The event, Feast of the Deceased, held in the historic Cleveland Monroe cemetery, is one of many “destination dining experiences” held by a local culinary and event company, Emerging Chefs. I decided to muster up my courage and joined 99 other foodies and – gulp! – 31,000 spirits for what is now definitively the ‘spookiest’ meal I’ve ever eaten.

The meal started off with an amuse bouche of “True Blood E Marry Oyster Shots”

Then we were treated to an appetizer of “Raw Flesh Carpaccio & Tombstone Crostini” (how clever are the tombstones!)

The spookiest course (I think) was the “Foie Gras & Rabbit Liver Ravioli with Fava Beans and Chianti Reduction”, a tribute to the movie Silence of the Lambs! (Eek)

And the finale was a dessert worthy of TV’s favourite serial killer, “Dexter’s Blood Spatter Dessert” – complete with sugar blood slides. (I also happened to find a great blog post online on how to make your own sugar blood slides at home!)

Photos courtesy of Joe Hakim/TheHungryDudes.com

Now that I’ve had my fill of Halloween, here are six recipes to make your meal the most ghoulish:

Start your spook-tacular dinner with your own Bloody Mary oyster shots using our spanish oyster shooters.

Serve up some evil delights with devils on horseback appetizers.

Dress up your aperitifs by giving your drink glasses a bloody rim with corn syrup and food colouring like this bloody good martini.

The only thing scary about these scarecrow chicken sticks is that you’ll want to keep eating them.

Your guests won’t be the only ones in costume tonight – dress up some burgers with a bloody mary salsa

Dessert will definitely be sinful when you serve up these devilled chocolate lava cakes.