DISGUSTING DINNER PARTY

Food is the main event at this Halloween party. If you like cooking, you'll have fun putting together the recipes for this spooky shindig.

Make signs to put beside each dish, or even better, write up the menu on a chalkboard that sits on the dinner table, so guests know what they're about to eat. (The names are half the fun!)

INVITATIONS

You'll Need:
-Black envelopes (one for each guest you'll be inviting)
-Black or red construction paper
-A gold metallic pen

Fold paper in half and cut to fit the size of the envelopes. Using your glitter pen, write "Horrible Halloween Dinner Party" on the outside of the card. On the inside, write the party invitation details. You'll want to include:

TO: (the guest's name)
FROM: (your name)
DATE: (the date of the party)
TIME: (the time your party will start)
COSTUMES: (remind guests to wear their Halloween costumes)

DECORATIONS

The food will be the main focus of this party, so you'll want to decorate the room where your guests will be eating. Put up some black and orange streamers around the table and decorate the table with an orange or black tablecloth. Make place cards for each guest to show them where to sit. Put a creepy item at each place setting, such as a rubber snake or plastic eyeball. Giant plastic rats, available at dollar stores, look great perched next to serving dishes.

Create a Halloween-themed centerpiece for your table, such as a carved pumpkin, a pile of mini-pumpkins and dried autumn leaves. Add a couple of gothic candleholders with black candles for atmosphere.

If you have extra money to spend on decorating your table, you can find scary Halloween goblets and other tableware at specialty/party stores or websites that sell Halloween items.

MUSIC

Play spooky Halloween music, silly Halloween songs (download tracks to your iPod, or find CDs at record stores) or your favorite gothic tunes in the background to help set the Halloween mood.

FOOD

This dinner menu is the starring attraction of your party. Half the fun of serving this Halloween meal will be telling your guests the names of each of these disgusting (oops, we mean delicious) dishes! The recipes provided here make enough for 8 servings.

Bloody Cocktails with Wormy Ice Cubes

-Gummy worms
-Water

Fill ice cube trays just one-third of the way full with water and freeze.

Remove trays from freezer, add gummy worms to each cube, and fill the trays to the top with water.

Pop in the freezer again until cubes are solid.

Fill a pitcher with your favorite red drink mix (such as cherry Koolaid or cranberry cocktail) and toss in the wormy ice cubes. Pour into cocktail glasses and serve.

Special Effects: For extra pizzazz, use plastic light sticks as swizzle sticks to give your cocktails an eerie, mysterious glow.

Pimple Appetizers

-2 dozen cherry tomatoes
-Flavored soft cream cheese spread (any flavor you like)

Using a carrot peeler, remove the cores from the tomatoes.

Place the tomatoes on paper towels and let them sit for half an hour, to drain out excess juices.

Using a butter knife, fill the holes in the tomatoes with the cream cheese. Give each "pimple" a gentle squeeze and arrange on a platter.

Hairball Salad with Saliva Dressing

-2 large ripe avocados
-4 cups of alfalfa sprouts
-12 medium carrots, grated
-Italian salad dressing

Cut the avocados in half and scoop out the pits. Scoop the avocado pulp out of the shells and put into a mixing bowl.

Add sprouts to the avocado pulp and mash with a fork. It is okay to leave some lumps.

Take your grated carrots and divide them equally among 8 salad bowls.

Make walnut-sized "hairballs" from the avocado mixture and arrange one on top of each bowl of grated carrots.

Pour the Italian dressing ("saliva") over the hairballs and serve.

Spaghetti and Eyeballs

-2 pounds of lean ground beef or chicken
-1 1/2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
-2 tablespoons of ketchup
-2 eggs
-1 tablespoon of fresh basil (or 1 teaspoon dried)
-1 7-oz. jar of pimiento-stuffed olives
-1 26-oz. jar of prepared pasta sauce
-1 pound of dried spaghetti
-1 tablespoon of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix the ground meat, bread crumbs, ketchup, eggs and basil.

Using the meat mixture, form about 30 small meatballs.

To make the eyeballs, press an olive into each meatball, pimiento side out. Place the eyeballs in a baking dish, cover with the pasta sauce and bake for 45 minutes.

About 10 minutes before you want to serve, cook the spaghetti in boiling salted water according to package directions.

Drain and rinse the spaghetti and toss it with 1 tablespoon of olive oil to prevent the strands from sticking together. Put it on a platter or in a large serving bowl.

Spoon "eyeballs" onto the spaghetti, pupils up, and spoon pasta sauce around them.

Moldy Dinner Rolls

-8 store-bought dinner rolls
-Green food coloring

Simply splatter the rolls with splashes of green food coloring. Gross looking, but they still taste great!

Barfy Brownies

-3/4 cup of butter or margarine, melted
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-3 eggs
-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup Hershey's cocoa
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-Red food coloring
-Yellow food coloring
-1 16-ounce can of ready-made vanilla frosting
Garnishes: Twizzlers Nibs Licorice Bits, Chocolate Chips, crushed Skor bars, Reeses Pieces, and/or your other favorite candies

Heat oven to 350°F.

Grease a 12-inch round pizza pan. (If you are using a disposable pan, place it on baking sheet when baking).

In a large bowl, beat the melted butter, sugar and vanilla with a spoon.

Beat in the eggs, mixing well.

Stir in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Beat with a spoon until well blended.

Spread the mixture into your pan.

Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until the top springs back when touched lightly in the center.

Let the brownies cool completely. Then add a splash of the yellow and red food coloring to the vanilla frosting until you create an orange shade. Frost the brownies using a plastic spatula.

Decorate the brownies with your candy garnishes (this is the "barfed up" stuff).