Make your home a house of delightful fright with a spooky (or not so spooky) Halloween-themed movie, a game or two, and a few super-easy, colorful treats.

These snacks are as fun to make as they are to eat and easy enough that little hands can help. Make extra treats and put them in a “Boo Basket” for a friend or neighbor. So, witch will it be? Make one or make them all? Bone appetite!

Creepy Critters

10-minute prep | 20 mounds

• 2 cups purple (or desired color) candy melting wafers
• 2 cups thin pretzel sticks
• Candy eyeballs

Break the pretzel sticks in half. Melt the wafers and mix them into the pretzels until all are well coated. Spoon the mixture into small mounds on wax paper-lined baking sheets. Add the eyes before the melted candy sets so they will stick.

Witch Finger Pretzels

20-minute prep | 10 witch fingers

• 10 large pretzel rods
• 1 package green candy wafers
• 10 caramel bits or sliced almonds (we used caramel bits)

Melt the candy wafers. Dip the pretzel rods about three-fourths of the way into the melted candy and then dry them on wax paper. If using caramel bits, press and flatten the bits into “fingernail” shapes. Place one caramel piece or sliced almond piece at the end of the dipped rod for the fingernail. Let it set for an hour before serving.

Mini-Mummy Wraps

20-minute prep | 44 mini-mummies

• 1-pound package of mini-sausages
• 1 can of refrigerated pizza dough
• 32 pairs candy eyeballs

Drain and dry the sausages. Unroll the refrigerated dough. Using a pizza cutter or a knife, slice the dough lengthwise into about ¼-inch thin strips. Wrap one strip around each mini-sausage, leaving an area exposed for the eyes. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Use a dot of mustard or ketchup to hold the eyes on.

Popcorn Slime Balls

15-minute prep | 20 small balls

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups marshmallows
• Green food coloring
• 4 cups popped popcorn
• Candy eyeballs

Place popped popcorn in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the marshmallows and stir until all is melted. Remove the saucepan from the heat, add green food coloring as desired, and mix well. Pour the mixture into the bowl of popcorn and combine until well coated. Coat your hands in cooking oil or butter and shape the popcorn mixture into balls. Place the balls on wax paper. Add candy eyeballs as desired onto the popcorn balls.

Gooey Monster Cookies

10-minute prep | 24 cookies

• 1 box white cake mix
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• Powdered sugar
• Food coloring (we used orange, purple, and black)

Beat the butter, vanilla, egg, and cream cheese until fluffy. Stir in the cake mix. Divide the batter into bowls for different-colored cookies. Add the food coloring to each bowl and mix well. Chill the dough for 30 minutes. Roll the mixture into balls and then roll each ball in a small bowl of powdered sugar. Place the balls on greased cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. If desired, add the candy eyeballs while still warm.

Spooky Bug Juice

5-minute prep | 16 servings

• 2 cups sugar
• 2 quarts cold water
• 2 small packages of lime-flavored unsweetened drink mix
• 1 46-ounce can pineapple juice
• 1-liter bottle ginger ale

In a large pitcher or punch bowl, add the sugar to the water and stir until dissolved. Stir in the unsweetened drink mix powder, pineapple juice, and ginger ale. Garnish with gummy worms if desired. We added rubber bugs to ours for decoration. Add dry ice to the punch bowl to make it spookier.

GAME IDEAS

Toilet Paper Mummy Race

1 roll of toilet paper per two-person team

One person wraps the other with a roll of TP. The first team to use the entire roll (and still have a mummy) is the winner.

Pumpkin Patch Balloon Stomp

Blow up an even number of black and orange balloons and let them loose on the floor. Each team stomps one color. The team that stomps/pops most of their balloons first in the designated amount of time wins.

Halloween Bingo

Create a 5-inch-by-5-inch grid with up to 25 various Halloween-themed pictures in the squares. Make sure each card is ordered differently. Put one set of matching pictures in a container. The caller will pull out a picture and show it to the players. When each picture is shown, players will place a piece of candy or plastic bug on the matching square. The player that gets a row filled first wins.

jgreenwell@thepicayune.com

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