Football Friday Tasty Tailgate Treats: Halloween Weekend

Happy Football Friday, Y’all. As we close out the month of October let us tackle some Halloween-themed tailgate treats.  Before we dive into this week’s recipes did y’all save last week’s recipe “All Sorts of Soup“? Which soup was your fave? This week we have a collection of Halloween snacks that will make your tailgate a huge success for everyone young and old. Enjoy the games this weekend and don’t forget to let us know which recipe is your favorite.

Football Friday Tasty Tailgate Treats: Halloween Weekend

Meatball Mummies

Ingredients: 

• 1 Pillsbury refrigerated pizza crust dough
• 21 cooked meatballs
• 7 six-inch skewers or raw spaghetti
• 1 tablespoon butter melted
• dipping sauce
• 14 small circles of white cheese mozzarella string cheese work well
• 14 smaller dark circles of olives or sauce optional

Oven Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
• If your meatballs are frozen, thaw them in the microwave for a couple of minutes. They don’t have to be hot, just warm enough that you can thread the skewer through easily.
• Thread 3 meatballs onto each skewer (or spaghetti). This holds the meatballs in place.
• Cut the pizza dough into 14 even sections, in order to make 14 strips that are about 1/4- to 1/2-inch wide. Or, unroll the dough and cut it into strips with a pizza cutter for wrapping.
• Wrap the dough strips around each set of meatballs (2 strips of dough for each set of 3 meatballs), stretching and crisscrossing until the meatballs are covered, but leaving a small open space for the eyes. Leave the skewers in place or gently remove them (remove if using spaghetti). Place the meatball mummies on the prepared pan.
• Bake 19-23 minutes, or until browned. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter.
• Add cheese circles as edible eyes. Add smaller dark circles onto the cheese as pupils or cut a smaller circle out of the cheese with a straw to make the pupils.
• Serve with dipping sauce: pasta sauce, BBQ sauce, ketchup, etc.

Air Fryer Instructions:

• Prepare the meatball mummies like you would for the oven. Although, rather than thawing the meatballs in the microwave, I cooked them for 6-8 minutes at 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C in the air fryer first.
• Once the meatballs are mummified, cook them in the air fryer for an additional 8 minutes at 350°F/175°C.
• Remove and enjoy!

Graveyard Taco Cups 

Ingredients: 

• 2 FlatOut pizza crusts
• 1 can of refried black beans
• 2 avocados
• 2 cloves garlic
• juice of 1 lime
• 8 black olives, chopped
• green onion, chopped

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Stencil out a tree on a piece of paper first and cut it out to use it as a stencil for the pizza crusts. You can do this for the tombstones too or use a Halloween cookie cutter.
3. Cut out your trees and tombstones. I used an Exact-O-Knife for precision. Kids, use only with parental supervision!
4. Lightly coat with olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. Place on a baking sheet and cook for 5-8 minutes, or until just lightly browned. Allow to completely cool and using an edible pen, write R.I.P. on each tombstone.
5. Heat up your refried beans over medium-low heat until warmed through. Remove from heat and set aside.
6. To make the guacamole, scoop out the avocado flesh into a bowl. Add the minced garlic, lime juice, and sea salt for taste. Mash until smooth.
7. Layer your cups with the black beans, and guacamole, then top with the chopped black olives and green onions.

Blood Red Halloween Sangria

Ingredients: 

• 1 (750 ml) bottle of red wine
• 1 orange (cut into wedges)
• 1 lemon (cut into wedges)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups ginger ale or club soda (chilled)
• Optional: 1 dash grenadine (for a darker blood-like color)
• Garnish: 1 cup gummy worms (or gummy bugs, spooky hard candy eyes)

Instructions: 

1. Gather the ingredients.
2. Pour the wine into a pitcher.
3. Squeeze the juices from the lemon and orange wedges into the wine. If possible, remove the seeds, then toss the wedges into the punch.
4. Add the sugar and stir thoroughly until it dissolves.
5. Chill overnight to marry the flavors.
6. Add the ginger ale or club soda, grenadine, and creepy candy just before the party starts.

Recipe Variations: 

• Do you want your sangria to be just a little stronger? Add a shot or two of gin, brandy, or rum.
• Halloween is the one holiday of the year where anything goes. Sangria fits perfectly because there are no rules to sangria either. Have fun and use your imagination to add creepy elements to your punch bowl. Freeze plastic spiders and other cheap, spooky toys in ice cube trays. Halfway through the freeze, add a drop or two of red food coloring or grenadine to each cube.
• Edible eyeballs are always a fun addition to a Halloween drink. Olives are the easiest “eyeballs” though you can build your own with fruits like lychees and blueberries. Float them on top or freeze them in ice.
• Add fresh fruit to the punch. Sliced strawberries, peaches, kiwi, or a handful of fresh blueberries and raspberries are all fun options. The bigger variety of fruit, the better because it looks like a witch’s brew. The fruits can also be frozen into ice cubes.
• Add black plastic spider rings to the stem of your wine glasses to complete the Halloween effect.

Pretzel Pumpkins

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup  green M&Ms
• 12 ounces of orange candy coating
• 3 cups small pretzel twists

Instructions: 

1. cut M&Ms in half
2. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with waxed paper or parchment.
3. Place the orange candy coating in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring after every 30 seconds to prevent overheating. Take it out of the microwave when there are still a few unmelted bits remaining and stir until the final pieces melt.
4. Drop the whole pretzel into the coating and submerge it slightly. Use a fork or dipping tools to pull the pretzel out of the candy coating. Let the excess drip back into the bowl, then place it on the prepared baking sheet.
5. While the coating is still wet, press a green candy-coated sunflower seed or half of an M&M into the top of the pretzel to represent the pumpkin stem. Repeat until all of the pretzels are dipped
6. Place the pretzels in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to set the coating.
7. They will keep for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.

On The Menu

Next week we will be into November. Where has the season gone?  We will dive into cozy and toasty treats to keep you warm at your tailgate party. Hope you have a GREAT weekend watching all the games. Enjoy the recipes and Happy Halloween.