Halloween Drinks

Martha Stewart helped me out a lot this Halloween. The Martha Stewart Website has great actually spooky ideas. All of my drinks that were served at the party were from her website.

Here is a picture of the shrunken head apple cider. This recipe can also be found at the Martha Stewart website here. I made my own apple cider, which is incredibly easy to do and also makes your house smell amazing. This was my non-alcoholic drink. For those drinking alcohol I served the Ghost In The Graveyard drink found here on the Martha Stewart website.

Traditional Apple Cider

Ingredients
1 gallon apple juice
1 tablespoon whole allspice
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon whole dried orange peel
6 cinnamon sticks

Take a large stock pot and fill with Apple juice. Add the spices to the juice, you can either toss them in OR for easy clean up, tie them into a bag made of cheesecloth. Turn your heat to a low simmer and let the juice and spices meld until the juice has reduced to 3/4 of its original volume. This is not an exact science so I normally taste the cider periodically to make sure the flavor isn't too strong. Once you get the right flavor, remove the spices as they can make the cider become bitter.

Shrunken Heads

Ingredients
1 large apple
4 whole cloves
1 lemon
water

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a medium bowl, mix together lemon juice and salt; set aside. Peel apple and cut each in half through the stem; remove seeds and core. Using a sharp paring knife, carve a face, as desired, on the rounded side of each apple half. Place apple in lemon mixture for one minute; transfer to paper towels to drain. Place apple, face-side up on prepared baking sheet and transfer to oven. Let bake until apple are dry and begin to brown around the edges, about 90 minutes. Remove apple from baking sheets and press cloves into the "eye" sockets. Float shrunken heads on top of cider. Each apple makes two floating heads.

Ghost in the Graveyard

Ingredients
2 ounces black vodka
2 ounces creme de cacao or coffee-flavored liqueur
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
Pinch of finely grated nutmeg, for garnish

In a glass, combine vodka and creme de cacao, and set aside. Place a scoop of ice cream in a highball glass, and slowly pour vodka mixture over ice cream. Garnish with nutmeg; serve immediately. Serves 1.