The next blog game night RSVP page is setup for the last blog game night of 2009.  It will be at a welcoming specialty toy store in Orchard Park, NY.  Below are the details and RSVP info.

A picture of The Good Toy Shop

November 14th (Saturday)
7:00pm – 9:00pm

The Good Toy Shop
CrossRoads Centre Plaza at Five Corners (Tops & Lowes Plaza)
3217 Southwestern Boulevard
Orchard Park, NY 14127
(716) 674-4001

At this blog game night we’ll be playing three quick and easy to learn fun games, have some snacks of chex mix and andes chocolate covered brownies, various hot and cold drinks and one or two laughs… ok… lots and lots of laughs.

At the end of the evening we will raffle off a copy of Truth be Told and Nacho Loco (thanks Buffalo Games) each of the games we played for the evening. Those that come to the game night will also be able to purchase games at the store for 20% off that evening. A great way to buy some presents early.

Just some of the games in stock in Sept 2009

We will be playing easy to learn games of Truth be Told (a new party bluffing game where you get to know new and old friends) , Nacho Loco (a fun light strategy card game) , and YamSlam (a casual dice strategy game). There will be people there to quickly show you how to play these games. YamSlam and Nacho Loco are for ages 8+ and Truth be Told is for ages 12+. The games each take 15 -30 minutes to play.

This game night location is limited to 25 people, because of the amount of space available, so RSVP as soon as you know. RSVPs will be at the blog RSVP page, at MySpace and Facebook.

This Halloween I made some Apple Bites, mini Mummy Bagels and Scream Cookies.  The scream cookies ended up looking more like ghosts, but that still fits the Halloween theme.  I didn’t get a good pic of them before they were gone, but you can see a little part of them on the right side of the next pic below.  The mummy bagels and apple bites were easy and fun to make.  This is just a quick shot of some of the snacks.  After eating and chatting and avoiding the cobwebs and spiders that were everywhere, yes they were decorations… and not just from not dusting and cleaning   we all went downstairs.

There we watched Drag me to Hell and Trick r’ Treat and played a few games of Werewolves.  We wanted to play more games but it was getting late.

So what games did you play and what snacks did you eat or make this Halloween?

I’ll be uploading our Werewolves game playing pic to the Buffalo Games Facebook fan page contest.  If you have pics of you or friends playing any games upload them there too.  You can win 1 of 8 game night prize packs.

Here are a couple fun Halloween horror movies you may want to try this year, in between some Halloween gaming and snacking.   These three movies are normally fine for casual and diverse groups of movie watchers.  I’ve included a video trailer stream for the movies to judge for yourself.

I’ll include a link to purchase online but all three of these movies are available for rent, download or purchase at your local retailers to have in time for your Halloween party.

Drag me to Hell (rated PG13)

In Drag me to hell Sam Raimi returns to his comedy horror roots, think Evil Dead trilogy, and cooks up a fun, with a dash of gross (in a good way), horror movie.  There are some  funny parts that a Halloween party of friends will laugh about and enjoy. It has some traditional horror themes but everything is woven well together.

Purchase at Amazon

Trick r’ Treat (rated R)

Trick r’ Treat is an anthology movie that follows four interconnecting storylines and groups of people through one Halloween night with a Creepshow movie feel.  The characters and storylines have a realness to them.  Things are not watered down and the movie does not take itself seriously as well, it has a nice mix of suspense and comedy sprinkled in.  There is a blend of classic horror and stories that have a feel of being new urban legends.  I can see this movie being watched at many future Halloween parties every year. For True Blood fans, Anna Paquin is in the movie as well.

Purchase at Amazon

As an additional touch, you may want to consider some atmospheric music while playing games and talking.  For something other than traditional spooky sounds, my favorites are the albums by Midnight Syndicate.  They have themed CD’s that would fit nicely into a Halloween game session.  I would recommend either their new and remastered “Out of the Darkness” or “The 13th Hour.” You can sample some of the music at their site to see if it is for you.

Music Samples

Purchase at Amazon

Note:

See all of my Halloween 2009 posts for food, snacks, games, movies and other ideas for your Halloween party

Those that read my blog know I’m all for game nights and a good excuse for you to have your own game night with friends and family.  I recently had my own blog contest to give away a game night starter pack, so when I heard that Buffalo Games was having their own game night pack giveaway contest I thought it was a great idea!  This is being done through their Facebook Fan Page and I recommend you join as a fan to know about all their contests.

Rather than listen to my babble about the contest, below is what the fun Buffalo Games folks are saying :

“CALLING ALL GAMERS!! We’re having a Game Night giveaway! To win, simply upload photos of your friends and family playing board games and card games to our Facebook fan page. That’s right, we want to see YOU in action! We’re looking for pictures that say it all – the heat of competition, the glory of victory, the agony of defeat, and the roar of laughter. We will select 8 winning photos at the end of 3 weeks. You are encouraged to keep uploading photos until November 16th. These lucky eight submitters will win a Buffalo Games Game Night Prize Pack. Booyah!

Our Game Night Prize Packs include: 1 Buffalo Games board game of your choice (choose from Likewise!, Ruin, the T-Shirt Game, Truth be Told, iMAgiNiff, or Last Word), 1 microwave popcorn, 1 T-shirt for the Host, drink and snack recipes, and a list of game night hosting pointers. It’s a bundle of fun with your name on it.”

I’ll keep an eye on their Fan page for your pictures.

The sound of crunching leaves, the crisp fall air, apples aplenty… Halloween is almost here. As the rush of sweet sugary goodness keeps us awake long after the last trick or treater comes to your door, why not take the opportunity to play a game. Though not just any game, it has to be a Halloween themed game.

Topping my own personal list is Werewolf. This is a great game for a large group of (at least 6-8 and up to 20) friends to play. Imagine yourselves as townfolk hunting down a werewolf or two among you, while a couple players try to blend in as the normal average everyday town folk.

Purchase at Amazon

Purchase at Funagain Games

Call your local Barnes and Noble if they have a copy too.

On my wish list is Last Night on Earth. I’m a sucker for a good zombie story and this game really does a good job of placing you smack in the middle of a zombie storyline. People play as stereotypical zombie survivors and some play as the ever lovin’ mindless braineaters.  Gameplay is about an hour.

Purchase at Amazon

Purchase at Funagain Games

For a Halloween themed game for the younger set, you should give Monster Maker a try. Be the first player to make your monster with 6 parts cards. Monster Maker is an outrageous race to create colorful Monsters by trading and exchanging “parts cards” with opponents or drawing from the “garbage pile”. A creative Monster Maker story book is also included in each pack.  A nice short game at about 15 minutes.

Purchase at PuzzBuffs

Purchase at Amazon.

Call your local Barnes and Noble if they have a copy and I’ve seen it at Target before.

A monster maker game for an older audience is It’s Alive.  Designed by the creative Yehuda Berlinger.  It’s a race to find and purchase eight body parts to complete your own monster.  You can even auction off body parts you don’t need.  It is a fairly casual strategy and auction/purchase game with a gameplay time of about 30 minutes.  I should note that the age listed is 12+ for gory images, but the gameplay is easy to understand for the younger set.

Purchase at Funagain Games

For families and those that want a dash of Halloween in their classic games, Boo-opoly is a good choice.  Nice clean art and with familiar rules, with a Halloween slant, this game can be played easily with all ages familiar with Monopoly.

Purchase at Amazon

I played Guillotine for the first time this year at a local game night.  Not a Halloween game in a direct sense, but with all the head cutting, it would make a nice 30 minute game for your Halloween party.  The cartoon illustrations and names are fun. Basically it’s a card game where players have action cards and control the flow of nobles heading off to the guillotine.  Try to save the good ones and score points overall.

Purchase at Amazon

Purchase at Funagain Games

What game will you be playing this Halloween?

Please note : With Halloween just around the corner, the couple online sources I provided for purchase may be sold out, if so please ask your local specialty game shop if they have any or can special order them quick enough for your party. Good luck and happy zombie and werewolf hunting

Note:

See all of my Halloween 2009 posts for food, snacks, games, movies and other ideas for your Halloween party

The blog family game night in September was posted on the front page of the West Seneca Bee newspaper in their September 24th issue.  When I heard about this from a fellow game fan, I drove to West Seneca and visited a few stores that carry the paper, but they were all sold out.  But a fellow blog and game fan, Rosalyn, was super kind and mailed me a copy. I hope the game nights and this blog and the article encourage people to have their own family game nights.

This game night was a unique opportunity for family members of all ages to come together to play some easy to learn casual party, board and card games where it does not matter who wins, just the fun of playing, meeting new people, and laughing.  The evening was great!  There were brownies, cookies, game giveaways and laughs all around.  Almost 50 people joined us for some gaming fun that evening.  Buffalo Games, a local buffalo, NY game company, provided the game giveaways.

Now I’m getting everything ready for the next public game night in Orchard Park, NY on November 14th.

Click here for my own recap of that game night with more pictures and the games we played so you can try them at your own game nights.

So far I’ve posted about Halloween food, now the snacks.  Next week I’ll be looking at some Halloween movies, drinks and mood music to add to your Halloween themed game and fun night.  And yes… I’ll be talking about good games to play at your Halloween party as well 

Caramel Apples

For carmel apples, basically use whatever you have around or like. Start with an apple, add a covering of caramel (best to use melted caramel and dip the apples) and then while the caramel is still sticky you can add basically anything you want. Experiment. You can use chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, toffe bits (any flaky or shredded sugary candy or cookie products tend to work and stick well to the caramel base)  Also, if the apples are store bought you should remove the slippery wax coating on the apples so the caramel does not slide off by washing them in hot water.

There is a nice website with more ideas that are similar to what is pictured above at the link below.

Caramel apples recipe

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Better than scented candles, a favorite halloween food of mine is to bake the unused pumpkin seeds after carving the pumpkin. Take your time and find a nice fresh perfectly shaped pumpkin. A unique pumpkin unlike any other. Now, cut the top open and gut that perfect pumpkin

To roast your pumpkin seeds, do not wash them first! Washing removes all the natural flavor and extra pumpkin bits. However, you should rub off most of the pumpkin gunk so you can see most of the actual seed. Place a single layer of seeds on a cookie sheet. Try and keep them in an even layer as they bake better when not laying on each other. Add salt to taste and bake at 250° until dry, stirring occasionally, but not too hard or often to knock all the salt off. Bake them for about 15-25 minutes or until they start to turn a very light gold. Place them in small bowls around toe room and they will be gone in no time.

Notes : You can also spice them up a bit and experiment with a few tablespoons of sugar with maybe a teaspoon or two of salt. You could also add some cinnamon. For a zing add a pinch or two of cayenne pepper. These store fairly well in a sealed plastic container for about a week… though they are normally eaten long before then

This is a personal recipe I originally learned from my mom.  For other pumpkin seed recipe ideas that add spices and such, follow the link below.

Pumpkin seed recipes

Scream Cookies

These are a fun easy cookie to add to your ghost, bay, cat and pumpkin shaped cookies, especially if you’ll be watching one of the Scream movies with friends.  All you really have to do is make your favorite cookie from scratch or store bought cookie dough.  The scream head shape is easy to cut out by hand and bake as your recipe or instructions on the dough say.  Then cover them with vanilla frosting, again store bought or homemade, and leave holes in the frosting for some hard candy to make the eyes and mouth.

For full homemade recipe ingredients, a larger picture of the cookies and step by step instructions to make these as pumpkin pie spice cookies just follow the link below.

Spice scream cookies

Apple Bites

These are also a fun creative Halloween themed way to have a healthier snack.  All you need is an apple and some slivered almonds.  Just quarter and core an apple, cut a wedge from the skin side of each quarter, then press slivered almonds in place for teeth.  Tip: If you’re not going to serve them right away, baste the apples with orange juice to keep them from browning.

Recipe website

Invisible Pops

These are easy lollipops you can make and fill with your own candy ideas.

Ingredients:
Makes 1 dozen

2 cups sugar
12 lollipopsticks
2/3 cup light corn syrup
Assorted candies and seeds, such as red and black licorice whips, candy corn, and pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)

Directions:

1. Line three baking sheets with Silpat nonstick baking mats or parchment paper. Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside.
2. Bring sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Don’t stir, but occasionally wash down sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water to prevent crystals from forming; boil until mixture turns golden and registers 300 degrees to 310 degrees (hard-crack stage) on a candy thermometer, 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Immediately set pan into ice-water bath to stop the cooking (syrup will steam vigorously); let sit about 20 seconds. Swirl pan 2 minutes more to cool.
4. Working quickly, pour syrup onto baking sheets, forming circles (3 to 31/2 inches in diameter) and spacing pours about 4 inches apart .

Press in lollipop sticks.

With your fingertip or a wooden skewer, lightly press candies and seeds into syrup. Let stand until completely hardened and cooled.

Recipe website with step by step photos

Monster Cupcakes

I saw these monstrously cute cupcakes and they are relatively easy to do.  I highly recommend using a dense cupcake recipe.  To make a denser and cakey cupcake mix or if doing these from a box you can try a moist thicker cake mix, don’t over mix, add more flour and less liquid or add some whipped frosting or pudding mix or even try some dry chocolate cocoa mix.   I say this because it’s easier to cut into the brownie for the mouth without it falling apart.

Basically, to make these just bake a dense cupcake and when they are out of the oven simply use a flat knife to cut out a mouth like shown in the image.  Then use store bought or home made frosting to fill the mouth.  It’s best to use a thicker frosting.  Place sliced in half mini marsh mellows for the eyes and bits of cut marsh mellows for the teeth.  You can then use mini chocolate chips for the eyeballs. You can stick them in upside down or melt them a bit.  The horns are just more frosting.

Recipe website with more and larger pictures

Kitty Litter Cake

The best for last?

Kitty Litter Cake

1 spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 white cake mix
1 large pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
1 pkg vanilla sandwich cookies
Green food coloring
12 small Tootsie Rolls
1 new (and definitely unused) kitty litter pan
1 new plastic kitty litter pan liner
1 new Pooper Scooper

Prepare cake mixes and bake according to directions (any size pans). Prepare pudding mix and chill until ready to assemble. Crumble white sandwich cookies in small batches in food processor, scraping often. Set aside all but about 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup cookie crumbs, add a few drops green food coloring and mix using 5. When cakes are cooled to room temperature, crumble into a large bowl. Toss with half the remaining white cookie crumbs and the chilled pudding. (Mix in just enough of the pudding to moisten it. You don’t want it soggy. Combine gently).

Line new, clean kitty litter box. Put mixture into litter box. Put three unwrapped Tootsie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until soft and pliable. Shape ends so they are no longer blunt, curving slightly. Repeat with 3 more Tootsie rolls and bury in mixture. Sprinkle the other half of cookie crumbs over top.

Scatter the green cookie crumbs lightly over the top. (This is supposed to look like the chlorophyll in kitty litter.) Heat 3 Tootsie Rolls in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake; sprinkle with cookie crumbs. Spread remaining Tootsie Rolls over the top; take one and heat until pliable, hang it over the side of the kitty litter box, sprinkling it lightly with cookie crumbs. Place the box on a newspaper and sprinkle a few of the cookie crumbs around.

Recipe website

Hope you have fun trying some of these Halloween snack ideas!  If you try these I’d love to hear your thoughts and see any pictures of the snacks you make for your own Halloween party.

Note:

See all of my Halloween 2009 posts for food, snacks, games, movies and other ideas for your Halloween party

Halloween is creeping around the corner and a classic house or apartment or room or wherever decoration is the carved pumpkin. To practice some of your own ideas I found a simple and easy to use online pumpkin carving website.  I have seen many different ones through the years but this one is very easy and a great way to practice some pumpkin carving ideas during a work break or at home with the kids.  Online pumpkin carving website.  To the left is my own online pumpkin face creation, just follow the online carving link to make your own with a safe virtual knife.

You can find some helpful pumpkin carving tips and free carving templates at ehow.com.

Hershey’s website also has a great Halloween area with free party ideas, pumpkin carving stencils and more.

I have seen many awesome carved pumpkin designs through the years but unfortunately most of them start drying out or getting all moldy. So below are a couple quick pumpkin preserving tips.

Pumpkin preserving tips:

- Coat the cut edges with layer of petroleum jelly (like Vaseline). Use your finger on large openings, and a cotton swab to coat the tiny openings. This technique helps seal in the pumpkin’s moisture. Otherwise, your design may shrivel up in a couple days. If you got lots of excess Vaseline on the front of the pumpkin, simply wipe off with a damp paper towel.

- While moisture keeps the design looking great, you’ll eventually start growing the pumpkins greatest enemy – mold. Spraying inside the pumpkin with a mixture of bleach and water will kill off these germs.

Carve your own online pumpkin here

Halloween is a great time to get together with family and friends and have fun.  In the past, I would do a Halloween post talking about games, music, snacks, etc for Halloween parties.  This year, I’ll be breaking the post up into a few posts and adding to them.  First up… Halloween food.

Board games and fun on Halloween are great, but what about feeding your friends’ monstrous appetites?  For Halloween, rather than the traditional pizza and wings, why not try to provide food with a little bit of a Halloween theme.  I like experimenting with different and easy recipes so I searched around for some interesting Halloween type food ideas.  If you end up trying one of these recipes, or have your own Halloween theme recipe, feel free to let me know.

Spooky Meatball Eyes

This is an easy recipe idea to add to your own spaghetti and meatballs recipe.  All you need are some sticks of string cheese cut into quarters and some pitted large black olives cut into slices.

With home made meatballs simply insert 1 cheese piece into top of each meatball, with the end of the cheese piece just showing at top. Place on a baking sheet and bake as normal. 375 degrees at about 20 minutes for 2 inch meatballs is normally a good time.  Then top each with an olive slice to resemble an eyeball.  You can also use this idea with frozen meatballs and just warm them up a bit to cut a hole deep enough to fit the cheese piece so when it warms up it does not slide down the meatball and then heat on a backing sheet for the cheese to melt.

Mummy-Face Pizza

1 plain bagel (3-1/2 inch), cut horizontally in half
2 Tbsp.  pizza sauce
2 sticks KRAFT STRING-UMS String Cheese
4 slices  black olives

HEAT oven to 400ºF.

SPREAD bagel halves with sauce. Pull cheese into thin strips; place in random criss-cross fashion on tops of bagels to resemble mummy bandages. Trim ends with kitchen shears. Add olives for the eyes.

PLACE on baking sheet.

BAKE 10 min. or until bagels are crisp and cheese is melted.

Recipe website

Spooky Eyeball Tacos

1 lb. ground beef
1 pkg. (1-1/4 oz.) Taco Bell Home Originals Taco Seasoning Mix
12 Taco Bell Home Originals Taco Shells
3/4 cup Taco Bell Home Originals Thick ‘N Chunky Salsa
3/4 cup Breakstone’s or KnudsenN Sour Cream
1 can (2-1/4 oz.) sliced pitted ripe olives

MIX meat and seasoning mix. Shape into 36 (1-inch) balls; place in 15×10x1-inch baking pan.
BAKE at 350°F for 15 to 20 minutes or until cooked through. Fill each taco shell with 1 meatball; drizzle with salsa. Top with 2 meatballs dipped in sour cream. Garnish with olives to make “eyeballs.”

Notes: For a healthier taco feel free to substitute leaner cuts of ground beef, such as ground round or ground sirloin, for ground beef and reduced fat sour cream for sour cream. Also, this is from the Kraft website so they promote their own products, but feel free to substitute your favorite brand of taco shells, salsa, seasoning and sour cream.

Recipe website

Crescent Mummy Dogs

1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls or 1 can (8 oz) Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations refrigerated flaky dough sheet
2 1/2 slices American cheese, quartered (2.5 oz)
10 large hot dogs
Cooking spray
Mustard or ketchup, if desired

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. If using crescent rolls: Unroll dough; separate at perforations, creating 4 rectangles. Press perforations to seal. If using dough sheet: Unroll dough; cut into 4 rectangles.
3. With knife or kitchen scissors, cut each rectangle lengthwise into 10 pieces, making a total of 40 pieces of dough. Slice cheese slices into quarters (1/2 slice cheese, cut in half).
4. Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog and 1/4 slice of cheese to look like “bandages,” stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog. About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate “bandages” so hot dog shows through for “face.” On ungreased large cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs (cheese side down); spray dough lightly with cooking spray.
5. Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot. With mustard, draw features on “face.”

Recipe website

Note:

See all of my Halloween 2009 posts for food, snacks, games, movies and other ideas for your Halloween party

Well… as wild as a well lit toy store with cute stuffed animals can be.  I was in the area of The Good Toy Shop in Orchard Park, NY and decided to stop in to say hi to the owner, Jerry, and see if they received copies of Truth be Told and saw a few fresh new copies on the counter.  I saw on the Buffalo Games Facebook Fan Page that it started shipping to area stores so I was glad to see them there.   Buffalo Games also has a web page with a list of the stores, both physical and online stores, where Truth be Told will be sold.  It’ll be sold at limited locations until next year.

I later took a quick shot of the game on the shelf.  So if you’re in the area, stop by The Good Toy Shop, pick up a copy of Truth be Told all for your very own and say “hi” to Jerry.