Five Halloween Party Ideas

Hmmm, The Frugal Hostess has been so busy talking about organic food lately that she hasn't been much of a hostess.  To rectify that, here are five quick ideas for Halloween parties.

The Night of the Living Dead – Tell your guests that their costumes must be zombie-inspired which can lead to hilarious mash-ups like “Undead Jon and Kate Plus 8” or “Zombie Michael Jackson.”  Give all the food you serve names like “Mummy Eyeballs” for deviled eggs or “Gravedigger’s Dip” for seven-layer dip; that way, you can serve an easy menu of favorites but still get the added punch of being on-theme.  Keep the decorations simple by just using black fabric and spiders and bats cut out of black card stock.  (inspired by Birds and Cherries)

Closet Halloween – Costumes have to be made up of items in your guests’ closets (think hobo, gypsy, etc.); decorations are made from fabric scraps and old clothes; and the menu is made up of Spaghetti and Mothballs, Hanger Steak, etc.  This is a great “girls’ night in” (ghouls' night in?) party if you ask the ladies to bring unwanted clothing or accessories for a swap.

Dead People Dinner Party – Guests have to dress up as someone from the past who they’d like to have dinner with, and stay in character for the night.  You could have each person tell you who they’re going to be in advance and craft your menu to reflect the guests.  So, if you’ve invited a wanna-be Audrey Hepburn, dessert might be Tiffany-blue iced cupcakes; for a Ghandi-impersonator, a gourmet salt-tasting course.

Pumpkin-Carving Cocktail Party – Buy a pumpkin for every guest or couple, and put out hors d’oeuvres and a self-serve bar.  Cover your dinner table with newspaper and knives, and let people carve their pumpkins.  Have a pumpkin beauty contest with prizes at the end, and be sure to save the seeds to toast and add to salads.

Trick-or-Treat Tailgate – If you live in a neighborhood with a lot of kids, invite friends over to watch the adorable trick-or-treat action.  Set it up like a tailgating party with easy food like hamburgers and hotdogs or fried chicken (getting Popeye’s is not cheating).

Party on Wayne.  Party on Garth.

photo by Steve Chasmar

The Frugal Hostess just made a Wayne's World joke.  Things are clearly getting critical.  Please comment. You can also join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, follow on Twitter @frugalhostess, or subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears.

Gradtravaganza

Many moons ago, The Frugals Hostess and Husband were introduced by their friend, The Photographeuse.  It was a dark and stormy night, and the -- OK, it was St. Patrick's Day, and they were all drinking beer at this restaurant where TFH's sister used to work called The Mill that's closed now, and there was this one guy who acted like a complete jackass....  But TFH digresses.  They feel lucky to still have The Photographeuse as a friend, so when she graduated from art school a few weeks ago, The Frugal Hostess insisted that a party be had.

The Photographeuse has a secret boyfriend, hereafter referred to as The Secret Boyfriend, who actually took charge of the party planning and made it all happen.  He deftly arranged for the event to be held at The Frugal Homestead and even offered to supply the booze.  The Secret Boyfriend wanted it to be a special night for The Photographeuse, which is probably why she wants him to be secret -- all the ladies would come a-running if they knew how thoughtful he was.

So, with the beverage situation in the capable hands of The Secret Boyfriend, TFH turned her attention where it rightfully belonged - on the decorations.  A trip to an out-of-town Salvation Army yielded two mortar boards (that's what the graduation hat is called) and a paper/cardboard congratulations banner.  Red and blue featured prominently in both items, so The Frugal Hostess based the rest of the decorations around those colors.  She had seen, over the preceding months, several iterations of fabric banners that were delightful.  [Incidentally, is it just TFH, or is the word "iteration" gaining in popularity lately?  It's almost like some words have better lobbyists or publicists than others and get picked up by the buzzword-loving corporate set.]  Check some of them out here and here. 

Using fabric she already had (because she is a junior hoarder), The Frugal Hostess made a fabric banner for her front porch that made her very happy.  Here you go:

Ingredients
Fabric swatches in the colors you dig
Pinking shears (easier said than done)
Polyvinyl Acetate Adhesive (PVA is used for bookbinding and is a very flexible adhesive.  Fabric glue and probably a hot glue gun would work just as well.)
Small paintbrush
Cup of water
Scrap paper to use for a mat
Piece of ribbon long enough to hang banner

Directions
1.  Measure the spot you'd like to hang the banner, then add a few inches on either side just in case.
2.  Cut the ribbon to size.  Thinner ribbon (like, maybe slightly wider than a piece of string) works best for this.
3.  Find some pinking shears.  It took The Frugal Hostess five stores, plus some garage sales, to find pinking shears, so don't count on finding them at obvious places like Target.  Go straight to a sewing or craft store, and ask for help, because they are easy to miss.

4.  Cut the fabric you like into shape.  Ha!  Great instructions, huh?  OK, you're looking for a pennant-shaped triangle, but it needs to be folded over so that it's double-sided.  So, take a piece of fabric, fold it in half, and then cut out the shape.  (The Frugal Hostess realizes this is a little unclear, so email her if you need more detail - it's strangely hard to explain, but hopefully the pictures help.)
5.  Once you have enough double-triangle-pennants to fill your space, it's time to start gluing.  Open the fabric shape, place the ribbon inside on the fold, and spread PVA glue on one side with the paintbrush.  You want the glue to be spread thinly and evenly, without saturating the fabric too much.  That's where the cup of water comes in handy.  You also don't want to glue the thing to your table, so use the piece of paper as a mat.

6.  Stick the two sides of fabric together, and move on to the next piece.  Alternate colors, but maybe try not to be too regular about it, so that you achieve the cool handmade-by-pioneer-girls-back-in-the-day vibe.

7.  After you've filled the whole piece of ribbon with glued up fabric pennants, let it dry for a while and then hang!  The best part about this decoration is that it is not disposable and can be used it again for other occasions, so be sure you save it.

For the party, The Frugal Hostess dangled the two graduation hats on ribbons from hooks on either side of the front porch.  The banner went across the middle and looked so cool that she forgot to take a picture.  Bad job, TFH!  She also made a graduation hat for the monkey bust in the bathroom (What?  You don't have that?), which was universally the best part of the whole party.  And, the leftover fabric was cut into more pennants to be used as cocktail napkins.  Which no one used, but that is neither here nor there.

Menu-wise, TFH just did her typical easy cocktail party menu plus deviled eggs, and The Photographeuse brought salsa, bruschetta, boiled peanuts, and other yummy snacks.  It was lots of fun and a very frugal way to celebrate a friend!


Congrats, The Photographeuse!

The Frugal Hostess has a monkey bust in her bathroom.  Clearly something is wrong.  Please comment. You can also join the Frugalistas on Facebook for exclusive content, subscribe so that you always know when a new post appears or follow on Twitter.

Concert Pre-Game Party

The Frugal Husband is freaking obsessed with going to concerts. Like, he thinks that it is his secret job, as though he's a member of an underground musical police force who must see all live performances to defeat an evil force in the world. If it were possible, The Frugal Husband would see a show every night. Well, if he could watch football on his iPhone at the same time. Ergo, The Frugal Hostess always knows that, should she want to attend a concert, even a really expensive one, he will be game. As it were. Thus, the Concert Pre-Game* Party.

Pick a concert. Buy tickets for it. To be frugal, please note this MOST AMAZING FACT: you can use your American Express points to buy tickets from Ticketmaster! (!!!) Yep. That's right, folks; even in times of financial woe, you too can see a show. Convince some friends to do the same. It will be easier if you tell them the Amex/Ticketmaster secret. (And, seriously, not interested in your anti-Ticketmaster rants. Get it, they suck, go on about your business.)

The Frugal Household decided to use Amex points for Paul McCartney's recent visit to Piedmont Park in Atlanta. So did friends the Restaurafarians and the Lotta Francas. Or, you know, who knows what form of currency they used, but they got tickets, and everyone converged on The Frugal Household for a pre-concert extravaganza.


Ingredients
Concert
Tickets (Optional. You can pre-game a show you're not going to; it's just not as good.)
Music of Artist Giving Concert
Somewhat Clean House
Folded Blankets by Door
Assorted Hors d' Oeuvres (As an aside, may The Frugal Hostess just say that she only ever refers to hors d' oeuvres as "whores" in her own mind?)
Make-Your-Own Entree (hotdogs, burgers, sandwiches, bowls of chili with toppings)
Two to Four Composed Salads
Beeeeeeeeeeeeer
Booooooooooooze
Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine
Etc. (Optional....)

Directions and Notes:
1. Play CDs or MP3s of the artist incessantly leading up to the show. It will help build excitement and remind people what songs they hope to hear. In the case of The Frugal Hostess's trip to see Paul McCartney, playing Beatles CDs helped her remember all the words to their songs so she could sing at top volume.

2. The "somewhat" in the Somewhat Clean House just means that you shouldn't stop yourself from having this party if you don't have time to deep clean. You should still pick up, you slob.

3. Place folded blankets by the door only if the concert you are attending will take place outside. Presumably, you will not need them inside a venue. However, if you pre-game appropriately, you will forget to bring blankets unless you literally trip over them on your way out.

4. Assorted Hors D' Oeuvres typically consists of at least two and preferably all of the following: cheese and crackers, nuts, cherry or grape tomatoes, crudite of carrots and celery (and whatever else), chips and salsa, and olives.

5. Make-Your-Own-Entrees are best when you plan to, uh, consume with your guests. Surely you'll be able to grill hotdogs or hamburgers - that's easy - or at least throw out some cold cuts. You may want to get the condiments ready the night before. The Frugal Hostess served exceedingly delicious Zweigel's hotdogs imported by the Lotta Francas from Rochester, NY. The available condiments were: ketchup; ketchup mixed with Sriracha (asian hot sauce); mustard; sauerkraut (SO much better than you think - try it! Plus it's easy to make and lasts forever.); pickle spears; celery seeds; tomato slices; relish; diced onion; and pickled peppers. [De-frickin-lish. Chicago dogs rule.]
For burgers, try blue cheese crumbles, bacon, cheddar, tomato slices, pickle chips, onion, or fried eggs if you have time.
For sandwiches, use any of the above. Duh. You obviously know how to make a sandwich. Right?
For chili, get out Fritos, sour cream, shredded cheddar, sliced avocado, chopped onions and tomatoes, and hot sauce.

6. Composed Salads. That may be a Southern thing. Is it? Composed salads are salads composed of assorted ingredients - arranged rather than tossed. These are like pasta salad, broccoli salad, jello salad (so gross! never eat that!), potato salad, or fruit salad. You know, like picnic salads. A tossed green salad would also not be out of place.

7. Beeeeeer, Booooooooze, Wiiiiiiiiiiiine, Etc. Dude, really? No comment.

Rock on!

*Pre-game is a term (both noun and verb) purportedly coined by sorority girls/frat boys to describe pre-partying before the real party. Don't let its lineage discourage you from using it. It's a great word!

photo by Rich007