I like to keep things simple and have the kids make their own pizzas! This is perfect because they can actually make their own dinners and I am usually finishing up the adult dinner and love the company in the kitchen. I will buy the pizza dough from Trader Joes (one bag usually makes 4-5 mini pizzas.) I keep the toppings simple: Mozzarella (cut into mummy strips), pepperoni, fresh basil, black olives (cut to make very spooky eyes!) and green/red peppers ( I cut mini triangles for vampire teeth!).

A cheese board is a great appetizer to have out for guests. I try to have everything be white, orange, black, and green. For this particular party, I used cheddar cheese, dark grapes, blackberries, dried oranges or apricots and darker crackers.

Veggie Chili is my go to for the adults! This is a great crowd-pleasing recipe by Pamela Salzman linked here. You can make it the day before to which help simplifies things the day of a party.

I like to do cornbread on the side and love this simple recipe from Martha Stewart.

When Heather’s holiday linens come out I get excited to throw a party! This years halloween linens were especially festive. I immediately started looking for decor and imagining tables.

For the kids table, I collect Halloween decor so my table looks similar every year. I love to find nicer pieces and I usually will get a lot of my items from Michaels, they have the best affordable Halloween decor. This year I found some black cobwebs that pair nicely with a lot of the black hardware details in my house so I prefer those to a white. This helps tie all of my black and orange decor together.

For the adult table, I scattered around famers market figs, grapes and plums. I pre-dripped the candles the night before (just light them outside!) so they would look beautiful. I live in the canyon in LA so sometimes the wind can be tricky but I figure if I can’t get them lit they will still look great on the table!

It is the easiest and a lot of bang for your buck. Last year I found these Trader Joes dipping kits. I bought two and between the adults and kids we polished them off. I swapped the more autumnal themed sprinkles that came with the kit for my own Halloween ones. I added some beautiful farmers market apples (I HAD hoped to find apples with some leaves still on but it wasn’t in the cards!) Next year, I may delve into making a salted caramel dipping sauce!