Halloween 2021 finds us celebrating in a spooky garden. Ghoulish gardeners delight in the odd and carnivorous plantings, some of them even edible. I've included a Where to Find section at the end of this post and I hope you enjoy your stroll through the garden.
Every special dinner starts with an invite and this year's was composed of a mossed filled miniature clay pot planted with a special packet of "Enchanted Pumpkin" seeds with Japanese konpeito candy, creepy lollipops, Monarch butterfly, and a menu card.
Dinner details were printed on the back of seed packet. Observant people will notice that our dinner was set for Saturday night, but due to work schedules, we celebrated on Friday night.
I started purchasing carnivorous and unique plants in the spring, so they would look full and larger by fall. Forward to plan B, carnivorous plants are tricky to grow and they are very slow growing. I had some glass apothecary jars that I placed the smaller plants in and that took care of the small plant dilemma. Start shopping very early or just purchase larger plants with a larger price tag.
Placecards created from a handpainted wooden eye, German crepe paper, and wire. The specimen tags were printed on gray card stock and the remaining bottom of the wooden skewers for the eyeballs were painted with silver paint.
Unusual and creepy pumpkins were perfect props for a spooky garden, along with some real plants like aloe, nepenthes (pitcher plant), and ivy. Our beautiful 16 year old Harry Lauder walking stick bush succumbed to Eastern blight this year, so some of the unaffected branches were saved and found a place on the table.
I had purchased two different sets of "firefly" lights on Amazon and both were returned. The color matches a firefly, but the slow blink function was either not slow enough or cycled through multiple colors. After some digging on Goggle, I found the company Firefly Magic. Their lights really simulate fireflies and they have multiple power options. Check out the video below to see fireflies.
Watch the video to see the fireflies in action.
The "snake" is a hose that almost made it into the trash. As the hose was on the ground next to the trash can, I thought it would make an interesting snake for this year's dinner. The head of the snake has a vintage brass nozzle, painted wooden eyes, and a red ribbon tongue. I couldn't believe my good fortune to find a Halloween colored metal watering can on Amazon.
The dishes are from Bordallo Pinheiro's "Green Cabbage" line, but any botanical themed plate would do nicely. Majolica comes to mind if you are lucky to have a collection. If the shovel forks & spoons look familiar, they were used in last year's dinner. I had galvanized plate chargers and green Villeroy & Boch glass goblets from Christmas 2020 that were reused. The clear mushroom glasses are from AliExpress and I was thrilled to discover them because honestly, how perfectly do they fit the theme?!?
The menu slanted towards vegetarian dishes with a delicious Venus Pie Trap to end the meal. If you like your meals on the more adventerous side, escargot would be a perfect main course.
I LOVE ARTICHOKES! I did a test run in the summer for these artiCHOKEme Bites and found that the regular canned artichokes were too small. If you can find large or extra-large artichoke hearts, frozen or canned, they work much better. I used the Cento brand with 5-7 hearts per can and made sure to drain them thoroughly. Blue cheese is just the perfect ingredient for a Halloween dish and makes a nice dipping sauce. The diced celery was omitted from the dip recipe since it was originally paired with Buffalo wings.
Ghastly Greenhouse Greens were argula, Boston lettuce, black dyed hardboiled eggs, roasted pepitas, yellow cherry tomatoes, cucumber snails, crunchy sprouts, and cut-out carrots. I used a cilantro lime dressing.
Bread of the Dead was a fun take on flat bread and was made by Cameron. We had to deviate from the original recipe and saved some uncooked skull mushrooms to place on top once the flat bread was done baking. I would saute the mushrooms skulls with the faces pointing up or you'll lose the facial detail. Sliced leeks were added for color since I didn't use the pesto Gouda that was called for in the original recipe. Instead of the pesto Gouda, smoked Gouda was substituted.
I used Jamie Oliver's spicy pork goulash recipe and added several varieties of mushrooms. I live in a house full of spice boys and the spicier the better. It's always easier to be able to start the main course the night before by the use of a slow cooker (thank you very much to MIL Judy for the awesome birthday present).
Homemade pie crust and blueberry filling were the base of the Venus Pie Traps. They were created from a tried-and-true, no spread vanilla sugar cookie recipe using oval cookie cutters. The Venus' spiny protrusions are slivered almonds. Sugar work would have made better spines, but that is above my pay grade and I had to go with something more simple. The cookie fly traps sat on a bed on edible moss and have little blueberries to simulate flies.
Cameron was once again tasked with creating the evening's signature cocktail and the mushroom glasses were perfect! Cameron made Mushroom Coladas. He used frozen pineapple, fresh lime juice, coconut cream, white rum, and the mushroom cap has added frozen strawberries, maraschino syrup, and red food gel. The white spots are melted white chocolate dabbed on to the cap portion prior to pouring.
Aloeween Juice is aloe juice, which naturally has some aloe chunks in it, is found at most Asian grocery stores and I added frozen kiwi bugs.
After we finish our meal, I always have a trivia or game that represents that year's theme. This year, we played a gnome game. I like to provide prizes, some really good ones and some tricks, for the group. Fun ending to a nice evening.
I purchased most of the items on sale or using retailer's coupons. As easy as Amazon shopping can be, it's not always the least expensive, so shop around. I found the light green moss to be much cheaper at JoAnn Fabrics than on Amazon, especially when you can use a 50% or 40% coupon.
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