I decided in August that we were going to have a Halloween party this year. Because I was still on summer vacation at that point, it seemed like a great idea, and there was no doubt in my mind that I could pull it off. Knowing myself, however, there was also no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t announce it right away, I would back out and not have a party because the end of October is such a crazy time at school, and it’s so much work to host a successful party. I created the event on Facebook right away so that I couldn’t change my mind later.

True to form, when the week of Halloween arrived, I still really hadn’t done any menu planing. I had decorated the house, though, so at least that part was done (Jackson’s favorite decoration was this giant spider balloon, which is still floating around the living room).

And I did have a vague idea of what I wanted to make. I was going to keep it pretty simple, mostly finger foods, and buy some gluten free cupcakes from a local bakery. And booze. Of course.

The menu I finally settled on was deviled eggs (more on those later), pumpkin chili with ground beef, chicken wings (I ordered 12 lbs, and they ALL got eaten!), Mike’s famous cheese dip and chips (not Paleo), and a veggie platter with homemade Paleo ranch dressing.

This chili recipe is one I’ve made before, but in the past I’ve used ground turkey. I was uncertain that ground beef would work, but it was a huge hit with the guests and with Jackson. He’s been eating the leftovers non-stop!

For the wings, I used Nom Nom Paleo’s recipe for her Magic Wings (including her Magic Mushroom Powder), and they turned out absolutely incredible. As I mentioned earlier, I had ordered 12 lbs of wings, and when I opened up the package, I discovered that the wings looked like this.

I was a little alarmed, but I quickly searched out a youtube video on how to butcher chicken wings and got to work.

For the Paleo ranch dip, I used another Nom Nom Paleo recipe for mayonnaise (this technique is pretty universal). Then I whisked in coconut milk until the consistency was what I wanted, added about 2 tsp each of garlic powder and onion powder, and about 1 tsp of dill, and voila! Ranch dressing!

And finally, the deviled eggs… This was the dish I actually spent the most time on. It all started out simply enough. I boiled and peeled the eggs, cut them in half, and tossed the yolks in a bowl. For every 6 eggs, I used 4 of the yolks and added 1 avocado for the filling. I added salt, pepper, lime juice, and some garlic power, and then piped the resulting concoction back into the eggs (I used a ziploc bag with the corner cut off to do the piping). The finishing touch was what took all the time; I cut up olives to look like spiders and put them on top of every. single. egg. This took a pretty long time, but it was totally worth it. They looked awesome and were really tasty too.

The party was a huge success. It was great to see some friends that I haven’t seen in a long time, the kiddos had a blast running all over the place, and the food was amazing.

And here’s a gratuitous picture of Jackson and Mike in their costumes.