vampire party

It's almost Halloween, and I have a treat for all you vampire-crazed home cooks: it's The Complete Vampire Lover's Cookbook, Love at First Bite ($10). This ghoulishly good paperback is a festive cookbook with over 300 "suckulent" recipes. Although there are no pictures of the dishes, the tome is full of great ideas and delightful inspiration. Read on for more details!

Black, white, and blood red are the colors that come to mind when I think of vampires and they're perfect for decorating a vampire party. Start by placing black candelabra with blood-dripping candles around the event location. Hang bats from the ceiling and stretch spider webs across the walls.

Serve the food on red platters, the soup in test tubes, and the cocktail in clear martini glasses. Sprinkle skull-and-cross-bones confetti across the tables, and place plastic vampire fangs in between the serving platters. Stack black napkins nearby. Bouquets of red roses finish the look.

At my vampire party, I'll be offering guests dressed like Buffy and the Cullens an assortment of vampire-themed drink options.

Red wine is a no brainer: it's the color of blood. To tint beer red, I'll use the same technique I employed on St. Patrick Day's only with red food coloring instead of green.

I'll also offer this dessert cocktail. It's a mixture of raspberry vodka, white chocolate liqueur, and half and half. The dripping blood rim is made from strawberry syrup and the ingenious garnish? Plastic fangs! To get the recipe keep reading.

Since vampires are so hot right now, I'm jumping on the bandwagon and throwing a fangtastic Halloween party. The savory menu consists of fun finger foods, so to ensure that no extra plates and utensils are necessary, I'm serving a portable, pop-in-your mouth dessert. No vampire travels without a coffin — unless he has a special ring like the Salvatore Brothers — that's why these almond brownie coffins fit the theme perfectly. The brownies are chocolate with chunks of dark chocolate covered almonds with a marzipan coffin topping. To check out the recipe, read more

Halloween happens to fall on a Saturday this year which makes it an ideal night for hosting a party. But don't just throw any party, select a theme, like vampires, and use this to inspire a ghoulish bash.

Start by sending our free vampire invitations specially designed for the online invitation service, Pingg. All you have to do is fill them out and send — how easy is that?

Once you've notified your friends, you can focus on more important things, like the menu. Select an assortment of finger-licking good foods that evoke the vampire culture.

Tomato soup filled test tubes resemble the addictive vampire blood popular in the HBO series, True Blood. Stefan Salvatore, the kind bloodsucker on the CW's Vampire Diaries who loves garlic, would devour a platter of garlic and cheese crostini. Guests will feel like Buffy the Vampire Slayer when they stake steak bites with skewers and dunk them into a bloody Mary dipping sauce. Finally, spicy sriracha doused chicken wings are so hearty they'd satiate even the toughest Cullen brother's hunger. Get these festive recipes when you read more