Seeing red

Come on, what's Halloween without a little blood?

Probably a heck of a lot cleaner - but not half as much fun. My husband and I use a lot of fake blood in our holiday decor, particularly on the steps leading up to our house, where young trick-or-treaters stare aghast at a life-like corpse slumped in the corner.

Confession: The "corpse" is usually hubs, who assesses whether to "animate" based on the age of the kid. Most times he gets it right - except, erm, that little guy who dropped his candy and RAN as fast as he could away from our house. Poor young Dracula.

Blood and vampires go hand in hand, of course.

But here's a couple of creeptastic party ideas ideas that will get your Monster Bash partiers seeing red.

Add red food coloring to a white chocolate fondue and spice it up with cinnamon flavor.

Tomato juice martinis, anyone? (The spider is a shiver-worthy touch.)

Drench your buffet or decorative table in fake blood.

Of course, if you're using fake blood in party decor, you're going to need a lot of it - and that stuff doesn't come cheap, and it certainly doesn't taste good. 

Here's a recipe that will even have your local vampires licking their chops.

Chocolate Fake Blood

1/2 c. Warm Water

4 Tbsp Corn Syrup

1 Tbsp Powdered Cocoa

1 tsp Red Food Coloring

Blend the water and cocoa together and then add the rest of the ingredients. Let the concoction sit for awhile and skim the bubbles off of the top. Add a couple of drops of yellow food coloring if you're not satisfied.

Excellent! Now, let the blood bath production begin! There's only 18 sleeps until Halloween.

- Dawn