If there’s anything you should know about me, it’s that I’m my mother’s daughter. I love my mom for many reasons, and one of them is her eagerness and determination to host a get-together and always pulling it off effortlessly (even though those working on the inside know it was anything but effortless). Watching her do this growing up exposed me to the art of hosting at a very young age. So when my parents decided they weren’t coming for JMU’s game against Coastal Carolina, my mother passed the tailgating torch to me. I knew I had to lock in.
So, I went hunting for some recipes to make that were both finger-food appropriate for tailgating, but also spooky snacks that looked like they sprang to life from a “Halloween Party” search on Pinterest. These three recipes are the ones I decided on and the ones that proved to be (mostly) a success!
Starting with the most classic American finger-food, pigs in a blanket, but with a twist. I got this recipe from The Kitchen is My Playground and what sold me on it was the glaze that you put on top. You start with the basics, Pillsbury crescent rolls and mini hot dogs, and roll them up as you normally would with pigs in a blanket while lining them up in a 9×13 pan. Then, for the glaze, you melt butter and add brown sugar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, poppy seeds, onion powder, salt, and pepper. The official recipe says to bring the sauce to a boil on the stove, but who has time for that? I melted the butter in the microwave and that worked just fine. Pour the glaze on top of the dogs, throw them in the oven, and then once they’re golden and bubbly, they’re ready!
This next recipe I found on TikTok and really enjoyed the idea of combining cookies and brownies together to make a hybrid of two of the best desserts.
The TikTok seemed very simple, starting by getting Pillsbury Halloween cookies, Halloween Oreos, and your fave brownie mix. Get a muffin pan out and fill it with cupcake liners. Then, put the Pillsbury cookies at the bottom, and stack the Oreos on top. Pour the brownie mix on top and bake, and there you have it!
However, I decided to forego the cupcake liners and sprayed the muffin tin with oil instead. This resulted in me prying them out of the tin with a knife, which lead to them falling apart everywhere. Definitely make sure not to skip the cupcake liners! Yesterday, though, I attempted to redeem myself and tried again, this time in a 9×9 brownie pan, and it turned out to be much more successful. So if you want to make these yummy treats in a muffin tin or a brownie pan, just know that both are an option!
The last recipe was from Mommy Musings – peanut butter spider cookies. If you make peanut butter blossoms during Christmas, these cookies are very similar to that except instead of putting a Hershey’s Kiss on top, you put a mini Reese’s cup. The recipe says to freeze the mini Reese’s cups before putting them on the cookies, but I put them in the refrigerator and that also worked fine. The reason why you have to either freeze them or chill them is because they have to be able to stay in their shape as you’re putting them on the cookie, which is right when they come out of the oven. But not too frozen that they’re too hard because once you put the Reese’s cups on the cookie, you immediately follow with candy eyeballs. Those won’t stick if your chocolate isn’t at least a little soft.
The recipe says to melt chocolate chips and put them into a bag to frost the cookie to make the spider’s legs, but I didn’t want to do all of that. Instead, I bought black decorating icing to make the legs. My mistake here was that (for some reason) I thought just one tube would be enough for 48 cookies. It was not. So, get at least two.
If you’re hosting a tailgate this October or if you’re in charge of bringing a snack, I would recommend giving these a try! Everyone enjoyed these at my tailgate, so they will enjoy them at yours too!