Creepy crawl: floating Halloween dinner party

Entertaining can be a ghastly chore.

We recommend enlisting a few good-natured ghouls to transform the typical Halloween party  into a frightfully fun floating costume and dinner party.

Plot each stop on your creepy crawl to cover the evening's menu from cocktails to dessert.  Everyone is happy because the grim work is distributed so all have a chance to enjoy treats minus the tricks.

Allow at least an hour at each location.

Creepy Cocktails and Horrific hors d'oeuvres

Jump start the evening with Jello Jigglers laced with gummy body parts and vodka.  Hostess with the Mostess shows you how and even shares a recipe for the teetotalers and the kids.

Like your refreshments liquid? Try this tart and tangy Italian Halloween Punch made with orange juice, limoncello and maraschino cherry liqueur.  The traditional Italian liqueurs make this punch perfectly bewitching.

Finger foods (and eerie eyeballs) make for some mighty interesting munchies.  The hauntingly healthy and deliciously decadent Halloween snacks at FamilyFun.com are scary and satisfying.

These may be a little kitschy, but Betty Crocker's Cheese Pumpkins make the classic cheeseball cute as can be.

Awfully eerie appetizers

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories throws a new twist on an old fav with Eyeball Caprese.   Taste of Home has tons of appetizer recipes but what grabbed us were the Cajun inspired Crunchy Monsters' Claws.

A monstrous main course

Epicurious makes your meal monstrous with a saucy Yummy Mummy Meatloaf. For more ghoulish grub, try these Baked Bones chocked full of ricotta cheese and tomato sauce. For something savory and very unscary, try Pumpkin Stew with a recipe from Taste of Home.

Devilish dessert and after dinner drinks

The great pumpkin wouldn't mind winding up in this rich dessert, Pumpkin Sour Cream Cheesecake, garnished with crystallized ginger strips. Bubble, bubble toil and trouble no more with these Witches Hats in the guise of old fashioned brownie a la mode.

Finish the evening with a sweet and silky Garish Ghostini from Celebrations.com or toast the Headless Horseman with an Apocalypse, a warm and toasty hot  chocolate laced with Southern Comfort.