Monday, November 13, 2023

Spooky Night: My Unforgettable 2023 Halloween Celebration Abroad

Far from the familiar U.S. neighborhoods where I once celebrate Halloween, this year brought yet another spooky night of festivities. So join me on my journey through some bewitching moments that made my Halloween in Argentina a celebration to remember. 


For those of you who don't know, Halloween is my favorite time of the year. But that's probably obvious from our Halloween tree and decorations.

Halloween Tree

We made the decorations above by pouring regular glue over a Ziploc bag and then waited for them to dry. 48 hours later, we peeled the designs and stuck them onto the glass in our pantry cabinet. Unfortunately, they only stayed on for a few days.


We also started experimenting with Halloween themed foods that we were hoping to introduce on the 31st. Although these snacks didn't make it into the menu, I feel they deserve an honorable mention.

Halloween snacks
Halloween Toast, anyone?

Jack O' Lantern Pizza
Jack O' Lantern pizza and mini pizzas on the side
Jack O' Lantern Pizza
This is what the Jack O' Lantern pizza looked like on the inside.
 
Halloween Grilled Cheese
Halloween Grilled Cheese. Actually, one of them had salami

Orange Halloween Biscuits
We used food coloring to create orange homemade biscuits

Spooky pancakes
Spooky Pancake # 1

Spooky pancake
Spooky Pancake # 2

Spooky pancake
Boo Pancake

Of course, the only thing cooler than Halloween and creepy looking food was Friday the 13th, which happened to fall in October this year. 

Friday the 13th t-shirt
I bought this Friday the 13th shirt (seen in the photo above) and a pair of Jason Voorhees socks (seen in the photo below) at the Argentina Comic Con in June. 
Jason Voorhees socks

And yes! We did watch a Friday the 13th film. Well... sort of! Does Jason X count?


Despite dealing with some family issues, the hubs and I distracted ourselves with our annual Halloween movie marathon.


So, here's a list of the films we watched in the hopes that it will inspire you for next year's Halloween. Some of these selections were old classics. Others were new. Most were a hit and miss this year, but they can't all be great! Am I right?


  1. Jeepers Creepers
  2. Wolf Creek 
  3. Five Nights At Freddy's (Sesame Street would have been more entertaining)
  4. Herd
  5. Legion
  6. Cold Prey
  7. 30 Days of Night
  8. Scary Movie
  9. Scary Movie 2 (Not good at all!)
  10. The Puppetman
  11. The Bell Keeper
  12. Night of the Hunted (New and really decent!)
  13. Saw X (This one was a total disappointment)
  14. A Quiet Place
  15. Turistas
  16. The Night Eats the World (Meh!)
  17. Resident Evil The Final Chapter
  18. The Conference (Blah!)
  19. The Astral Woods (I've seen worse!)
  20. 47 Meters Down
  21. Jason X
  22. Escape Room
  23. Hush
  24. Pet Sematary Bloodlines (Why? Just why?)
  25. Don't Look Away
  26. Final Summer (Boooooring!)
  27. Amusement
  28. Indigenous
  29. Totally Killer (If Back to the Future were a horror flick, this would be it!)
  30. The Mean One (It was okay)
  31. Husk
  32. The Nun II (It was okay, but family drama on WhatsApp ruined the film for me)
  33. Bedeviled 
  34. All Fun And Games

The movie countdown culminated to the main event! Halloween 2023! And we had plenty to eat and a dear friend to share the joys of this holiday with.
Halloween 2023
Halloween 2023
The final Halloween menu looked a bit different than we had planned, but it was all quite satisfying!
Halloween Themed Deviled Eggs
Halloween Themed Deviled Eggs - Thanks to some food coloring and olives

Halloween themed snacks
Halloween themed meatballs
Bloody meatballs!

Ghost baked potatoes for Halloween
Ghost baked potatoes

Homemade Halloween Pizza
Homemade Halloween Pizza

I almost forgot to mention that we had a fourth guest join us at the table. It was this year's Jack O' Lantern carved by Yours Truly! Jack had blessed us with his eerie glow throughout the night before the candle inside him fizzled out.

Jack O' Lantern
Jack O' Lantern
Jack O' Lantern
Jack O' Lantern

Full disclosure, I didn't think he would make it to Halloween. We had actually carved him in late September and popped him in the freezer. It took a while for Jack to defrost naturally. Luckily, he looked great! 

While we made room for dessert, we decided to give some white balloons a ghostly makeover. Believe it or not; it's been two weeks and they haven't deflated.
Ghost balloons
Ghost balloons
Ghost balloons
Ghost balloons
Now if you're wondering why there's a Happy Birthday sign hanging on the wall above the ghosts, it's because the hubs celebrated his 41st birthday the day before Halloween. 
Super Mario Bros Themed Cake
Super Mario Bros Themed Cake
And as you can see from his birthday cake and decorations, he loves Super Mario Bros., and Kirby... a lot!

As for dessert, we had a bunch of ideas, but we were so full that we only made two. The first dessert were ghost cups made with banana pudding and topped with crushed Oreos and a walnut to give these ghosts brains. Oh, and they also had cherries for hearts.
Halloween Desserts
The second dessert was inspired by the classic film "The Blob" and was made out of strawberry Jell-O and eye-shaped gummies.
The Blob Jell-O

But what would Halloween be without candy? Right? The hubs and I had been buying candy since mid-September. We also ordered some candies common in the U.S. but generally impossible to find in Argentina. 
Twix
Salty Caramel Twix. Small but quite satisfying!

Jelly Belly
Starburst
Starburst! Good things do come in small packages

Mogul Murcielagos
It's an Argentine brand but they made bat shaped candies

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Reese's Pieces
Dots Gummy Candy
The hubs was also gifted a huge bag of DOTS candies by one of his friends. This helped satiate our sweet tooth and undoubtedly brought us closer to type 2 diabetes.
Then the clock struck midnight, marking the end of yet another successful Halloween adventure in Argentina. But I couldn't help but reflect on how lucky I was to have had this happy moment full of warm embraces, laughter and spooktacular fun.

Well, now it's time to get ready for Thanksgiving, which is less than two weeks away as of this post. Until next year's Halloween celebration!

No comments:

Post a Comment