Blood Punch Recipe for Your Next Halloween Party

That's right folks! Fall is steadily approaching and with that comes the wonderful and enchanted evening of Halloween and the many costume parties associated. Here is a great punch recipe that will have all your friends and family thirsty for more.

Blood Punch

Ingredients:

- Citrus Flavored Vodka (1.75 liter bottle works best when going in punch bowl)

- 2 (750ml) or 1 (1.75 liter) bottle of champagne, sparkling white wine, prosecco, etc. If it bubbles and contains alcohol...it works.

- 2 regular size bottles or 1 warehouse size bottle of cranberry juice

- 1 orange

To Make:

- Fill a small, microwaveable bowl halfway with water and place in the microwave for 2 minutes. When finished, place the whole orange in and let sit while you make the rest of the punch. Doing this will allow the orange peel to pull away from the fruit making it easier to get the zest off.

- In your punch vessel of choice (see ideas below), pour in the entire bottles of vodka, sparkling beverage, and cranberry juice. Be careful to slowly pour the sparkling beverage into the bowl as it might bubble up too much and too fast.

- Stir all the liquids together with a ladle.

- Carefully take the orange out of the warm water and with a knife, make a slit from top to bottom. Next, with your fingers, peel the orange zest away from the fruit.

- When the zest is completely removed, cut it into ½ inch strips.

- Over the punch bowl, take your orange peels one by one and make a twisting motion. This will release citrus oils from the zest that adds a lovely flavor to the punch.

That's it! Super easy and super delicious. I promise you this punch will be a huge hit at your party.

You could even make it kid friendly by using the following ingredients:

- Lemonade

- Sprite, 7Up, or other sparkling citrus beverage

- Cranberry Juice

- 1 orange

Make the punch the same way you would make the adult version.

As it is a Halloween party, here are a couple ideas on presentation.

Display Options:

- Buy a plastic, black witch's cauldron large enough to hold your punch at your local party supply store. Kick it up a notch by picking up a plastic arm while at the party supply store and glue gun it into the bottom of the cauldron so that it appears that an arm is reaching out of the punch. Kick it up another notch by placing some dry ice (available at your local grocer) in the punch to make it bubble.

- Don't have time for arts and crafts? Place punch into a regular punch bowl and throw a few plastic spider in to float on top.