Hosting your own spooktacular mixer is a terrific way to get the party started before Trick or Treating, and is an increasingly popular night in on it’s own merits. From custom desserts to decorations, Halloween has become a truly DIY experience, but why stop at the window decorations? While you may already know what you’ll be drinking this weekend, extending the seasonal fun to guests, and to your seasonal hosting skills, is a fun way to turn the night into a real thriller. For the adults of the group, consider the mike’s hard Halloween friendly drinks collection: Smashed Apple Cider, mike’s hard black cherry lemonade, mike’s hard lemonade, mike’s hard strawberry lemonade, mike’s hard mango punch and mike’s hard cranberry lemonade, along with the recipes below, as a refreshing way to warm up your mixer. These festive drinks for fall have tons of flavor, and pack a mean Halloween punch. Plus, they go killer with BBQ ribs too!
To make this Halloween even more daring and spooktacular, Celebrity Chef Spike Mendelsohn teamed with mike’s hard to create these haunting BBQ recipes. Calling on the aid of mike’s hard Smashed Apple Cider as the perfect toast to fall, and compliment your dinner guests with the deliciously refreshing taste of mike’s hard Smashed Apple Cider alongside BBQ ribs and Apple Slaw. Your haunted shack will be the talk of the town!
mike’s hard Smashed Apple Cider BBQ Ribs
Yields 8–12 Servings
Ingredients
Ribs
- 2 racks of St. Louis-style ribs (about 4 lbs.)
Rub for Ribs
- 2 tbs. smoked paprika
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 tbs. ginger powder
- 1 tsp. allspice
- 1/2 cup mike’s hard Smashed Apple Cider Crisp
Apple Instructions
- Combine paprika, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger powder and allspice to create the dry rub
- Rub the mixture all over the meat and season with salt and pepper (allowing ribs to marinate overnight)
- Pre-heat oven to 375°F • Place meat in a roasting pan and slather the ribs with mike’s hard Smashed Apple Cider Crisp Apple
- Cover the pan with foil and bake for approximately 2 hours, until an inch of bone is showing
- Finish on the grill over medium heat for approximately 15 minutes and glaze with BBQ sauce
mike’s hard Smashed Apple Cider BBQ Sauce
Ingredients:
- 8 oz. can chipotle peppers
- 2 cups thick BBQ sauce
- 1 tbs. molasses
- 2 tbs. mike’s hard Smashed Apple Cider Crisp Apple
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup nonalcoholic apple cider
mike’s hard Smashed Apple Slaw
Method:
- Blend ingredients together until smooth Apple Slaw Ingredients
- 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and julienned
- 2 whole lemons, juiced • 1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped Instructions
- Toss apples with lemon juice and sprinkle with parsley
- Serve chilled mike’s hard Smashed Apple Cider Crisp Apple BBQ Sauce
About Chef Spike Mendelsohn
Spike Mendelsohn competed on Top Chef: Chicago Season 4, where he was sent home just shy of the finale and came back to compete on Top Chef All-Stars Season 8. Growing up in St. Petersburg, FL and Montreal, Canada, where his parents owned and operated a restaurant, Spike knew he wanted a career in the culinary world at an early age and attended the Culinary Institute of America. He went on to train in classic French cuisine in restaurants around the world including Gerard Boyer at Les Crayeres, Thomas Keller at Bouchon, and The Maccioni Family at Le Cirque. Being part of a food industry family, Spike put his dream of venturing out on his own on hold to work in the family business. In 2008, he was integral in opening the family’s popular Capitol Hill award-winning burger joint, Good Stuff Eatery, which has been frequented by the First Family on several occasions. In the summer of 2010, they opened another Capitol Hill restaurant, We, The Pizza. His first cookbook, The Good Stuff Cookbook, features American comfort food classics and favorites that are just right for the home cook.
For more ideas on how to celebrate this Halloween, please visit mike’s hard lemonade.
