Pirate Dinner!

I decided to do some themed dinners for Halloween. Here is my first (which I actually broke up into two dinners over two separate nights). But who doesn't love a good pirate theme?

The first night, I served the watermelon pirate ship, crab sandwiches, "fish and chips", and chocolate malt ball cannonballs.

The second night, I served the meatballs, veggie desert island, and pirate gold treasure.

Above: First up is the hardest and most time-consuming part of the dinner. After this, everything is easy. Get an oval-shaped watermelon and cut off the top. Use the top to cut into small rectangles to make the sails. Use bamboo skewers to skewer the watermelon rectangles to make the sails. Scoop out the watermelon with a melon baller. You can have just watermelon balls, or you can also add grapes as well. I used some white yarn for the rigging. I also carved a skull and crossbones into the front sail. You could also print a pirate flag and just attach it to the top of one of the bamboo skewers.

Above: Watermelon skin is not easy to carve. So, you might just prefer printing up a pirate flag and attaching it to a bamboo skewer.

Above: Make a palm tree out of a green bell pepper top and a peeled carrot stick. All of the ideas for this that I saw had the palm tree sticking out of a stiff cheeseball shaped like an island. That was my original plan, but we had a heavy eating weekend and I decided that the last thing I needed was a cheeseball, so instead, I decided to prop up my carrot and bell pepper palm tree in some light ranch dressing that I already had on hand. However, I had to create a wedge underneath the dressing so the carrot didn't keep falling over. It was a huge pain and I don't recommend it. Ha ha! Stick to the cheeseball, if you plan to do this.

Above: Awwww, that palm tree was a huge pain, but it looks cute though, doesn't it?

Above: Fish and Chips. Goldfish crackers and Ruffles potato chips. You could layer these in one bowl together, or if you have picky eaters (like I do), you could serve them in two separate bowls.

Above: I used frozen homestyle meatballs cooked on low for 4 hours in my slow cooker with 1 cup grape jelly and 1 cup barbecue sauce for these "cannonballs".

Above: Aren't these crab sandwiches adorable? Use croissants that come in this shape (rounded crescent). Put your favorite sandwich fillings inside. You could make an actual crab sandwich with crab salad. My picky boys wouldn't have eaten that though. So I used mayo, mustard, cheddar cheese slices, and turkey. I made the eyes by using a glue gun to glue googly eyes onto toothpicks.

Above: They turned out so cute! Those eyes gave them such personality! Ha ha!

Above: Dessert was super easy. Get your favorite gold-wrapped candies and voila! Pirate's gold or buried treasure! Whatever you prefer to call it!

Above: You can have a second version of cannonballs and serve chocolate-covered malt balls for dessert.