I have a lovely friend who is all crazy about the Twilight series.  I’ll admit I read the entire series (including the two mongraphs that came out later)  I haven’t seen the movies, and have no desire to see them.  The books, I found disturbing ---- but each of us has different tastes ---- and Sue loves these books.  She loves everything about the story and finds it intensely romantic. 

So, for Halloween, I agreed that I’d help plan a Twilight party.  It turned out to be a great deal trickier than I thought --- When one thinks of vampires and werewolves, one gets a rather dark image – lots of black and burgundy colors.  But in the Twilight books, the descriptions of the vampires is all very light – lots of white, they shimmer in the sunlight.  The Cullen’s house has lots of windows, white walls, beautiful and elegant furnishings.  How, on earth, to mix the two images and come up with a party that would leave Sue satisfied. 

First, a quick browse around the internet yielded this gorgeous tablescape 

--- a vision of the wedding scene come to life.  I LOVE it.  It is gorgeous, elegant, simple, tasteful ---- absolutely beautiful.  Could I borrow some of this and mix in a few “darker” elements in the food and drink and come up with a smashing vampire party for Halloween? 

What about a menu of rare roast beef --- bloody roast beef, if you pardon the image for a moment.  Serve it with a gorgeous beet salad (I’m loving the red without being too gory). 

Appetizers??? Maybe crudite with baked brie?? All that melty, oozy goodness can’t go wrong --- its light and white --- we could play on the “vegetarian” joke in the book.  If we bake the brie with a cranberry chutney, it would carry out the red theme and the contrast between the burgundy color of the chutney and the creamy pale cheese would be absolutely beautiful. 

Dessert?? Apples --- how could it be anything else?? But something subtle here, I think --- Sliced sautéed apples with a light caramel sauce and a little dab of vanilla ice cream or even crème fraiche.  Serve them in martini glasses to give it a little kick. 

Tie the whole thing together with two kinds of sangria --- white and red, of course.  And set the table, using the inspiration photo, with lots of white dishes, white linens, hydrangeas, green apples with the occasional deep red apple thrown in for contrast. 

What do you think, Sue??? Beautiful??  Twilighty??? Fun.