5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

It's monster mash-planning time, but don't let your to-do list scare you.

Nate Howell, head bartender at Cusp Dining & Drinks and Hiatus Lounge, has all the tricks and treats to raise the spirits of you and your guests this Halloween.

Oh, and did we mention the killer punch recipes?

Five Tricks for Throwing a Halloween Cocktail Party: Nate Howell
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Ray Isle (@islewine on Twitter) is Food & Wine's executive wine editor. We trust his every cork pop and decant – and the man can sniff out a bargain to boot. Take it away, Ray.

Halloween is definitely scary - if you’ve got kids. They come home, they’ve been trick-or-treating for hours, they’ve been downing candy the whole time, now they want more candy, and what you end up with are some truly maniacal sugar-jacked little demons who are just moments away from overload/exhaustion/complete wailing meltdown. See? Even if you don’t have kids, you’re scared now.

What you need after dealing with a situation like this is a strong drink. You could do bourbon straight, but on the other hand, why not opt for a glass of something appropriately spooky? It’ll rekindle the awareness in you that Halloween is actually pretty fun. Here, a few good choices:
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

It seems there’s some suspect candy going around this Halloween season. I don’t mean fake or counterfeit candy bars, where the names would be just barely misspelled, like Reeze’s Peanut Butter Cups or Buttterfingers. (They would be sold next to the bags embossed with names like Chanal and Burbery.) I’m speaking instead of the new, healthier candy, made without corn syrup, GMOs and artificial colors and flavors.

I’m super impressed with these efforts, but I also have big love for the classic, bad-for-you candy. So, I can’t help but admire the celebrities who are huge candy lovers too.

And now, if you see Ryan Gosling or Justin Bieber trick-or-treating in your 'hood, you’re prepared.
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Poor Vinnie. That's not actually his name, because this wasn't his fault. Sadly, his real one is, in some quarters, synonymous with "That Kid Whose Parents Didn't Let Him Trick-Or-Treat."

In my 1980s suburban youth, in my neck of the woods, a certain level of sugar-charged entitlement overtook the last day of October. While no one was especially extravagant in their candy offerings (save for one or two houses on a well-to-do cul-de-sac giving out full-sized Hershey bars, and believe me, word got out) perceived stinginess was met with great public indignation.
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Halloween is lurking around the corner and while the trick-or-treaters that come to your door, no doubt, want the classic candy brands they know and love, Halloween parties and office gatherings scream out for homemade peanut butter cups.

Homemade peanut butter cups might seem like a mystery - just how do they get the peanut butter inside the chocolate cup anyway? Lee Zalben, the founder and president of Peanut Butter & Co., solves the riddle with this step-by-step guide for peanut butter cups made in your own haunted house.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to get our grub on, we listen up.

I’ve always believed that the day after Halloween is better than the holiday itself - November 1st being the day when all candy left on store shelves goes on half price sale. If you’re not like me, if you’re already getting sick of the candy you stole from your kids, or legitimately trick-or-treated for yourself, here are some smart strategies for unloading those sweets.

Smash it up
My hero in this world is Christina Tosi from NYC’s Momofuku Milk Bar. And my new favorite all-purpose snack food is her ingenious Snack Mix, combining sugar-coated pretzels with broken-up mini candies like Reese’s or Take 5’s. If you don’t feel like smashing up mini bars, you can alternatively toss in peanut M&M’s.
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CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Eatocracy's managing editor Kat Kinsman chew over the sweet taste of nostalgia.

Be sure to share your own favorite classic candies in the comments below, and tune in to SANJAY GUPTA | MD every Saturday and Sunday at 7:30am ET on CNN.
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Ray Isle (@islewine on Twitter) is Food & Wine's executive wine editor. We trust his every cork pop and decant – and the man can sniff out a bargain to boot. Take it away, Ray.

Here’s the way I see it with Halloween wines. There are plenty of wines out there that are propelled by some sort of marketing gimmick - Dracula’s favorite Transylvanian Zinfandel, 2012 Mr. Bones's Bug Juice - but there are also some wines that more organically have a spooky Halloween vibe to them.

Here are a few possibilities that would be appropriate served out of black glasses in a Haunted House, and that also actually taste good.
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Among the sea of bloody-faced zombies and warted witches that will be out and about this Halloween, there’s an even scarier villain for some lurking in the sweetest of places: the candy bowl.

“For food allergic young people, it’s not the ghouls and goblins that are the scariest part of the trick-or-treating, the treats are,” says Mireille Schwartz, the founder and CEO of the Bay Area Allergy Advisory Board  and a Board of Directors member of FAAN, the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.

Schwartz’s 11-year-old daughter, Charlotte Jude, is just one of the about 12 million Americans - roughly 4 percent of the population - who suffer from food allergies.

That number is even higher among children: According to a recent study in the journal Pediatrics, approximately 8 percent of children under 18 in the United States have at least one food allergy.

But with some strategic planning, Schwartz says food allergies, like her daughter’s nut aversion, shouldn’t get in the way of the frightfully fun festivities.
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Disclaimer: There are some people who, around this time of year, get their knickers in a twist at the mention of sweet potatoes and marshmallows in the same sentence. If that relates to you, stop now to prevent aforementioned twisting.

Sometimes all it takes is a common element in two recipes to spark a Dr. Frankenstein-esque culinary creation.

In this instance, that ingredient is marshmallow, which abounds this time of year atop sweet potato casserole or set aflame for the campfire staple, the s'more.

Hence my wacky notion to combine the holy triumvirate of chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker with the autumnal casserole classic. And there’s a treat with the trick - you get a vegetable serving by way of dessert.

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