Practical Magic Themed Dinner

Grab your broomsticks, because we’re getting the coven together for a Practical Magic themed dinner!

Practical Magic is the story of the Owens family of modern-day witches. The family faces closed-minded prejudice in their small Massachusetts town, as well as a curse that causes any man an Owens woman falls in love with to die. Throughout the movie, Owens sisters Sally and Gillian utilize “practical magic” to cast spells, perform a resurrection, and fight supernatural forces.

Practical Magic has a charming and cozy autumn aesthetic perfect for this time of year. And with a long-awaited sequel arriving this fall, it seemed like the perfect time to plan a Practical Magic themed dinner!

I also created a few Practical Magic printables for our dinner party. You can access the free downloads by clicking the links below!

So, stock up on your salt, rosemary, and lavender, and get ready to fall in love with this Practical Magic themed dinner. There’s a little witch in all of us, after all!

*This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click a link and make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no additional cost to you!

Amas Veritas Garden Board

To ensure she never falls in love and suffers from the family curse, young Sally Owens casts the Amas Veritas love spell using flowers and herbs from her family’s garden. She lists a series of impossible traits her true love must have before presenting them to the night sky, believing no such man can possibly exist.

So to kick off our Practical Magic dinner, I made a garden-themed charcuterie board inspired by Sally’s Amas Veritas spell.

The center of our board was a wheel of brie filled with blueberry preserves in the shape of a witch hat. I also served figs and pistachios in mini cauldrons before covering the remainder of the board with an assortment of fruit, cheese, crackers, and salami roses.

To finish the board, I picked some flowers and fresh rosemary from our own garden as a nod to Sally’s spell. I also added small cheese stars to reference the night sky when the spell was cast, as well as the impossible dream man’s favorite shape.

Deathwatch Beetles

The Owens women are warned of a loved one’s impending doom by the ticking sound of the deathwatch beetle, so I wanted to include them in our Practical Magic dinner for two reasons. One, because they symbolize the very curse that plagues the Owens women. And two, because I knew the kids would love the gross-out factor of eating “beetles.”

So, to make our deathwatch beetles, I sliced dates in half lengthwise and filled the centers with crunchy peanut butter. Then, using a piping bag, I covered the peanut butter with melted chocolate wafers and placed the dates on parchment paper, chocolate side down.

From there, I piped a head and six legs under each date, making sure the chocolate touched the bottom of the “beetle” so each element adhered.

I was pleasantly surprised by how delicious these dates were! The beetles reminded me of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, but elevated in flavor.

I wasn’t sure how the little kids would react to eating dates, but they loved these little “buggies!” They enjoyed eating them almost as much as they enjoyed playing with them. And since the Owens women are rulebreakers, we broke that pesky “don’t play with your food” rule to honor them.

Banishment Stew

In the movie’s climax, the Owens women must unite with the local townswomen to perform an exorcism and banish an evil spirit.

As they prepare, we see a banishing potion bubbling on the stove intended for “sealing his nasty spirit back into the grave.” So, for our main dinner entrée, I made a Banishment Stew!

The recipe I used for our stew is a variation of my Crockpot Irish Stew. I swapped out the Guinness for two cups of red wine I reduced on the stovetop for 15 minutes.

To make the stew more festive, I cut the carrots into pumpkin shapes. I also added skull-shaped dumplings using a skull mold and a very simple dumpling recipe.

The stew was delicious with the new substitutions! And the kids loved the pumpkin and skull elements.

Midnight Margaritas

The Midnight Margaritas kitchen dance sequence may be the most iconic movie moment. So, of course, we had to include a margarita on our Practical Magic dinner menu!

I wanted our margarita to be ‘midnight’ dark as well as herbaceous – rosemary is a big deal to the witches! So, I crafted our cocktail from the following ingredients:

• 2oz tequila
• 1oz blue curaçao
• 1oz lime
• 6 blackberries
• ½ oz agave
• Fresh spring rosemary
• Hibiscus salt

To start, I muddled the blackberries, lime juice, and agave to release the juice from the berries. Then, I added the liquors and fresh rosemary and shook with ice until thoroughly chilled. To finish, I double-strained the cocktail (with a regular and fine-mesh strainer) into a margarita glass with a hibiscus salt rim.

I served the margarita with a lime wheel and a black cocktail umbrella as a nod to the end of the film!

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast

In the Owens’ household, the witches never bother with silly things like bedtimes and brushing teeth. And chocolate cake is a breakfast food! So, in honor of the Owens witches’ rejection of rules, I had to bake a chocolate cake.

I used a recipe from Add a Pinch to bake the cake, and a recipe from Always Eat Dessert for the chocolate ganache frosting.

To decorate, I once again took inspiration from the Owens family garden and adorned the cake with blackberries, flowers, and fresh rosemary from our garden. I washed everything in cool water, then sealed the flower stems in plastic wrap and floral tape to make them safe for decorating.

I also topped the cake with a whipped cream pentagram as a nod to Sally and Gillian’s resurrection spell gone wrong.

Even though our cake wasn’t for breakfast (and we certainly brushed our teeth afterward), it was a delicious way to end our Practical Magic dinner!

Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for luck, and fall in love whenever you can.

I hope you enjoyed our Practical Magic themed dinner! Gathering around the candlelight to celebrate family, individuality, and community over a good meal is the truest form of magic.

Do you have an idea for our next Halloween-themed dinner? If so, let us know in the comments!

Looking for other Halloween-themed dinners? Then check out our Disney Villain Dinner Party and our Little Shop of Horrors Dinner!