ALL HALLOWS EVE

Vintage posters are so fantastic, don't you think?  And isn't there something so enjoyable about traditions and holidays, even the controversial ones.  Where I live, Halloween is a controversial one and is slowly being migrated to simply Harvest time by the old folks (anyone too old to enjoy a good Halloween party).  When I lived in a big city (Washington, DC) there were fantastic parades of people in the most creative costumes and it was truly fun.  A friend of mine who lives in NY shared a video last year of a group of people who got together and dressed as Michael Jackson's Thriller dancers and did the dance from the video.  It was great!  I'm naive enough to think that Halloween is just a time for fun anymore and  I want to share some fun that I've enjoyed participating in during this time of year.  

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In our neighborhood, we played a little game that can easily be translated to the work place if you like and adjust the goodies to suit adults.  My little guy calls it "Ding-dong Ditching with candy" but if it has an official name it would be "Boo". Boo is a ghost you deliver

 to your friends along with seasonal goodies without revealing yourself and the recipient does the same to 2-3 others.  In a neighborhood, we get it started with 5 bags of goodies like popcorn, Sweet tart Bones and Skulls, Halloween colors M&M's, a plastic spider ring, you get the idea and this is a nifty poem to add to bag.  The official rules are here.  I got caught once by a neighborhood brat, er, child who insisted I admit it was me who rang her door bell while her mother stood there smirking and saying nothing.  I skipped them the following year.  Sorry, I'm not smarter than a 5th grader.  

Can cookies and candies be sexy?  I say they can be.  Check these out... sexy, right?  What?  C'mon, they're gorgeous!  I made these by adding orange food coloring to a sugar cookie recipe but this time I'll try it with a decadent orange butter cookie recipe.  Be sure to add orange food coloring and if you eat more than one of these, that will

make two of us.  You know that you dip these in melted white and dark chocolate which you melt in double boiler, right? And just look at these caramel apples!  The stems are small candied pretzel sticks tied with ribbon and the butts, uh, dippers are a variety with pumpkin seeds, Halloween nonpareils  which you may call sprinkles and dripping chocolate wound around the caramel apple.  Sssssexy!  Try this with a variety of apples, why should that Granny Smith have all the fun?

Pumpkin Soup sounds wonderful to me and I wouldn't even alter it in general like I do everything else for flavor impact.  Then I saw this Thai Curried Pumpkin Soup recipe which made me change my mind.  It has 5 ingredients, recipe is right under picture but does not look like a recipe so look closely.  You're going to love that - it uses Thai curry and you can choose which variety, all is good here.

Pumpkin Ravioli is a fun dish to prepare with children, hint: keeps them busy for a long

 time.  Have you ever used the round wonton wrappers?  They are much thinner than a traditional ravioli dough and for that reason alone seem like a delicacy.  I first discovered them in a Bon Apetite magazine recipe for Goat Cheese Ravioli with Tomato Pancetta butter and they curled my toes back then even though my original purpose was to try a Pancetta dish for a party thinking every one loves bacon so this would be a winner.  I did not even want to share this dish!  This recipe though is for Pumpkin Ravioli and it is simple and fun and tasty and fun for your Bambinos to "help" you with. 

Just to be different one year, I searched for a different thing to do with the vast amounts of pumpkin seeds we always have left over from carving more than out share of  jack-o-lanterns.  I found this what we've called Roasted Pumpkin Pie Seeds recipe and they were a hit with my little sugar junkies.  This time I'm going to mix the traditional ones with the sweet ones to see if they go well together.   I'll let them try it first cause I'm like that, hehehe.

You need something beautiful and festive for your table, don't you?  I know, that's why I'm showing you this little joy. After removing the stem and tracing the bottom of a cancle, hollow out the stem area of a mini pumpkin and pop in your candle.  Wrap with a little bitter sweet garland and lovely, to behold and to be smell.  Wait...  If you burn that candle unattended and your little garland catches fire - just remove the garland, pumpkin head!

Remember that your comments are always welcome.  Do you have a Seasonal tradition to share?

Eat Your Damn Oatmeal

You don't have to take that tone with me...not about oatmeal.  Way back when I wore my hair in two 
braids and donned that catholic school plaid, I had a thing for oatmeal.  I recall mornings in the kitchen spent pretending my oatmeal was porridge and that my two brothers and I were the 3 bears.  I hear you laughing.   We didn't have a Goldilocks but my "porridge" was always just right.  I don't fashion my hair in two braids much anymore but my thing for old fashioned oatmeal still exists.  

Now I no longer rely on little brown packets for my oatmeal fix.  Did you know that Starbucks serves Perfect Oatmeal and Jamba juice dishes it up as well? If these leaders can do oatmeal - you know I will!

Become a Follower of this blog - we'll both enjoy it. Comments are always welcome, just leave one where this article ends. Thanks.

Before Oats became the love interest of the healthy heart industry, I knew it to be one of those things I loved that was not bad for me.  There aren't enough of those so we should enjoy this at every opportunity.  Opportunity #1: veggie burgers.  I used to buy these premade and frozen and they really don't taste all that exciting so we had to fix this pronto!  This is a superb recipe I found at vegweb.com for  Garlic Potato & Oat Black Bean Burgers  that I would make and serve any man who gets all "meat and potatoes only" with me.  I'd wear a low cut dress, too and stiletto's but that is just so he'd give it a try and then I'm sure he'd love it after that and I could wear any old thing... Opportunity #2: traditionally pie crust is made with a large amount of white flour  which I find a little 

disturbing and it should be noted that there is another way that is clever and tasty and makes sense for fruit pies: Oatmeal Pie Crust recipe found here at Cooks recipes.com. made with quick cooking oats.  Feeling your oats? Bake an oatmeal pie, see picture and then make the Hey, that tastes good!: Oatmeal Pie featured in the photo.  Nectarine Raspberry fruit Crisp with Spiced-Oatmeal crumb  topping at Bon Apettite is crunchy and homey.  Give it a try.

Once when my little one developed a nuclear rash on his unmentionables, research lead me to the colloidal oatmeal bath as treatment.  Yep, it was pricey but it was magical and should be noted that it looked disgusting.  Research time: grinding store bought oatmeal in blender, food processor or coffee mill repeatedly until it's a very fine powder creates colloidal oatmeal for pennies.  As a powder it mixes with the water in such a way as to float throughout.  Careful, this will be slippery on the tub.  1/3 C. will do. Helps soothe skin irritations like eczema, pox and rashes.  My itchy boy would not go for this now and we'd maybe make some oatmeal bath bombs if he was itchy.  For me, I would add 1 c. dry milk and baking soda for something silky during the winter when the heater dries the skin.  Oatmeal facial - I recommend you grind the oats in a coffee mill but certainly not necessary - Combine 3/4 cup oatmeal with half a cup of water and cook for a few minutes, the way you'd prepare it for meals. Allow to cool. After a few minutes, add 1/4 quarter cup of honey and mix well. It is that simple. You now have an oatmeal mask great for evening moisture in skin and soothing/shrinking pores.

Warm and fuzzy:  This little nest for newborn cargo is used as a photo prop and available for sale by Crickets Creations.  This one is called Oatmeal fringe and Cricket shows a variety of colors which can be purchased from her Etsy site.