Coming Up Next

Over the next couple of days, all of my Halloween scheming will come to fruition; cookie-baking, pumpkin-carving, and costume wearing... Yay! Check back later for a photo journal of sorts for Halloween 2009.

Another Hand-y Halloween Recipe

Perhaps more of us should consider adding a sit-down dinner to our Halloween celebration traditions. Because clearly there is a plethora of ghoulish recipes just waiting for their debut on someone's table.

After posting the Witches Fingers recipe, a reader was reminded of something she had seen before called 'Meatloaf Hand.' I checked this out for myself and though gruesome, it deserves to be shared! I for one think it's (for lack of a better descriptor) super-fun and if I had the right supplies and was not going to a party with young kiddies, I would really enjoy showing up at the front door with this dish. 

(What follows is both brilliant AND horrifying so proceed with caution. :) )

Meatloaf Hand

(found at notmartha.org)

From what I understand, this was made using a typical meatloaf recipe, so the tricks are in the presentation. For fingernails and wrist bone, onion. For a bloody, charred appearance, ketchup and cheese. For the shape, a hand-shaped jello mold although someone more talented than me could probably free-hand it if you don't have a mold. Also, the hand is surrounded by mash potatoes (or brain matter if you prefer) to help define the overall shape.

Really though, you have to check out notmartha.org for more tips and tricks. I just know that there are other fun-seeking, Halloween-celebrating folks like me out there so if you end up serving this at your own table on Halloween, please send pictures! 

And a BIG thank you to Lili for introducing me to 'Meat Loaf Hand'! I'm glad that you shared!

 

Tricks and Treats

'It's almost partytime, but what to bring?!' I thought to myself during the morning commute. Scrolling through my memory bank, I had only to think back to the days of school parties where we would feast on delicious, sugary, homemade holiday-themed treats. Because I will be at a family party on Halloween Eve, I plan to take my cues from much beloved elementary school room moms. Here are recipes for 2 ghoulish treats, 1 of which will surely make an appearance at this much anticipated party...

Witches Fingers
(find more tips and tricks at allrecipes.com &/or via Google search)

Ingredients:

• Store bought sugar cookie dough OR favorite sugar cookie recipe
  
• 1/2 c. flour (if using store bought sugar cookie dough)


• Slivered OR whole almonds


• red jam OR red decorating gel


• Wax paper


• Green food dye (opt.)


• Chocolate chips (opt.)

Directions:

- Preheat oven based on recipe/instructions on package.

- If using store bought sugar cookie dough, add 1/2 cup flour and need into dough (adding flour makes for a firmer cookie). Can also add green food dye for green fingers.

- Refrigerate dough-flour mixture for 20 minutes or until firm and able to hold a shape.

- Remove dough from refrigerator in small amounts. Scoop 1 heaping teaspoon at a time onto a piece of waxed paper. Use the waxed paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-shaped cookie. (The cookies may enlarge when baked so don't make them too round.) Press one almond into one end of each cookie to give the appearance of a long fingernail. Squeeze cookie near the tip and again near the center of each to give the impression of knuckles. You can also score the dough with a sharp knife at the same points to create knuckles on the fingers. Arrange the shaped cookies on the baking sheets.

- Bake in preheated oven according to recipe OR instructions OR until lightly golden brown.

- Remove the almond from the end of each cookie; squeeze a small amount of red decorating gel OR red jam into the cavity; replace the almond to cause the gel to ooze out around the tip of the cookie.

- Before cooling, you can also add a chocolate chip to each finger to give the appearance of warts.

Halloween Popcorn Hand

Ingredients:

• Clear, plastic food service gloves
• Candy corn
• Popcorn, any flavor
• Plastic halloween rings
• Twist tie OR ribbon

Directions:

- Take 1 plastic glove and put 1 candy corn in the tip of each glove for fingernails.

- Fill the glove with popcorn, leaving room at the wrist. Tie the wrists with twist tie OR ribbon.

- Put plastic Halloween ring on 1 of the fingers.

Halloween Humor: Zombies are Nuts

Thanks to dear Abby for telling me about Bent Objects! Everyday objects injected with a little personality?! Sign me up! So in the spirit of Halloween with a little help from Terry's Bent Objects, another holiday tribute...

Zombies Are Nuts About Brains

Now you see why I can't stop looking at Bent Objects! I never met a zombie-movie that I liked, but maybe if the zombies were cranky-looking peanuts modeled by Terry, I would change my tune.

There's more where this came from, so check it out at http://bentobjects.blogspot.com/ and Happy Howl-oween!

Smashing Pumpkins

During a little date-night dinner at the Cheesecake Factory I see it. While treating myself to a Scooter's latte I see it. In the aisle of the grocery store, I see it. Pumpkin-flavored everything!! Just one more thing to love about the fall. With just one more week until Halloween I plan to be showing my love for Pumpkins a lot more... and I can't wait!

Perhaps you're planning to carve some pumpkins of your own, in which case I found some share-worthy tips. A good carving-pumpkin will have the following qualities:

• firm and healthy - don't buy one that as firm as wood because carving it will be tough, but just firm enough to be protective. Also, avoid pumpkins with bruises or nicks because it may already start to rot and is not long for this world.
• hollow sound - this is what you should hear when tapping your pumpkin because the sound you hear will indicate the pumpkin's density. The more dense, the thicker the walls will be and the tougher it will be to see the details of your carving.
• squat, round shape - the tall, oblong ones are usually stringier inside, thus making it harder to make precise cuts.

I'm not sure if I have the patience to carefully search for the 'right' pumpkin because all I'm thinking about is cutting into it! You can basically carve anything you can think of and whatever support you need can be located on the world wide web. For me, I've narrowed the field to a few designs:

1. Skull
2. Witch
   
   
3. Monogram
4. Traditional Jack 'O' Lantern face

As much as I would love to carve 4 different pumpkins, I think I'm gonna need help to narrow it down... so what would you suggest?

If you want more ideas for carving your own pumpkin, I suggest visiting The Pumpkin Lady. You can buy the exact pattern to carve on your pumpkin or you can do what I'll do and free-hand it.

Vacationland

Before 're-decorating' my blog, I left off with a post about preparing for a long, long road trip. Well let me tell you that driving was an adventure in itself, but Maine was well worth the effort! 24 hours into the road trip with still another three to go, I didn't know if I would end up praising Maine... but now I know that I can! It was b-e-a-utiful! Beautiful or not, it just so happens that you can't beat a well-deserved vacation. Traveling can be a great forum for finding new things to get into. Below are five things that I know I could get into as a result of this trip:

1. Driving - Okay, I'm just kidding with this one. Driving 27 hours to and from Maine was not appealing then and still isn't now but the bright side is knowing that we actually did it. Me and my driving buddy traded off and drove straight through without stopping. Go us!

View from the passenger seat. Doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.



2. Making snacks - Cooking is pretty fun though I don't always feel like doing it. For me, choosing a new recipe for simple snacks like Granola, Chicken Strips, and Muffins can be somewhat exciting and the simplest way to bring along the comforts of home.


Home-made maple cinnamon granola which I ate by the handful. Mmmm!

3. Fall foliage - Is it just me or do fall leaves look more vibrant in New England? I'm convinced that I don't see the same colors at home in Nebraska, but then again everything looks better on vacation. Can I get a Mythbusters ruling on this one?

At our hosts' house, a panoramic view from the back porch. Again, I wish you could see this in full-size or even in real life. Or you can look for it in the dictionary next to the word 'tranquility.' :)




4. Antiques - I don't own a lot of my own furniture and I have yet to buy a home, but walking through a Bangor antique store really got me thinking, why not an arts and crafts movement armoir for the bedroom, a mid-century modern kitchen table, or an English oak chest for a coffee table in the family room? So much character! Antique shopping is not just for grandma anymore.




5. Bargain-shopping - I always love a good bargain, but to learn where to find them can take a little work. Imagine my sheer delight to have been introduced to Marden's Surplus and Salvage. There are 14 locations across Maine but nowhere else. I wouldn't have found it without some very special guides, so thank goodness for them. There is truly not quite like the thrill of a good bargain.

I found this pair of chairs at Marden's for $70 a piece. I know, right?! Anyplace else these would probably cost twice as much. (If only I had a bigger trunk... and a house to put them in.)

So, you can tell that our visit to Maine was adventurous and productive! Too many scholars have telling things to say about travel. For St. Augustine, "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." Or how about Mark Twain, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."Also Robert Louis Stevenson, "There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." I can verify that each one of these is very true and it only took a little over 3,200 miles to remember it.

On the New Look

I am still relatively new to the blogger scene, but have quickly realized how much blogging can teach me about myself. I am no stranger to the world of social-networking but for me, Facebook exists in a whole different realm than does blogging. I can easily post pictures, post a comment to someone's wall, and send a piece of flair, but I asked myself, what could I write about every week that others would find interesting enough to read? I often see blogs about being a parent, cooking, weddings, but I know little to nothing about any of these topics. Through research I learned that the answer to this question is writing about what you are obssessed with, i.e. something you care enough about to think of or do everyday. I thought this was a good guideline since the passion and enthusiasm that accompanies obssession can easily gain interest from others. But for me, I couldn't name just one obsession. Sure I listen to and think about NPR a lot, but that's because of the multiplicity of ideas and experiences that I can hear about while driving to and from work. So then I thought, 'Well then it's stories. I must be obssessed with the stories!' From this thought was born the theme of my former blog, the Story Boutique. I then began posting the stories that I thought were interesting in hopes that a least one other person would also find it interesting. But then I found myself posting recipes and my own thoughts and other things besides stories that I thought were interesting and then trying to link them to a story in order to stay consistent with the theme. Because I so wanted to post more than just stories, I decided to change the overall theme of my blog to the one you see now. If there is one thing that blogging can teach, it is that anybody can be a narcissist. So this is me, embracing the narcissist inside and hoping that whatever I might say could eventually prove useful, entertaining, or worthwhile to someone else. But so as not to forget about my inner-narcissist for too long I also hope to learn more about... you guessed it... me! But seriously, there are so many things that I can think of to post that I feel the best thing to do is broaden the boundaries of my blog. Perhaps, someday as I grow up and move further along the journey of life, I will be able to pinpoint just 1 obssession. But until then, I hope you enjoy my further attempts at blogging and that eventually you will love me and my posts just as much as I do. :)

Enjoy!