The End of an Era

For nearly twenty years, we have been a trick or treating household. On Halloween, Kev would roam the neighborhood with the kids, and I would stay at home to hand out candy to the children that came to our door. As an 11-year-old sixth grader, tonight was Malia’s last time participating in the annual beg for candy. She made arrangements with her friends to gather and trick or treat together sans parents, so Kevin didn’t even need to accompany her. It was yet another reminder that our family is growing up.

Malia also bucked tradition and had two different Halloween costumes. I think the last time that happened was the year I planned for Matthew to wear the monkey costume, but he definitely had different ideas and after a serious dead monkey moment, he ended up wearing the fire fighter costume instead. Anyway, Malia has been planning her “cereal box killer” costume for months, but Kevin and I had concerns about whether or not she would be allowed to parade that costume at school, so she saved that one just for trick or treating. For school, she was so pleased with the headpiece she got at the Halloween party her friend had a couple of weeks ago that she decided she wanted an old-fashioned dress to go with it. We had just barely enough time to have one delivered from Amazon, and she was mighty pleased with the end result.

 Despite growing children, Halloween dinner was still loads of fun. Witch’s Brew Stew (aka. chicken and mushroom soup) chock full of skulls and pumpkins in a pumpkin shaped bread bowl. Ghostly jicama and cucumber skulls. And brain jello, of course. It was eerily delicious. Since only Malia had a truckload of candy in her future, we had one last spooky treat as well. A bit of food coloring made caramel popcorn into zombie boogers. It was gooey, sticky, and delicious. And of course, Malia ate some anyway, once she was done roaming the night. (And yes, about half of us eat caramel popcorn with chopsticks. Keeps the phalanges from getting sticky.)

From here on out, Halloween is going to be a much more low-key holiday. I still plan to do fun food since it is so much fun, but there are no more Halloween parades, no more class parties, no more trick or treaters. And I think I’m ok with that. We’ll see how I feel when next year rolls around.

It Was Slow Going

We are a waffle eating family. With Matthew’s need to eat waffles made with eggs on a regular basis, they have become a weekend staple. Waffles are not as versatile as pancakes when it comes to fun food, but on occasion I have found a creative way to make waffles fit whatever theme I’m working on. Over the past few years, I’ve had my eyes on some cute, themed waffle irons, the mini ones that are all the rage of late. Earlier this fall I happened upon a box set of two Halloween themed irons and decided it was time to give them a try. 

This morning we ate pumpkin waffles shaped like pumpkins and apple butter waffles in the shape of tiny skulls. With the ever-appropriate black cinnamon syrup as accompaniment, they were tasty little bites of Halloween themed fun. Having said that, it obviously took a lot longer to cook enough to feed five of us. Waffles are usually pretty quick around here because we have two family sized waffles irons, but the two itty bitties simply aren’t able to crank out waffles in as large a quantity as the bigger appliances. But they were definitely fun! In future, I would probably make the waffles earlier and keep them warm in the oven, maybe even make them in advance and reheat them in the oven. That way breakfast won’t still be cooking at lunch time. 😜

Bloody Good

(Yes, I’m aware that my title is a British cuss. Once the title occurred to me, I couldn’t think of anything else, so I went with it. 😂)

With so many seasonally themed treats on the menu this month, I turned to a slightly healthier option and one of my all-time favorite fun food mediums-the pancake. This is probably one of the easiest themed pancakes I’ve ever created, yet it was still highly entertaining and incredibly tasty. One of my favorite pancake recipes paired with some well strained strawberry syrup and a steak knife and breakfast was served. 

My originally blood syrup was a bit on the thin side and lighter in color than I wanted, but a quick reworking to add just a touch of cornstarch to increase viscosity and a drop or two of red food coloring made the effect quite a bit more striking. 

Over the years my kiddos have come to expect some random things from me. In addition, they know that I will have a need to take pictures of the edible art I enjoy creating. And I love that Malia is always good for a maniacal face.

PB and Spiders

It’s story time. 

Once upon a time, when I was a teenager, I was blessed to have a solid group of friends. Although I didn’t realize what a blessing it was until many years later, these kids were reliable and trustworthy, a true boon in my young life. I spent pretty much every waking hour outside of Sundays and family obligations with some permutation of this friend group. On the weekends, we would rotate through different houses for unplanned parties, throwing local parks into the mix when the weather permitted. We were also big fans of the dollar theater at the mall where we saw a variety of flicks on Friday or Saturday nights.

One evening I went to a movie with my friends. I trusted these kids and knew they had the same standards I did. As such, it never occurred to me to ask what movie we were seeing. The time spent with them was the main point, after all, and the actual movie was of little importance in the grand scheme of things. However, that is one time that I should have asked, because the movie we saw was “Arachnophobia.” Although there wasn’t really anything inappropriate about that film, there were emotional ramifications that came along with that viewing that exist to this day.

You would think that a person who had grown up in a partially finished basement bedroom populated with a plethora of creepy crawlies of all kinds would not be bothered by a movie about spiders. I’d been happily squishing them for most of my life after all. Even the ones that were the size of a small dog were no biggie. They simply required a heavier weapon. But there is this one scene where a spider crawls into a guy’s ear and then nastiness ensues. And that was where this became an emotionally scarring event. My viewing of the original “Wrath of Khan” as a young child had given me a serious ick factor where things crawling into my ears was concerned and that full body shudder in the making was firmly cemented by “Arachnophobia.”

Now to switch gears completely…

Everyone knows that chocolate and peanut butter are a beautiful flavor combination. However, it is a lethal combination at my house. It will literally kill 50% of my children and while it won’t kill me, it will definitely make me unhappy after the fact. As such, it is not a thing around here. Kevin, Daniel and Nathan will get their pb & choc fix away from home and that is about as far as it goes. 

I’ve been using almond butter and sunflower seed butter as substitutes in baking for years, but any fun food ideas that made use of peanut butter cups were automatically off the list. Then a few years ago, to my delight, I discovered a sun butter chocolate cup that not only mimicked the shape of the original peanut butter cups but tasted remarkably similar. And perhaps an even bigger win was the fact that Matthew loved them. I could only find the normal sized ones locally which meant any mini cup treats were still not an option, but earlier this year I finally found a natural grocer that carries the mini ones as well. And my fun food mind started rolling!

This evening’s treat was a landmark event for several reasons. First of all, mini peanut butter cups were a key element, one for which we were able to use the newly acquired mini sunbutter cups. Second, the cookie base was a peanut butter cookie which we were able to create using almond butter. And finally, the Halloweeny element was the creation of an army of spiders. And despite my aversion to most spiders, these ones turned out so cute! Even the slightly deformed ones. Because there are a few. There was a learning curve associated with creating these little creepers and some of them ended up looking like they had been stepped on. There are a couple that haver really short legs, especially on one side or the other. I even ended up with one three-eyed spider. I was opening a new package of candy eyes and the package was not being very cooperative. When it finally opened, eyes flew everywhere. One landed in exactly the right place to make that triple eyed arachnid and the chocolate was still melty enough that it stuck. I didn’t move it at all. It was completely accidental, but fun!

My family consumed these sweet arachnids with wild abandon. They report that both dark and milk chocolate sunbutter cups were tasty, and I loved the mild white chocolate flavor with the almond butter cookies. We are also all in agreement that the cookies were delicious, even without the tasty toppings. The recipe will definitely be added to our cookbook. And eating them didn’t even give me the heebie jeebies. So that’s a win all the way around.  

And just by way of being completely honest, I still have spider issues. But nowadays I just suck them up with the vacuum. Problem solved.

Treats Tartare

Most of the time my Halloween cuisine tends to be more on the whimsical side. But occasionally something makes me laugh and I lean a bit more towards the gruesome. Today was one of those days. I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew I had to give it a try. It used the ever-flexible king of fun food, the Rice Krispy treat, which made for a super simple treat. But the magic came in the packaging. I made them while the kids were all away at school and work and left them sitting on the kitchen counter to see what would happen. 

What happened was all three of my children who are currently living at home, saw them and their first thought was, “Why is there a bunch of meat on the counter?” Because they all know that meat shouldn’t be sitting out on the counter, and it is very unlike me to do something like that. Upon closer inspection, they all spotted the ruse and were appropriately amused. So amused, in fact, that we will be making several more big batches of raw meat Rice Krispie treats for them to share on Halloween! 

Eating them was fun too, as we got to pretend that we are wild carnivores who like to eat freshly butchered meat with our hands. That is one of the great things about fun food. It is fun on so many levels-it is fun to make, fun to look at, and fun to eat!

A Grand Start to Band

This evening was Matthew’s fall band concert. He was equal parts excited and nervous. This is his first official concert at the high school and as he is first trumpet as a sophomore, I think sometimes he feels like he needs to prove that he deserves that spot. He also had a big solo for one of the pieces, one that he has been working on for months. So having some nerves was to be expected. The theme of the concert was video game music, a super fun theme in my opinion, and the solo given to Matthew was from the game “Medal of Honor.” The band director wanted Matthew to play his solo from off stage for the ethereal effect, so he was hidden up in one of the openings for lighting on the side of the auditorium. And let me tell you, he did a spectacular job. Seriously. It was A-MAZ-ING!

I could not be prouder of how well Matthew has done. He started off with a good portion of natural talent, but he has been a dedicated band member and has really given it his all. This is the current band director’s first year at our high school. The previous director resigned and changed fields completely in order to meet the needs of his family. Matthew was really looking forward to working with the previous teacher and was devastated when he quit. Seriously, he was crushed to the point where he was going to do band this year because he had already committed to do so, and then decide whether he was going to continue in band or give it up. I didn’t want him to give up something that brings him such joy just because of a change in directors, but I didn’t say anything at the time hoping that by the time this school year ended he would have a rosier view. 

Well, Matthew’s view is definitely rosy. The new director has been amazing so far. He has already developed a good relationship with the kids and Matthew has been loving band. His first love is still jazz band, but he has really been enjoying his first marching band season as well. Matthew is so excited about many of the things that are planned for this year, and I’m glad he has jumped into high school with both feet. I hope the next three years will be filled with amazing experiences. 

And as a side note, Matthew was taking pictures in his hidden solo location before the concert started. He has a really good eye and took some amazing shots. All my kids have inherited the tendency to be shutterbugs from Kevin and with how good the cameras in cell phones have gotten, they always have access to a camera when the bug bites them. So Matthew’s little homage to his music was fun to see.

Hallo-tween Gathering

Now that she is a mighty 6th grader, Malia and her group of friends have been gathering outside of school hours more frequently. One of her crew hosted a little Halloween party this evening and Malia had a marvelous time. There were no games, no planned activities other than pulling a simple costume item out of a box and wearing it to honor the occasion. Malia said it was one of the most fun parties she has attended. These tweens have officially reached the “hanging out” phase and pizza, goodies and some grand conversation was all that is needed for a great party.

The host’s mom made some fantastic chocolate skulls, filling each with red sugar and an assortment of Halloween sweets. When she called to check with me about allergens and such, I imagined small skulls. But that is not what she had in mind. The white chocolate skull Malia brought home was nearly the size of Malia’s actual skull. Fun, right?! 

I suspect there are many more of these casual gatherings on the horizon. I remember finding great joy in the casual gatherings that I attended on a regular basis when I was a teenager, and I hope that Malia finds herself part of a similarly solid friend group. Having a supportive posse can make all the difference in these tween/teen years.

Pretty Little Pumpkins

Often, I get my inspiration for fun food from the internet. Once in a while, I come up with clever ideas all on my own. And sometimes my inspiration is a combination of the two. Today’s edible ode to autumn was an idea sparked by an image I saw of a cupcake decorated to look like a pumpkin. My thought process was, “Mmm…I’ll bet I could make a pumpkin cookie that looks like a pumpkin…” And thus, an idea was born. 

I used the pumpkin cookie recipe we already love and used a toothpick to create the grooves in the pumpkin prior to baking. The cooled cookies were sandwiched with a bit of tinted cream cheese frosting and details added with some pretzel sticks and a bit of fancy piping. The leaves were my favorite. So easy with a frosting tip and so cute!

The house smelled delicious all morning, like cinnamon and pumpkin. I made Kevin and Nathan, who were home for the baking and basked in the aroma, wait all day to sample our goodies. And when the time came to consume my art, none of us were disappointed. They were delightful. And fun food is always so much fun to eat! The only thing I would do differently next time would be to decrease the amount of frosting used to sandwich the cookies. It was a bit too much for our tastes and made them too sweet. But other than that, these little cuties were a complete success!