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Halloween Pasta
I found a great site that delivers fresh pasta to your door overnight. Combine black semolina linguini with orange-colored New Mexico chile linguini to add some holiday color to your adult Halloween dinner table. Or carbo-load the kiddies with Psycho Black/Orange Pumpkin ravioli before a marathon night of trick-or-treating. Visit Freshpasta.com to try my other favorite, Psycho Reggae Rock Shrimp Ravioli. |
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Like Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin, come October I start scoping out the local supermarkets, waiting for Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale to arrive. This seasonal brew, with it's dark orange-amber color, has the subtle aroma of pumpkin pie and the flavor of allspice, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon. Pumpkin ale isn't for the conservative beer drinker but if you're looking for something tasty to serve at Halloween or Thanksgiving and you're adventurous, give it a try! |
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Nestled in the
Santa Monica Mountains is a restaurant called Saddle Peak Lodge. Reminiscent
of a wealthy man's hunting lodge and adorned with more dead animals
than you can shake a stick at, I always thought this place had the
right amount of creepiness for a Halloween party--and they've done
just that this year. While you dine on roasted pumpkin soup, "Trick
or Treat" (phyllo dough bags with a wild mushroom and shallots
filling), sauteed skate wing and wild boar (that's right!) you might
spy a few of the ghosts that lurk in the shadows. From the brochure
I recieved: "For 100 years, Saddle Peak Lodge has been a place
of enchantment...Is there really a ghostly woman with long dark hairi
who occasionally appears at Table 41 upstairs? Was mayhem once committed
by a jilted rancher in an upstairs room? What is the real origin of
the dining room's saloon paintings? These are but a few questions
that might be answered on this All Hallow's Eve. Be a part of our
history, as you see Saddle Peak's ghosts pass before your eyes."
Visit www.saddlepeaklodge.com or call (818) 222-3888 for reservations.
RECIPES
| Drinks | Brimstone |
| Romulan Ale | |
| Food | Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead) |
Brimstone
Ingredients:
1 1/2
oz Cherry brandy
1 oz Dark rum
1 oz Light rum
1/2 oz Triple sec
1/2 oz Creme de noyaux
1 1/2 oz Sour mix
1 1/2 oz Orange juice
Mixing instructions:
Shake with cracked ice
Romulan Ale
Ingredients:
1 packet
unsweetened blue raspberry lemonade Koolaid
1 cup sugar
Water
1 cup vodka
Mixing instructions:
Prepare Koolaid according to directions. Add vodka. Chill. Serve over ice in tall glasses.
Pan de Muertos
I don't remember where I copied this out from (it's been years), but here is some background on Dia de los Muertos followed by the recipe for Pan de Muertos (Bread of the Dead). Enjoy!:
"The gates between the dead and the living swing open in Mexico from October 31 through November 2. And the merrymaking of Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) is noteworthy for its blend of whimsy and the macabre. Paths of marigold petals lead to home altars. Cemetaries glow with candles. Skeletons are irreverently replicated in dangling sculptures and costumed characters [of paper mache]; skulls are made of sugar. And special foods mark this occasion, particularly the lightly spiced, mildly sweet pan de muertos (bread of the dead). Each region treats the loaf differently. Some loaves are formed into fanciful likenesses of the deceased; others are crossed with leavened "bones." In Oaxaca, sesame seed coats a round loaf that's studded with a tiny sugar or plastic skull or a brightly painted bread-dough face."
BREAD OF THE DEAD
Ingredients:
1 package
active dry yeast
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup butter or margarine, cut into small pieces
½ cup sugar
½ tsp. Salt
3 large eggs
1 T. vanilla
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. ground nutmeg
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
2 T sesame seed