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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Monday Menu..early Halloween Special plus more back stories







this is the temp in the shade today!




I am making an early Halloween feast for Monday Oct 29th, as usual my client's have created the menu, by placing their choices.
I love Halloween, although it is a BIG event in America, I have had some good times holding  Creepy Themed parties in other parts of the globe...

On a private estate in Surrey, England, I held an informal Halloween party, where not everyone got  into costume..so the host made them walk through the frog pond in their bare feet, with their suit pants rolled up to their knees, skirts held high..screaming like banshees, to "pay for their dinner". They came in fancy dress for the Christmas party after that!

In Ibiza, Halloween was a low key affair with the main event being Nov. 1st, (The Day of the Dead), where we had drinks with friends and then a buffet..in a Rustic, 100yr old house in the foothills, away from the main towns. With no running water nor electrical/gas supply.
It was also the night the ( Nanny) goat decided to have her kid..I spent most of the night with her owner, helping ( holding on to the goat)deliver the said kid, in a barn with the light of an oil lamp, very rustic and old worldly even though it was 1982.
I am convinced it was the Spanish brandy that stopped me from passing out during the birth ( I am pretty squeamish).

In America, I spent 3 days decorating a "Victorian" themed dining room, of a Hollywood Estate into the Crypt from Hell, much to the annoyance of the house's owner, as they wanted to know what I was doing. ( I locked the door every time I left).
The night of the dinner, I had creepy music playing over loud speakers in the house,most of the lights out and as the children got dressed and into the spirit of things, so did my boss and his future wife, surprising us all, at the last minute ....then the children began getting scared as I had fake dead rats under their chairs, eye balls in their drinks (peeled green grapes),and when they lifted their napkins, spiders 'scampered across the table'.
The night was a big success and I don't know who was more scared, the children or the adults....it took a week to clean the table ( this was one of 3 dining rooms in the house and was mainly used for entertaining as it could seat 30, comfortably) of all the fake webbing and critters.,,plus there was candy hidden all over the house, that was a few years ago, and I know not every piece was claimed.

In England as a child, we did not have pumpkins to carve, so we used very large rutabegas and carried them tied with string, the smell of burning turnip lingers with me to this day...we wore masks and did our best to scare everyone we met.
I don't think we played trick or treat, it was more like trick, with  our "Jack o'Lanterns" and it was always a  really cold night...right now the day time temp is 93F in the shade!


The Halloween Menu:

Blood & Maggots.. Tomato soup with brown rice

Green pond life... Zucchini based vegetable soup finished with fresh pesto

Frog's legs & slime..okra spicy gumbo


Loose eyeballs with Abnormal sauce...
whole wheat gnocchi with a la Norma  ( eggplants ( they are still on plants outside), tomatoes, and garlic)

Crypt kickers..collard greens sauteed with mushrooms and garlic

Mortician Special... carrots, zucchini & broccoli stir fry with flax seed

Cold revenge..Panzanella with own made bread, tomatoes, garlic, basil and red onion


Screaming witch pie...pumpkin pie with a caramel walnut, glazed crust

Goblin Gobble with grubs..coconut custard pie, this is made with young coconut.

The following pictures are my neighborhood..yes this is how people decorate their homes for Halloween, some go to town and it is fantasticly scary at night..enjoy















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