Halloween season begins

Starting with bad news: The manager of a grocery store told me that he heard there would be a shortage of Monster Cereals this year. I hope he's wrong - fingers crossed!

Good news: Disneyland's Halloween Time started last week. I visited the Haunted Mansion and I LOVE the gingerbread house this year. The gingerbread house actually opens and closes his mouth like a hungry monster - he even has a colorful tongue inside.

Pumpkin Donald welcomes you into the park

The French Market restaurant (across the plaza from the Haunted Mansion) has a special seasonal entree right now - a muffaletta sandwich served in a Jack Skellington coffin! It was tasty and it comes with a side of chips. I like this better than the trinket/ornament giveaways that require 13 visits to the park to collect the set. I'd rather just have a coffin lunchbox! We skipped dessert, though they looked very nice this year.

The coffin has a twisted vine handle, and a little surprise built into the bottom. You have to take the sandwich and paper out to see it.

No, I won't tell you what it is!

Target had some good Halloween stuff out - I got a silver skull candle that claims it will bleed red wax out the eye sockets. Exciting!

As far as home entertainment, I've already scared the crap out of myself with The Exorcist 3 and Fire in the Sky. I downloaded the entire works of Edgar Allen Poe to my e-reader. Yes, I have it in book form, but it's so heavy and cumbersome to read from. E-readers FTW.

Next up: Haunts at Universal Studios and Knott's both open soon. There's a new haunt this year in Newport Harbor - Ghost Ship. My favorite theater The Maverick is adding Frankenstein Has No Legs to its weird repertoire (puppets and Frankenstein? GET OUT OF MY DREAMS AND INTO MY CAR). Stages OC is touting DRAGULA - drag queens and Dracula (yes, please). And the beautiful El Capitan theater is showing the Nightmare Before Christmas in 4D meaning they'll have weather effects to go along with the plot of the movie. I think of NBC as a Christmas movie and not a Halloween movie, but I hope I'll find time to go see it.

First day of Autumn

I'm still looking for Eggo's seasonal Pumpkin Spice Waffles. Even though I just got a fancy-shmancy waffle "baker", I can't resist immediate waffle gratification.

My local grocery store has both pie pumpkins and carving pumpkins out for display as of this afternoon, as well as discounts on pie-making accessories like jars of pumpkin spice and frozen pie crusts.

Here's my first pumpkin baking of the season - mini tiered Halloween cake! It's just a doctored-up box mix with lots of spices, pumpkin puree, and a package of vanilla pudding.

COST PLUS!!!

Tonight, the Mister and I went to Cost Plus for our quarterly Cost Plus snackie run, and to see if I could find Pumpkin Spice syrup. Disappointed by the lack of Pumpkin Torani syrups, I consoled myself with an entire cart filled to the brim with foreign/gourmet soda, chocolate, cookies, sauces, noodles, and general food stuffs.

On the way to pay, I spotted the Autumn display. Because I knew I already had $100+ in my cart, I had to be very selective about my pumpkin purchasing, so I didn't get the gourmet frosted cookies, pumpkin bark, or ceramic pumpkin shaped soup tureen, but I did get my precious when it comes to pumpkin snacks:

I bought two bags of Pumpkin Crunch. No, I won't share.

PUMPKIN CRUNCH POPCORN and Pumpkin Pie Torani Syrup (sugar free).

I am a little disappointed that the Pumpkin Pie syrup is made with Splenda and not cane sugar like the other syrups, but I couldn't leave without it.

As for the Pumpkin Crunch, if you've never had it, you have to try it despite the $7 price tag (seems high for a bag of popcorn; it's worth it). It's spiced caramel corn with chocolate covered almonds, and then there are orange-colored white chocolate-covered popcorn. The orange pieces have a strong pumpkin spice flavor to them.

The point, lone reader, is that I wanted the Pumpkin Pie syrup to make soda with my new SodaStream. I don't have a picture of it because it's an ugly drink. I can live with the Splenda taste, but I feel that if they're going to use an artificial sweetener they might as well throw some orange coloring in to make it prettier. It's a very light honey color, so mixed with milk and soda, it's a fug drink.

Pumpkin Pie Italian Cream Soda

1 oz Pumpkin Pie syrup

2-3 oz whole milk or half-and-half

4-6 oz very fizzy soda water

Mix, drink

It's delicious. If you like cream soda, I would describe it as a cream soda with pumpkin spices. Obviously, it's my favorite new thing on earth.

If you build your drink correctly, the milk, syrup, and soda will settle into beautiful layers. With the light color of the Pumpkin Pie syrup, it doesn't matter.

Savory Waffles

Breaking in the new waffle baker with these totally easy/lazy savory waffles.

Savory Waffles with Cheddar Cheese

Adapted from Bisquick waffle recipe
Makes 3 enormous waffles

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup bisquick
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbs sugar
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 ea egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt

2 ea egg whites

1/2 tsp ground pepper

2 Tbs dried onion flakes

1/2 c freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Method

Pre-heat waffle baker

Mix the first six ingredients

Fold in the pepper, onion flakes, and cheese

In separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form

Gently fold egg whites into Bisquick mix

Pour 3/4-1 c mix into hot waffle baker

Cook until steam slows down - about 5 1/2 minutes

Eat

I am not good at plating food.

Here's how I served my savory waffles - with simple herbed and grilled chicken and steamed broccoli.

I slathered a hell of a lot of butter on my waffle half because that's how I like it. These were baked for too long - the outside was too dry and crispy. But the inside was fluffy and flavorful. The onion, pepper, and cheese made for a salty and rich biscuit flavor.

Here's the inside. You can see the yellow spots where the cheese melted into the batter.

General spooky-time update

August - one step closer to Halloween time!



It's still just rumor, but rumor has it that a Munsters re-boot with a dark origin story is being pitched to NBC.







The truth comes out about Frank Darabont's exit from The Walking Dead. They claim it was budget issues what done them in.



The Addams Family musical is coming to SoCal. It'll be at the Pantages June 5-17. Despite my love for all things Addams and musical, I think the show looks like absolute normie dreck. Having said that, I'll probably still go. What can I say, I enjoy punishment.



Thankfully the Maverick Theater will satisfy my need for spooky theater with Frankenstein Has No Legs. I saw Hamlet Has No Legs from the All Puppet Players and it was really funny. They're fundraising if you've got some extra cash.



Lastly, have you given any thought to your Halloween costume this year? I'm strongly considering "murderous bride"...mostly because I know where I can get an unwanted wedding gown for free, and because I looove dumping blood on things. And carrying a weapon sounds fun. As usual, I have no idea where I'll GO on Halloween, but I'm sure it will involve a costume.

Current obsession: spiced watermelon

Last summer, I had regular access to a Mexican fruit cart. On a daily basis, I got an enormous bag of chopped fruit doused in lime juice and chili pepper. My favorite was a combination of watermelon, mango, cantaloupe, pineapple, honeydew, cucumber, and jicama.

I'm missing the fruit cart these days, but I'm too lazy to buy, wash, and chop all that fruit, so I'm making do with the watermelon only.

Laziness alert: mobile phone picture

It's super easy. Wash and cut the watermelon into slices, squeeze lime over the top, and then sprinkle chili powder to taste. Eat. Repeat.

July-aholic

I loooove pumpkins and Halloween, but July and the BBQing festivities are a close second in my heart. Here's what I made for July 4th.

White Sangria

I was only recently introduced to Sangria by a friend of mine, and now I'm hooked! Here was my no-recipe white sangria.

White Sangria

1 bottle white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)

1 each orange, lemon, lime, de-seeded and sliced into rounds

5-6 fresh strawberries washed, hulled, and split

1-2 oz lychee vodka

2 cans Hansen's Mandarin Lime soda

Combine the citrus, vodka, and wine. Let sit overnight. Just before serving, add the soda and strawberries. Serve. Drink.

It was a bit sweet, but I like sweet, so that was okay with me.

My dessert contribution for July 4th was an American staple - Oreos.

Homemade Oreo cookies gussied up to all 'Merican. I didn't change the ingredients one bit, but I did roll the dough in my hands before putting it on the cookie sheet. Observe:

Left: rolled into a ball and set on the sheet Right: dropped and flattened (per the directions)

I like the way the rolled cookies look better - the smooth top seems more Oreo-like.

It was totally gratuitous, but a little melted white chocolate, some blue nonpareils, and a happy red heart - they were all ready for a party!

I hope to post more soon. I got a SodaSteam and it's rocking my flip-flops right now with this heat. I've made a few soda syrups, but nothing worth sharing yet. I'm also gearing up for - what else? - pumpkin dinner! I've got lots of ideas so far. Like pumpkin brownies, pumpkin gelatin (but I already made pumpkin panna cotta once)...basically I never like to repeat myself.