Screen Novelties

I just discovered Screen Novelties, and they are awesome.

Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose from Screen Novelties on Vimeo.

 

The Old Man & the Goblins from Screen Novelties on Vimeo.

Polish attempt

Craft buddy Spooky Little Girl and I made nail polish a while back. It was fun, messy, and mostly a failure.

I thought I could just dump glitter into nail polish to get amazing, custom colors. It doesn’t work that way. The colors look great in the bottle, but they make fingernails look like gunk spackled on dirt. The glitter makes polish thick and unusable. After a few days, the colored glitters that were added to clear varnish turned silver. The clear polish took on the color of the glitter, but the glitter lost its color.

Making and naming them was fun

From left to right, the polish I made:

Pumpkin juice – multi-sized orange glitter in clear polish. an homage to that hideous pumpkin juice I made
Pumpkin guts – steel gray polish with orange micro glitter, and orange hex glitter
Orc – steel gray polish with flecks of olive, orange, and black glitter
Absinthe – clear polish with “tinkerbell” green, emerald, and grass green glitter
Green Apple – green polish with all the abovementioned green glitters
Nameless purple polish – the only one that looks good. violet polish with orange micro glitter

A blurry close up of my nails. Lumpy, with little evidence of glitter. But the bottle color looks great.

 
This is Orc. In my head, it was the best one. In execution, it makes me sad.

If you etsy search “indie nail polish” you can find some beautiful, creative colors. I totally thought I could easily make that. So did some of the etsy sellers – there’s some dreck for sale. Some are sincerely amazing.

Pumpkin failure, berry success

In March I started Fairytale Pumpkin seeds. So far, I have lengthy vines, lots of flowers, but no fruit set. Boohoo.

Thankfully, the berries have been incredibly productive. The two blueberry plants have given me about 2 pints of delicious berries, and the second harvest is coming in now. Check out these radioactively large berries:

 
Giant berries, dwarfing normal-sized berries

Here’s a pic from really early in the season. Strawberries, a few cherry tomatoes, blackberries, a lone boysenberry, and blueberries.

The boysenberry plant’s second set of blossoms are fading now. Hopefully the second harvest will be more prolific. I had never eaten a fresh boysenberry before – they’re delicious. I love boysenberry treats during my annual trips to Knott’s Haunt (link), but fresh are so much better. Fresh boysenberries are so fragile that the few berries that have matured have broken in my fingers as I attempted to pull them off of the prickly vines. So far they’re delicious and worth the effort.

Recovery and Reruns

For the last month, I've been recovering from surgery. That means that I've logged more time sitting on my ass than is probably healthy, even for someone recovering from surgery.

Pic from my brief post-surgery hospital stay

I watched a lot of TV, and there are few current shows that I enjoy more than Community. I had a birthday recently, and I considered getting a cake like Troy’s non-birthday birthday cake (the character is a Jehovah's Witness):

 
The cake presented to Troy on his 21st birthday

In the vein of meme-y Community, I asked the lady at the bakery to pipe a picture of my favorite food on top of my favorite food. She did a nice job.

 
An oddly angled picture of my 2012 birthday cake

The cake was moist tres leches filled with peach and strawberry and finished with the best whipped cream frosting I’ve ever had from a bakery. Possibly my favorite birthday cake ever (and birthday cake is a Really Big Deal to me).

Pumpkin strudel with pecan streusel

Recently, my ex-friend coffee and I got back together. It wasn't a painful break-up since coffee tends to have a negative impact on my life, but I did miss him when I was eating pastries. Sometimes the flavor of tea just isn't right.

When a friend shared this recipe with me, I was excited to try it for one simple reason - COFFEE. It's called a "streusel", but my Googling tells me that streusel is a topping, and strudel is a pastry. So I guess this is pumpkin strudel with pecan streusel. As is my custom, I followed few of the instructions.

The finished product

I skipped the maple brown sugar glaze and drizzled honey over the finished product instead. I wasn't looking for super-sweet cake - just something to go along with my friend coffee.

The braid in the background, the pecans on the left, and the leftover filling is center

The next thing I changed was the streusel - it's a topping. I didn't like that it went inside the braid, so I sprinkled it over the top before baking (this was a mistake. more on that below)

Close-up of the baked braid - the pecans burned a bit

As you can see, the streusel burned. I should have baked the braid for a bit before adding the topping.

There are lengthy instructions at the source, which you should follow if you decide to make this. My spices are different, and I doubled the butter for the streusel topping, but I made the dough to the letter. Maybe I rolled it too thick, or maybe I just don't like it, but I think it's the wrong type of dough for this type of pastry. It's too pie crust-y for me. The filling was okay, but the pecan streusel was delicious.

Close-up of the finished product

What I appreciated most about the recipe were the details for making the braid. It was remarkably easy and fun, and I want to try something similar again with my own, improvised ingredients and toppings. I definitely think it was a mistake to have the pecans on the outside of the braid. I would try a different pastry, roll it thinner, add more filling, and make the glaze.

The bottom line is that you should try the original recipe - I'm sure it's great! Don't be like me or else you'll end up with an enjoyable-but-disappointing, pastry/pumpkin/nut thing.

Pumpkin bacon-and-apple pasta (with cheese)

A friend recently shared this recipe for Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese with me, and a note of disbelief that anyone could like it. I said I thought it sounded delicious, and took her disgusted tone as a challenge. Game on.

When I heard the title of the recipe, I pictured apple, bacon, and cheese together. Yum! Then I pictured pasta and some pumpkiny goodness together. Yum! Then I read the recipe in full. Ew. Yes, it does sound like the proportions are all wrong to really be called "mac and cheese", and I decided my friend was absolutely right - who in their right mind would call a bowl full of squash puree "mac and cheese"?

Never mind that though, because remember? GAME ON. I must make this pasta, and I must make it taste good.

First, the recipe has some issues. In the last step - surprise! Put bacon on things. Well, where the hell does the bacon come from? Am I supposed to just have cooked bacon on hand? How can a half cup of cheese added at the end really give the dish any cheesy flavor? Here's what I came up with:

Pumpkin bacon-and-apple pasta (with cheese)

Ingredients

6 slices bacon

1 thinly sliced yellow onion

8 ounces pasta (I used fusilli)

1 cup pumpkin puree

scant 1/2 cup chicken broth (heated)

1/4 cup milk (heated)

1 ounce Pumpkin Spice Cream cheese

1 tart apple, chopped

1 generous cup freshly-shredded cheddar cheese (I used sharp)

1/4 cup freshly-shredded Parmesan cheese

Saigon cinnamon

Freshly-grated nutmeg

Paprika

Salt

Pepper

Method

-While the pasta water is coming to a boil, add the bacon to a (separate) cold pan. Turn frequently until thoroughly cooked. Crumble the bacon.

-Add thin onion slices to leftover bacon grease (about 1T, drain anything additional). Lightly season with cinnamon and salt. Stir frequently until browned. Cook pasta during this time.

-Add chicken broth, milk, pumpkin puree, cream cheese, and shredded cheeses (reserving a few bits for garnish) to pan. Stir until incorporated.

-Add cooked pasta, and mix.

-Season to taste with salt, pepper, paprika, a little cinnamon, nutmeg, then add apple and bacon.

-Warm through, then serve, garnishing with additional cheese, apple, and bacon.

Mr. O'Lantern and I both liked this dish - it's a warming Autumn meal that isn't heavy. I like the salty flavor of the bacon mixed with the juicy bits of apple in the mishmash of pumpkin flavor. It does have notes of cheese, but mostly from the Parmesan and not from the cheddar. The cheddar works primarily to add saltiness and to give the sauce some texture beyond the graininess of the pumpkin. It would definitely be smoother with butternut squash.

It's NOT macaroni and cheese - like I said before it is pumpkin bacon-and-apple pasta (with cheese). My punctuation does not exaggerate. If you want a cheesy dish, this is not for you.

Side note: Original recipe writer, I'm so sorry. I appreciate your efforts, obviously. But you lied about it being macaroni and cheese, so...you know. If you want to take shots at my work, here's a good start: my worst, only-I-like-it recipe.

Pumpkin spice treats

It seems that pumpkin treats have been growing in popularity the last few years. I'm always happy to taste anything that calls itself pumpkin (even when it's horrible). These are the pumpkin foodstuffs I've tasted lately.

See's Candies Pumpkin Spice Lollypops

This is the second year I've purchased the little gift box of lollypops, and I don't know why I keep doing it to myself. They're not good. It's a mouth full of that slightly off-tasting cinnamon flavor, with zero pumpkin flavor (hence the name pumpkin spice). But I want to like them, so I keep purchasing them. 2/5

See's Pumpkin Pie Truffles

I like the soft interior of these truffles, though they also have that strange spice taste. (What is it? Too much Cardamom? Artificial cinnamon? I hope someone with a better palate can tell me.) The chocolate outside and creaminess from the filling offset the sharp flavor and make these good overall. 3.5/5

Pumpkin Pie Fudge from my trip to Knott's Scary Farm.

This fudge pretty enjoyable. The pumpkin spice flavor is nice, but all I really taste is powdered sugar. It does have a smooth, soft texture, and the nutmeg on top is very fragrant. 3.5/5

These items are from my Foodzie delivery service.

The Avenue Sweets Pumpkin Spice Caramels are just okay. They taste somewhat like spice, but a few pieces I've eaten also taste like burned sugar. Yes, I understand that caramel is burned sugar, but this is a bitter flavor that I'm sure can't be right. The texture is wonderful though, and I'm fairly sure that I just got a few bad pieces. 2.5/5

The pumpkin seeds are from the humorously named CB's Nuts. I can't say if they're good or not because I haven't tried them yet. I anticipate that they'll taste like pumpkin seeds with a bit of sea salt.