Boo! I’m going to deviate from the typical spicy format to wish you Happy Halloween and autumn wishes.
This time of year never fails to leave me speechless and completely fulfilled on the natural beauty and seasonal excitement. I’ve lived in Central, Southern and Northern California. Spent a year in Grenoble, France. Now I’m in Upstate New York. It’s stunning.
Please let me share these good vibes. Here’s the stage: I’m sitting here sipping a Goose Island Harvest Ale, listening to The Suburbs and enjoying that there is a maple yogurt rosemary tart in the oven filled with butternut squash, beet greens and red onions–all from our Porter Farms Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Life is good.
Pumpkins are selected:
We couldn’t decide on a single color so we got one of each. Here’s a spiced-up roasted, pumpkin seed recipe (extra easy and extra gourmet, of course).
Autumn leaves abound:
Yes, that’s me…Ms. Spice Sherpa taking a walk on top of our local ski spot.
Pumpkin cupcakes are made:
These are made with cinnamon, ginger powder, and crystallized ginger. The frosting is cream cheese frosting and the natural brown color comes from mixing the frosting with cinnamon. The recipe came from the cookbook, Cupcakes! and we make them every year.
Time to get spooky (cue the ghostly soundtrack):
Happy Halloween!
October 31, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Happy Halloween to you as well. I am toying with what to drink tonight and a good beer is starting to sound like a great idea!
We aren’t cooking anything special today. We bagged on the party we were invited to last night (several sick kids and that is the last thing I need in my first week off of the antibiotics!) so we didn’t end up cooking at all for Halloween.
Jason
October 31, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Thank you Jason. Sometimes just listeing to the wind rattle the leaves is Halloween enough. If you’re in the mood for something totally bizarre and macabre check this out: http://bit.ly/bvEp68 Bing linked to it today. 40,000 bones from an ancient anonymous cemetary adorn a monastery. Stay healthy.
November 2, 2010 at 12:05 am
Hi Karen 🙂 I’m a little late but I hope you had a lovely Halloween.
We don’t do Halloween over here, not in the “traditional” American sense, with trick or treating and Halloween decorations – such a pity. Really, it’s mostly the adults who ‘celebrate’ it here with very adult themed parties involving scary and preferably naughty costumes with lots of alcohol to spice things up. Clubs and establishements offer entertainment in the form of Halloween themed parties, again mostly for adults. The kids are largely left out of the equation, in the commercial sense. Kids parties are arranged at home, but it’s hard to really get into the swing of things, when the idea of dressing up and going door to door, trawling for candy just cannot seem to get a foothold, here.
I’m loving that tart in the oven and yes, it certainly sounds like life, as you live it, is good 🙂
November 2, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Denise, you ought to check out the virtual pumkin carving. Simple, straight-forward fun. Someone sent it to me several years ago and I’ve saved the site. Even includes a glowing candle. But yes, in the States there are plenty of costume parties. And nearly every woman seems compelled to wear the smutty version of whatever their costume is. The sexy pirate. The sexy zombie. The sexy patrol officer. Speaking of tarts–I have no recipe to share. I made mine up as I went along and it was delic!
November 5, 2010 at 12:00 pm
I finally tried the ginger rum treasure you put out for Talking like a Pirate day in September – guess I was waiting for a cool day since it sounded like it should be a warm drink – it was perfect and maybe the best part was the ginger syrup and the resulting ginger ‘candy’ – yummm so nice with a fire and a bit of rain…..