Little Dinner Party of Horror 2: Pumpkin Pie Edition

Halloween is a special time for my little blog as this is our first anniversary! Last October I bit off more than I usually feel like chewing with the creation of this blog, so far the result has kinda been worth the effort. On this final night of Halloween, I'm fork deep in pumpkin pie and jamming out to the Pandora Halloween Party station, accompanied by my cats and my second Jack O' Lantern of the season. To my loyal reader(s), I dedicate this recipe! Thanks for loving food-related holiday traditions as much as me. 

Julianne Moore Pumpkin Pie!

Unless you've been buried under the rubble of what used to be your seaside home, you know that a giant storm has practically washed away the east coast. All this New York talk makes me crave the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. After seeing City Bakery on Sex and the City nearly a decade ago, I finally got the chance to try this little Chelsea gem a few autumns back. As I sat stuffing my face with $5 worth of pumpkin pie, I saw Julianne Moore enter, get harassed and promptly exit. Yes, the real Julianne, not just an approximation for the sake of this story. Anysnootch, after sufficiently falling in love with this pie, I looked for the recipe and low-and-behold; the chef published his recipe in the L.A. Times a few years ago. As a lazy person, I simplified some of the ingredients since I had a graham cracker pie crust from last Christmas in my baking cabinet. 

You will need the following: 

1 15oz can pumpkin puree

1/3 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1 c heavy cream

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1/3 c honey

1 tbsp corn starch

2.5 tsp pie spice 

pinch of salt

1 graham cracker pie crust

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients with a wooden spoon. 

Step 2: Bake 30 minutes or until edges darken. Middle should stay soft. Allow to cool and then chill for several hours. Keep refrigerated. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Caramel Popcorn Ball Party Favors

Popcorn Balls!

I love seasonal balls. I had a party over the weekend and I knew I really wanted to make these balls, I gave them out as take-home party favors. If I have a bunch of these around, I'll eat them all and rip out my dental work in the process. During the fall, my family used to trek out to a little farm every weekend to load up on these old-fashioned treats. Little did I know how easy they are to make! I prefer this Kraft caramel cube recipe because it's a classic and because it doesn't turn your popcorn into Cracker Jack. It's less of a glaze and more of a dense, chewy caramel. Also, making caramel is sort of an annoying step. Instead, assign the unwrapping of caramel cubes to someone with busy hands. This is a fun recipe to do in a group. *Don't lazy bones it and use microwave popcorn, it does not taste the same! 

You will need the following

1 bag caramel cubes

1/2 c popcorn = 2 quarts popped

olive oil 

sea salt

2 tbsp water

some butter (for your hands)

razor blades (optional)

Step 1: Make popcorn, season only with salt. While popcorn cools, melt caramel over low heat with water until creamy and smooth.

Step 2: Arrange a work area first, once caramel is liquidy, you have a short time before it starts to harden again. 

Step 3: Pour caramel over popcorn and mix thoroughly, the idea is that every kernel gets a little caramel. 

Step 4: Use butter like a bar of soap and get your hands all greasy. Scoop popcorn out in handfuls and form into balls. Chill in fridge for a few minutes when finished. 

Wrap and distribute, great for Trick-or-Treaters..

And yet, there's still more fun Halloween stuff coming up!

A Little Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Simple Pumpkin Bread

I'm pretty sure my mom has at least one loaf of pumpkin bread in her freezer at any given time. This is her recipe and it has always been an autumnal staple around our house, to the point that I actually became sick of it for awhile.  It's as simple as it is cheap, my mom is the least pretentious cook I've ever met, if it's more than five ingredients and takes longer than 30 minutes to make, I can guarantee she isn't interested. This recipe will make two loaves, and you're probably going to eat one of them by yourself (I bet) though for the sake of your figure, give one away. 

You will need the following:

1 c pureed pumpkin

4 eggs

3 c flour

3 c sugar

1 c vegetable oil

2/3 c water

2 tsp pie spice

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350. Flour two loaf pans, or line muffin tin with baking cups. 

Step 2: Mix everything together in a stock pot. 

Step 3: Stir pot over low heat just until bubbly. 

Step 4: Fill loaf pans half-way with batter and bake for 45 minutes. Test by sticking a toothpick into bread. If it comes back clean, bread is done. 

Serve with salty butter or pumpkin butter

A Little Candling Party

Licorice Scented Candles

The movie Hocus-Pocus has always made me want a black Halloween candle, and since I'm a secondary virgin, I hope that after I light this one that Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker will come visit me. Together we can suck the lives from the children of Salem, or at the very least boil them down into a highly effective wrinkle-reducing face cream. For years I've hunted for Black Licorice scented candles, and I've only found one, in November, on clearance (a day late and dollar short, so to speak). My mom had a black licorice candle that she only brought out around Halloween, and that thing lasted for years. As a kid I used to think it was the nastiest smelling candle ever, as it was very strong. Recently my mom admitted that she often burned it at night, after we had gone to bed, to mask the smell of pot. 

You will need the following: 

festive jars

1.5 lbs candle wax

wicks

anise essential oil 

a black crayon

*A few notes to begin with: candle wax will ignite, so be careful about splatters. Don't heat wax to more than 190 degrees. Always use a candy thermometer.  Check the packaging of wick kits, many contain lead which causes cancer. Clean-up is tedious, I suggest using disposable everything.

Step 1: Cut wax into small pieces and slowly melt in a double boiler. Keep an eye on the temperature. Your goal is 170 degrees. 

Step 2: Whilst wax is melting, take your wick and dip the metal tab in wax. Adhere to bottom of jar and wind around a pencil, to keep it straight and in place. 

Step 3: Chop up your crayon and mix it into melted candle wax. Stir thoroughly. 

Step 4: Once wax has reached 170 degrees, add in 2-3 tsp anise essential oil, stir and transfer wax from double boiler to spouted cup. Pour about an inch into the bottom of the jar to set the wick. 

Step 5: Pour the rest of the wax in, and allow to cool and cure for 24 hours. The wax will sink in the middle. Fill in after 24 hours with some reheated left-over wax.

Once the second round of wax is solid, it will be finished. Light it up! 

*Helpful hint: put waxy utensils in the freezer for easy clean. 

A Little Pumpkin Pasta Dish

Pumpkin-Bacon Pasta

I've been dreaming of this for like a week. I took a recipe from Martha Stewart and changed it up. Don't get me wrong, I worship at the church of Martha, but most of her recipes tend to need a little tweaking. The bacon was my idea, and what a good idea it was. I took some notes from her user comments, some of her users are pretty bitchy, housewives can be brutal. Anywho, this dish was great and ever so cheap, but when I say use salt, I couldn't be more serious. Pumpkin is really dense so it takes a lot of salt to season it. 

You will need the following: 

1 box of penne pasta

1 tbsp coarsely chopped sage

1.5 c pumpkin puree

1 clove garlic (minced)

1/2 c half n half

4-5 slices of thick bacon

1/4 tsp pie spice

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

SALT & pepper

1.) Boil pasta, save one cup pasta water. Drain and set aside. 

2.) In empty pasta pot, fry bacon until mostly done. Then add in sage and fry 1-2 minutes. 

3.) Mix pumpkin puree and pie spice. Toss pumpkin into pot and heat lightly. 

4.) Add pasta water and garlic. Continue to lightly heat. 

5.) Pour in half-n-half. Stir and heat only until sauce is warm. Season with pepper flakes and salt. 

6.) Once sauce is mixed and warm, remove from heat and mix in pasta. Toss thoroughly and serve. 

Great for a group! 

Haul Out the Halloween Decorations

When the leaves begin change, or the calendar gets to the middle of September, it's time to put out the festive decor. (Seasonal candy dishes are a great way to always have candy out without feeling guilty. It's for guests). There's no point in living if not for holidays. As long as I can remember, I've always been the first one with my decorations out. As a child, I used to beg my parents to pull down those musty old boxes from the attic the weekend after Labor Day. The Halloween boxes always had such a distinct smell, the sweet stench of rotting costumes and melted face paints. Every once in awhile I'll get a whiff of that comforting scent and it takes me back. 

Remember these guys? You still see them everywhere around this time of year, most recently sticking out of a vodka display at Jewel-Osco. Yes, you're absolutely supposed to put those hinged limbs in inappropriate positions, like this one on my fridge. I found this little gem at a thrift store for a quarter. 

This one is another Halloween staple. These card stock cut-outs have been an American tradition since the 30s. We had all these growing up, but the years of Scotch tape and sun-bleaching made them fall apart. As an adult, I have started collecting these prints made by the Beistle Company.  This witch was always my favorite for some reason. 

Often called die-cuts, these old decorations are sort of hard to find nowadays. I saw a few on Etsy and in vintage stores, but at ridiculous prices. After doing an embarrassing amount of internet research, I found out that they do still make these but not very many stores carry them anymore. I've had some luck at mom-and-pop party supply stores though. Last year when I was visiting home, I hit the Beistle-jackpot at the biggest Halloween store in the Midwest, Foy's in Dayton, Ohio. Not only did Foy's have all my old favorites, but they were like a dollar, so I bought way too many. 

My plus-one has demanded that all my die-cuts remain in the kitchen. 

For obvious reasons - These are by far the creepiest. They were once part of a long chain of other odd-looking pumpkins.

Put it all together, and the result is somewhat like an elementary school classroom.