A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Happy Halloween '09!

Scaring up a bunch of spooky treats, half for our family Halloween party and half to take to work to share with my favorite vampires and ghouls:  Witch's Fingers Pretzel Rods,  Orange Popcorn Balls, and "RIP"  Cookies.

Click below for Popcorn Ball recipe.

And don't forget our Blockbuster Halloween Monster Makin' Contest! Deadline is Sunday night, November 1st so you still have time to help the kids make any kind of monster they want out of movie candy.  Send a picture to me at Marie9949 (at) sbcglobal.net for the chance to win a $25.00 Blockbuster movie gift card.

Halloween! Holli's "Twilight" Birthday Cake

Cake decorating is one of my favorite food arts but because it's so tough on one's hands, I only do it for family these days, specifically for our nieces and nephews. The rule is that for their birthday I'll make anything they want.  One year, Sydney wanted a butterfly. Check.  Boy Jordan wanted an Eric Carr (the fox) from KISS cake. Check.  Girl Jordan wanted a car cake. Check, although it was made from rice krispie treats rather than cake which added to it's value in her eyes.  Holli's birthday falls the week before Halloween so her request was doubly appropriate for both the holiday and the latest vampire craze.  She asked for a Twilight-themed cake.  On the inside is a cherry chip (family favorite) cake torted into five layers with homemade buttercream between each. The covering is black marshmallow fondant (I think it looks like leather).  Everything on the cake is made from sugar with the exceptions of the apple and the ribbon.

Not having read the books, I didn't know what the icons all stand for but Wednesday night at work Carissa and I did a quick google and found that the apple represents man's (and vampires') free agency: the choice between good and evil, innocence and corruption.  The red and white flower is for purity stained by blood.  The chess pieces we found nothing on but it seems pretty obvious that the king represents the vampire and the pawn represents humans in their eyes.

Fun cake. I had a great time putting it together.  Happy Birthday, Holli!

For the recipes and tips on cakes, see my prior cake posts:

Marhsmallow fondant recipe:

http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/day_1_the_cake_.html

Sculpting a truck cake for Isaac and tips on stacking cakes:

http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/day_1_the_cake__1.html

The finished truck cake and Jordan's retro black and white cake:

http://afridgefulloffood.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/day_0the_cakes_.html

 

Happy Halloween from Diedre

My friend, Diedre, sent me this pic this morning of the pumpkin cake she made for work today.  Isn't he cute?  Tthe basic idea is two bundt cakes, the bottom one flipped upside down and the other one placed on top of it.  Not sure what she used for the stem but you can either use cake or even a cone of paper, frosted, would suffice for the eyes.  Frosted with a knife to create the pumpkin ridges, the rest of the face is piped on with tubed icing colors you can find at the hobby store.

Thanks Diedre--I bet you're a very popular woman at work today!
 

Halloween: Witch's Fingers Pretzel Rods

Gnarly hag's fingers--the perfect treat for Halloween!

Easy to do, all you need are a couple of items from the cake decorating aisle and time.  The mold and colored almond barks are all made by Wilton, a company that specializes in cake decorating supplies.  You also need pretzel rods, two bags to make the three dozen fingers shown here from 2 bags of green chocolate wafers and one bag of midnight black wafers.  The last ingredient is an evening since you have to melt the chocolate in small amounts, pipe in the fingernail using a snipped end food storage bag, chill, pipe in the finger color and set the pretzel rod in, then chill.  Release from the mold and start all over again.

 

Quick Frozen Corn Idea

Now that corn is back up to $ .75 an ear... we've been going back to frozen corn. Canned corn? Only in desperation.  Through the winter, frozen vegetables are a great substitute for fresh but in the fall, the in between time, when the taste of fresh corn still lingers on my tongue, even frozen doesn't cut it.

Until I came up with this idea on the fly the other night.  Gene loved it. It's probably going to be our new standard, although with the cream it's not going to be a nightly kind of thing no matter how much heart attack boy begs.

HALLOWEEN CONTEST FOR KIDS (AND PARENTS)!

Mmmmm....candy....and free movies!

CONTEST:  With the kids, create an edible MONSTER from candy available at Blockbuster stores and send me a pic at Marie9949 (at) sbcglobal.net  (I wrote the word, not the symbol "at", in hopes of not attracting spammers.)  Your monster can be funny, scary, silly, elegant (is there such a thing?  Someone should try!), whatever the kids want to do.

The only "must" is that the candy used must be available at Blockbuster stores, although no proofs of purchase are required to enter. 

I will post the pics Monday morning.

If you have any questions at all, please email me at the above address or through Facebook.

DEADLINE:  Sunday, November 1,09

Deciding a Winner:  Everyone (especially those who didn't enter :-) ) come back to the blog Mon or Tues the 2nd or 3rd, and leave a "vote" in the comment section telling which MONSTER is your favorite.

The winning family wil be announced here on the blog Thursday November 5th, 09

To the left is Blockbuster's Official Monster. He's pretty cute but I know WE can build a better monster, can't we?  Let's show 'em how it's really done!

And in return for trouncing them and their monster, they're going to give us a $25.00 gift certificate.

 

This contest is sponsored by Blockbuster as a way to promote fun family time together.

Thank you to Blockbuster for the Gift Certificate prize!
 

My Nannie's Devilled Eggs

Do have recipes in your recipe box, like me, that have been handed down or that you've been making for so many years that you completely take them for granted and assume that not only does everyone else in the world make the dish but makes it exactly the way you do?  This is one of those for me.  This simple Devilled Egg recipe is exactly the way my mother taught me, and exactly how Nannie taught my mother (and Auntie Miranda).   It's a given at any family gathering at my house.  Our potato salad, Devilled Egg Potato Salad, is very similar to this as well.

The thing that bemuses me, though, is how often I get compliments on the recipe when I make these for friends. Like I said, I take the recipe completely for granted and assume everyone makes them the same way. But apparently not because this is one of those dishes that, without fail, I am asked for the recipe every time I serve it outside of the family. Here it is for all of you who have asked lately that I've said "Oh yeah, I've been meaning to blog that!"

Knitting for the NICU: Halloween '09

Franies and Ghosties and Witches, Oh MY!
 

Oktoberfest All Week Long: Sweet Red Cabbage with Cardamom

This dish embodies the smell of Autum for me by combining the comforting fall scents of apples, honey, and cardamom.  The odor of this floating through the house mixed with the smoke from neighborhood fireplaces sneaking in through the one open window in the sunroom gives me a sense of all being right in the world.

Oktoberfest All Week: Jagerschnitzel

One of the things I find most intriguing about exploring culture cooking is that we all eat the same things, we just call them different things and prepare them in slightly different ways.  I'm talking about things like finding out as an adult that the exotic-sounding  polenta is really the cornmeal mush of my youth, or that tonight's Jagerschnitzel is pounded pork chops with delicious mushroom gravy.  I admit the jokester in me sometimes enjoys giving Gene that hour or two of wondering what in the heck we're going to be eating and then seeing the relief in his eyes when the odd sounding "Oktoberfest Jagerschnitzel" meal I made was just his beloved pork chops and mushroom gravy, although really rich gravy since it's made with sour cream instead of just corn starch thickening the pan drippings.