Some Fun Halloween Recipes!
~*Pumpkin Bars
Yields 12 pieces.
3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup nuts
In a bowl beat eggs and sugar. Add oil and mix until combined. Then add the dry sifted ingredients together with the pumpkin and nuts. Pour in 1/4 sheet (12" x 8") greased baking pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pan and frost, if desired. Cut into 2" x 4" squares. Enjoy...
~*PINA GHOULADA
A frothy drink is tempting enough, but one served in a red-rimmed glass is particularly enticing to monsters who drink blood. Corn syrup with food coloring tinges the classic piña colada with a devilish sweetness.
Dip the rim of each glass into the red mixture, spinning slowly to coat (below, right). Turn glasses upright; the red liquid will drip slightly, then set. Pour drinks, and serve. Drinkers' lips may be stained pinkmuch like those of a sated vampire.
Recipe
Makes 10 to 12 eight-ounce servings
The ghoulada mixture can be made several hours in advance and chilled.
3 tablespoons corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring, plus more for rims
20 ounces pineapple juice
1 fifteen-ounce can cream of coconut
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup orange juice
10 ounces good-quality rum (optional)
1. To coat rims, pour corn syrup into a shallow bowl. Dip a toothpick into food coloring, and stir a very small amount into corn syrup to combine. Hold a glass by the stem, dip rim into the syrup mixture, and turn glass, coating entire rim. Turn the glass upright, allowing mixture to drip down sides. Dip the remaining glasses. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients, including 1/4 teaspoon red food coloring. Place 2 1/2 cups ice cubes in a blender, and add 1 cup drink mixture. Blend until smooth; add more pineapple juice if mixture is too thick. Repeat with remaining drink mixture and ice. Carefully pour into prepared glasses; serve.
Source: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.
~*THE DEVIL'S SALSA & TORTILLA SPIKES
Get your Halloween party off to a spicy start with The Devil's Salsa and Tortilla Spikes.
*THE DEVIL'S SALSA
Makes about 5 cups
The spiciness of this salsa will vary, depending on the heat of your peppers. Add a little at a time, until it's as spicy as you like.
2 ears corn, kernels shaved from the cob
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus 1 teaspoon for baking sheet
1 orange bell pepper
1 fifteen-and-a-half-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 mango, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 hot red pepper, seeded and finely diced, or more to taste
1/2 red onion, finely diced
Juice of 2 limes (about 5 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon salt
1. Heat oven to 450°. Place corn on a baking sheet brushed with 1 teaspoon olive oil, and roast until the kernels begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Set kernels aside to cool.
2. Place pepper directly on a lit gas burner; roast, turning with tongs, until charred on all sides. Transfer to a bowl; cover with plastic wrap. When cool enough to handle, wipe off charred skin with a paper towel, and remove stem and seeds. Chop into 1/4-inch dice; place in a large bowl.
3. Add corn, beans, half the diced mango, hot red pepper, onion, lime juice, remaining 3 tablespoons oil, and salt; toss to combine.
4. Finely chop remaining mango until a thick purée forms; stir into salsa.
*TORTILLA SPIKES
Serves 8
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon chili powder
12 flour tortillas
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1. Heat oven to 350°. Combine oil and chili powder in a small bowl. Brush tortillas with oil mixture, and sprinkle with salt.
2. Cut tortillas into 1-inch-wide strips, and arrange in a single layer on two baking sheets (you will need to do two batches). Bake until crisp and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
Source: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.
~*Halloween can be your time to shine. With a few of these Halloween hints, you'll be the hit of the neighborhood this October. Kids will be talking about your ghastly gruesome goodies for years to come.
*Halloween Basics
*Cookie shapes
Try bats, cats, witches, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkins, leaves, acorns, full moons, broomsticks, cauldrons, martians, spiders, eyeballs, tombstones and any other spooky shape that you can come up with!
*Cookie colors
Add gel or paste food coloring to any basic rolled sugar cookie recipe. Orange works great and pumpkin shapes are really easy to do. Add black gel food coloring to your dough for bats and black cats.
*Colored Frostings
By mixing different food colorings you can create creepy colors like putrid green, horrible orange, blood red, midnight black, and glow yellow. Top your cookies with some of these colors and watch the screams pour in.
*Now Go Wild!
Here are a few ghoulish ideas for spooky Halloween treats.
*Jack-o-Lantern Pops
Following the Cookies in a Pot recipe, cut out the dough into pumpkin shapes. Bake, then decorate with icing to resemble a jack-o-lantern.
*Black Widow Spider Cookies
Make a batch of Child Proof Sugar Cookies. Add enough black food coloring gel or paste to the dough to get a nice black color (this will take quite a bit). Roll out the dough to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and cut into circles, using two different cookie cutters, one smaller and one bigger. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet, attaching the smaller cookie (spider's head) to the larger cookie (spider's body). In the larger circle make a small hourglass-shaped hole and fill it with crushed red hard candy. In the smaller circle make two small holes (for eyes) and fill with yellow or green crushed hard candy. Attach strips of cookie dough to the body for legs.
*Mounds of Brains Cookies
Using Butter Cookies II or your favorite refrigerator cookie recipe, add some black food color gel or paste until you get a gray color, then push the dough through a colander to make worm-like shapes. Take small handfuls of the wormy dough and gently shape it into a brain-like shape, then bake. For an added touch, drizzle a little green colored icing over the tops of the baked brains.
*Glowing Eyes Cookies
Make a batch of Stained Glass Window Cookies Instead of shaping the cookies to look like windows, make jack-o-lanterns or ghosts with unearthly glowing eyes.
*Cobweb Pizza Cookie
Follow the recipe for Cookie pizza omitting the topping ingredients. When cookie is done, drizzle melted chocolate over the top in the shape of a spider web. Sprinkle with insect shaped candies. You can also do this on smaller cookies.
*Grabbing Fingers
Use a good cookie press recipe like Classic Butter Cookies. Place the dough in a pastry bag or large plastic bag with one corner snipped off. Pipe the dough into finger-sized amounts onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Then use the dull side of a butter knife to make lines suggesting knuckles, and add an almond or candy for the fingernail. Before baking the finger cookies shape them into a slightly bent shape so that they look like grabbing fingers! Chill cookies before baking. Once baked you can add a bit of red icing if you want a bloody finger. A tasty bowl of these makes for a grisly Halloween treat.
*Note! Please always remember to keep safe, and check all candy/food before you eat it! Don't stay out late, and go out in groups, not alone.
Happy Halloween Baking/Partying From Winter Steel!
LEGACY OF THE BLACK CAT
by Rose Lee
Black cats and Halloween immediately conjur up images of shadowy forms illuminated by leering jack-o-lanterns. Their association with witches and bad luck seem quite natural. Yet, this was not always the case. Durimg the 1400s, Halloween, jack-o-lanterns, and black cats had no connection with witches whatsoever.
HALLOWEEN HISTORY
Halloween was once known as All Hallow's Eve. It was a night of harmless merriment before November 1st, All Saint's Day, a religious observance honoring all saints.
Jack-o-lanterns were originally associated with men. As early as 1663, "jack" was a common word for "man," and gourds, illuminated by candles, were carried by night watchmen as they made their rounds. Black cats, along with lighter colored cats, were once respected as valuable vermin exterminators. Rats and mice carried diseases and spoiled vast amounts of grain, a vital commodity in earlier centuries.
The status of cats, however, changed during the 16th century, and this change was greatly influenced by the attitude of Chief Justice Coke of England toward women. Land was another vital commodity, and much of it was occupied by widows. The simplest method of obtaining land was by eliminating these women. This era marked the uprising of the infamous witch hunts, also used to attack and eliminate nonconformists. It was a period of religious wars. Unwilling to relinquish religious and social dominance, English authorities attacked these old women in an attempt to regain control over their subjects.
WITCH CHARACTERISTICS
Those authorities decided "witches" had definite characteristics which were quite common. They were usually between the ages of 50 and 70, crippled or bent with age, often had pockmarked skin and practiced folk medicine.
It was rumored that these women also made pacts with the devil in exchange for power to harm their enemies. Since pacts with the devil meant renouncing God, all religions persecuted those suspected of the crime. Additionally, these women were thought to be able to turn themselves into animals. Early Christians associated these women with wolves, but later society chose cats as the culprit. Because anything black was a contrast to the blond-haired, blue-eyed image of their Anglo-Saxon heritage, black cats quickly became the focal point of anything evil, even to the point of being the incarnation of the devil himself. Negative connotations of black are still prevalent today when we consider the implications of words like blackball, blacklist, blackmail, and black market. Quite a contrast to our reactions regarding white lie, white wash, and white collar.
Superstitions of that time only added to the persecution of cats in general and especially black ones, which were supposed to possess various supernatural powers. If a cat sneezed three times, for example, all the members of a household where it resided would supposedly catch colds. If a cat sat with it's back to the fire, a storm was on the way. Cats often traveled on ships in order to protect grain cargoes, but if these cats ever meowed, the crew was convinced that trouble was certainly on the way. Even today, the bad luck associated with cats in general isn't limited to one's waking hours. Through no fault of their own, a dream about a cat denotes bad luck if the dreamer does not kill it. If the cat should be so foolish as to fight back during the dream, this occurrence indicates the dreamer will have enemies who will go to any length to ruin the person's reputation. Since the color black is considered a bad omen unless it is associated with a funeral or another appropriate situation, a black cat in one's dream only compounds the evil connotations.
Fortunately, education and common since have replaced ignorance and superstition. No longer considered property expected to produce male offspring to ensure the royal lineage, women have made tremendous strides toward equality. Supported by today's more tolerant views with the advent of the New Age, self-proclaimed witches are either thought of as great visionaries or shrugged off as eccentric curiosities. Within the last decade cats have even replaced dogs as the most popular pets in the U.S. Only the black cat is still followed by Old World superstition. Many people openly cringe at the sight of a black cat. A few will go miles out of their way to avoid crossing one's path. Some will kill these cats just because of their color.
When October sheds it's crimson and golden leaves, and the air tingles with a crisp dampness, even enlightened souls often take a hesitant step backward when a black cat approaches their path. Then they breathe a guarded sigh of relief as it pauses and slowly ambles in a different direction.
A Lover's Candle Spell
from The Pagan Book of Halloween
by Gerina Dunwich
The following is an old Witches' love spell from England. It is
traditionally preformed on Samhain/Halloween night and calls for the
following items: a pink candle as many pins as you have suitors, and a
strand of hair from each man's head ( assuming they all have hair ).
Begin by tying a strand of hair from one suitor to the first pin, and a
strand of hair from the next suitor to the second pin and so forth.
Stick the pins into the side of the candle, spacing them lengthwise. As
each pin is stuck into the candle, recite the following magickal rhyme:
"Tis not this candle alone I stick,
But my love's heart I mean to prick"
Light the candle with a match and watch it as it burns down to the
first pin, and then to the next. When it reaches the pin of your true mate,
the front door is supposed to open and your true love will appear.
Samhain Superstitions & Witch Lore
If a candle flame suddenly turns blue, there is a ghost nearby.
In North America, it is bad luck if a black cat crosses your path and
good luck if a white cat crosses your path. In Britain and Ireland, it
is exactly the opposite.
If you ring a bell on Samhain, it will scare evil spirits away.
If you see a spider on Samhain, it could be the spirit of a dead loved
one who is watching you.
Knocking on wood keeps bad luck away.
You should walk around your home three times deosil and widdershins
before sunset on Samhain to ward off evil spirits.
Some believe if you catch a snail on Samhain night and lock it into a
flat dish, in the morning you will see the first letter of your
sweetheart written in the snail's slime.
Many people used to believe that owls swooped down to eat the souls
of the dying. If they heard an owl hooting, they would become
frightened.
A common remedy was thought to be, turning your pockets
inside out and you would be safe.
In Britain, people believed that the Devil was a nut gatherer. At
Samhain, nuts were used as magick charms.
If a girl puts a sprig of Rosemary herb and a silver sixpence under her
pillow on Samhain night, she will see her future husband in a dream.
To prevent ghosts coming into the house at Samhain, bury animal bones
or a picture of an animal near the doorway.
A person born on Samhain can see and talk to spirits.
If you go to a crossroads at Samhain and listen to the wind, you will
learn all the most important things that will befall you during the
next twelve months.
When bobbing for apples, it is believed that the first person to bite
an apple would be the first to marry.
Peel an apple from top to bottom. The person with the longest unbroken
peel would be assured the longest life. If you threw the apple peel
over your shoulder, the initial it forms upon landing is the initial of your
future mate.
If a bat flies around a house 3 times, it is a death omen.
If bats come out early and fly around playfully, then it is a sign of
good weather to come.
If a bat flies into a house it is a sign that ghosts are about and
maybe the ghost let the bat in.
Witch Lore
Black it is believed witches wore black to be like the night.
Native Americans associated black with learning and wisdom.
The cone shape of the witch's hat was believed to direct energy from
higher dimensions to her mind and down through her body.
Witches carried lanterns to illuminate the world above and below.
Cats in North Africa and Greece, has been a symbol of the hearth, or
spirit of place.
The buds of the willow branch were thought to resemble the paws of the
cat, a favorite pet of witches.
The moon was believed to be a symbol of mysteries.
The besom was believed to be the chosen mode of transportation for
witches, the besom was thought to symbolize the ability to blend home
life with travel to other spiritual dimensions.
Miscellaneous Samhain Superstitions
Apples - Whoever eats an apple on Samhain eve will have good luck in the coming year. If you sleep with an apple under your pillow on Samhain eve, you will dream of your future mate. If you peel an apple on Samhain in one continuous peel, and throw the peel over your shoulder, it will land in the initial of your future spouse.
Bats - If a bat flies around a house three times, it is a death omen. When bats flit around playfully it is a sign of good weather approaching.
Bells - Bells rung at Samhain chase away evil spirits.
Crows - Crows flying over head on Samhain is unlucky, unless there are three crows in a group, then that is lucky.
Frogs and Toads - Don't kill a frog or toad on Samhain, it may be a Witch. Witches often take the shape of a frog or toad on Samhain.
Halloween 'Quick Facts'
1. Halloween traditions go back more than 2,000 years. The ancient Celts - who lived in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and France - believed that spirits returned to the earth on October 31st.
2. To disguise themselves from those spirits, the Celts wore masks after dark on October 31st.
3. By the seventh century A.D., this Celtic tradition had been combined with All Saint's Day, a day to remember the saints. It was also called All Hallows' Day, and the day before was called All Hallows' Eve. That became known as Halloween.
4. About 93% of U.S. children go trick-or-treating.
5. The tradition of trick-or-treating probably started in England around 1000 A.D.. People went door-to-door on All Souls' Day, November 2nd. They would receive 'soul cakes' from families in exchange for a promise to pray for those families' dead relatives.
6. Many think the Irish popularized trick-or-treating in the United States in the 1840's. In some places, 'treats' were sweet buns, nuts or pennies. A popular 'trick' was tipping over outhouses.
7. Why do people bob for apples? It may date back to when the Romans conquered the Celts around 43 A.D.. The Romans celebrated a holiday in late October that honored Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. Her symbol was an apple.
