Halloween

I live in West Hollywood, where Halloween is like a national holiday – arrangements for street closures have been made well in advance and people from all over will come watch the flagrant and the flamboyant, the political and the theatrical,  the absurd and the sublime march along Santa Monica Boulevard, from La Cienega to Doheny. Candy is not an integral part of this spectacle and frankly that's the only thing that rankles me about it.

One year, the Wicked Witch of the West wheeled along the Boulevard with an enormous crystal ball that housed terrorized miniatures – Dorothy, Toto, and the other Oz pilgrims were all cowering on the yellow brick road within her bubble. Another year, there were several Menendez brothers, wearing blood covered v-neck sweaters and conservative haircuts. Then another year, there were groups of huddled Titanic musicians playing desperately as their ship was sinking (or, I should say, as the parade was passing them by).

Jack Benny (who was famously cheap and made fun of himself for it) gave out silver dollars on Halloween.
                  True

Lucille Ball used to answer the door herself.
                  Also true

A witch lived in the witches’ house on Walden Avenue and gave out apples on Halloween.
                  Don’t know the answer because “the witches’ house” was so scary that none of us ever made it down the walkway. But the witches’ house wasn’t really a witches’ house. It was really offices and dressing rooms at a silent movie studio in Culver City before someone (don’t ask me why) relocated it to a corner lot in Beverly Hills in the 1930s and moved in.

Spicy Pumpkin Dip
Spicy Pumpkin Seeds
Crescent Mummy Dogs
Cider Cheese Fondue

Curried Butternut Squash Soup
Forty Cloves of Garlic Soup
Amy Sherman's Pumpkin Soup
Tangy Sriracha Pumpkin-Parmesan Soup

Red & Black Scary Apples
Sweet and Salty Caramel Apples
Candy Corn Cake
Sticks and Stones Candy Bark

Homemade Lollipops
Spiderweb Cookie Pizza

Pumpkin Pecan Cookies
Pumpkin Chai Pots de Creme with Pumpkin Seed Brittle
Maple Syrup Pie
Homemade Chocolate Truffles
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Maple and Pecans

FOR ADULTS ONLY
Black Cat | Bloody Mary | The Headless Horseman | Sleepy Hollow | Spider Cider
Matt's Winter Cocktail | Zombie

Corpse Reviver #2 - For the next day.

Are you ready for Halloween? Do you have your costume? Do you have enough candy to hand out to the little goblins in your neighborhood? Do you have whiskey? No, not for kids, for you.

Here's how it works: Make yourself a batch of David Lebovitz's boozy butterscotch pudding, and chill it in the fridge all day. Then after you've finished handing out all of your Halloween candy, put the kids to bed, turn off the lights and treat yourself.

Just be sure to serve it tricked-out with a dollop of freshly whipped cream and a few candy corn. That is, if you haven't already gobbled up all the candy corn in your house. If you have, then switch to salty, roasted pecans.