Halloween

One of the ways fall is celebrated in Maine is with an annual pig roast that has been going on for the last 25 years thrown by four generations of the Hammond family. Once you're invited you always have an invitation. The patriarch Skip is in his mid-eighties and his wife is much younger by two years. They were married in the next town but got their blood test by a local doctor in Belgrade, who when he took blood from Skip’s wife couldn’t get it to fill the vial so he said to Skip give me some of your blood to fill the vial. The doctor then pronounced them husband and wife. They have been married for 60 years so far.

The pig roast started as a prelude to hunting season when a caterer would drive all night from South Carolina with six 80-pound pigs and masses of ground corn for the mountain of hush puppies. People brought all their best desserts and the table groaned under the weight. Over the years more tables have been set up and there is everything imaginable from bean hole beans to salads and deviled eggs of every know variation. The past 10 years clams and lobstershave also been cooked over a roaring oak wood fire pit. There are many people having their first and only lobster of the year and everyone wears a big contented smile of appreciation.

Boo!

I told you I loved Halloween!

And what would a Halloween celebration be without Blood Red Punch? It would be boring, that's what.

Seriously, a Halloween party needs a scary drink. However, if you are a Halloween nut like me, you don't need a party to make a wicked drink.

My kids love this punch anytime but love the ice cube spiders more. I always make a couple trays of these cubes in October and pop them into whatever they are drinking. They love it...and so do I.

This punch is kid-friendly (alcohol-free) but can be easily transformed into an adult beverage.

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.

It's that time of year of again...where gross food is welcomed by the little boys that inhabit my house. Nothing brings a smile to their face like something bloody, goopy, poopy or oozy when Halloween is in the air. They love it.

I saw these cookies and thought, my kids need to be welcomed home from school with these somewhat authentic looking bloody band-aids.

Sure enough, they were a hit. And really, these are not even a recipe, I mean there is nothing to their construction, but they got rave reviews. I could have baked all day from scratch and not gotten the fan fare these received. Go figure.