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Deconstructing jack-o'-lantern
Credit an Irishman named Jack for the carved pumpkin on your porch this week.
A centuries-old Irish legend tells of Jack, silly with drink, double-crossing the devil to save his soul. Jack ends up at the burning gates anyway, having been turned away from heaven for his life of rotten deeds. The devil isn't too keen to let him in either and gives him an ember of coal to light the way through limboland. Jack stores the ember in a hollowed turnip and eventually Jack of the Lantern became the symbol for damned souls.
For years, the Irish and Scottish put candles in carved turnips, potatoes and beets to frighten away suspicious spirits on Halloween. (The red beet juice adds another horror dimension!) The tradition was brought to America by immigrants when the easier-to-carve and plentiful native pumpkin was substituted for the smaller veggies.
The first time the term appeared in print was 1750,and it referred to a night watchman carrying a lantern.
A jack-o'-lantern in Florida meets an ugly demise quicker than its cousins up North. With no nip in the air to preserve the cut pumpkin, a terminal case of mold-and-mushy sets in quickly. To avoid the early end, some people paint designs on uncut pumpkins or display foam versions that are good, well, for eternity.
Cooking class
For a seared boneless, skinless chicken that is cooked through and juicy on the inside and crisp and golden on the outside, use chicken cutlets instead of the thicker, regular, boneless, skinless chicken breasts. To make your own, butterfly a chicken breast. Using a sharp knife held parallel to the work surface, cut almost but not all the way through the thickest portion of the breast. Open the breast like a book and, using the palm of your hand or a skillet, press the breast flat.
This web site cooks
With sandwich names like Gutbuster (bread fried in butter, plus meats) and White Trash (anything plus chips), you get mental images of the Eiffel Tower made of lunch meat, then gently laid on a long roll. Such is the understatement of the Sandwich Project. It's not lacking in material, just visuals. Even so, people come, rate sandwiches and trumpet their own concoctions, adding them to this blogger's Web site. It's good, fat-free fun.
Favors are kid stuff
Fun party treats for little tricksters:
-- Make tiny cone-shaped cornucopias of shiny paper filled with little chocolate candies to hand each guest.
-- Put a small bundle of rice-cereal treats or mini candy bars in the center of an oblong piece of white paper towel. Fold and roll the paper around the goodies making a cylindrical bundle; a third of the way up, twist a rubber band around the bundle - making a "neck" below a "head." With a marker, put a couple of wide, haunting eyes on your homemade ghost's head and set as many as you want to make around the room to double as decorations until they are gobbled up.
-- Put a selection of jack-o'-lantern or monster cookie pops in a real or plastic pumpkin beside the door for guests to take as they leave.
Taste of the weird
As if anyone needs more reasons to eat sweets on Halloween, here are ideas for ghoulish desserts:
-- Candy Corn Crispy Rice Treats: Make crispy rice cereal treats with your favorite recipe, but include candy corn and butterscotch chips as ingredients, and use red and yellow food coloring to dye it orange.
-- Chocolate Spiders: Use chocolate-sandwich cookies for the body, black licorice for legs and candy buttons for eyes. Glue spiders together with soft caramel or marshmallow.
-- Pond Scum: Make individual servings of green gelatin dessert with gummy worms squirming in and out of the surface.
Know your limit
If Party Shots (Chronicle Books; $10.95) isn't enough to bring back Prohibition, we don't know what would be. Author Mittie Hellmich's collection of recipes for what are commonly called "Jell-O shots" glams up the simple booze-and-gelatin concoction with every imaginable spirit. Forget the one-cup-hot, one-cup-cold routine. Hellmich orders Blavod black vodka and creme de cassis for a Dark Shadow Shooter to be served at a Halloween party. Party Shots is a guilty pleasure for those who've outgrown spring break.
Chippin' on the ritz
Ritz Crackers are venturing into chip territory, and we liked the thin, crispy wedges. That said, their appeal seems to depend on how much you like the crackers. Three flavors - original, Cheddar, and sour cream and onion - are offered. A 9-ounce bag costs $3 at grocery stores.