Happy Halloween

Halloween or Hallow-Even is the last night of October, the eve or vigil of All-Hallow’s or All Saint's Day.

On this night we eat, drink and be scary.

 From all of us here in the Voodoo kitchen,

Happy All Hallows' Eve.

Halloween Pumpkins

These terrifying pumpkins have been hand-carved by master carver Ray Villafane.

So, if you need a little inspiration, here's a video that may do the trick.

Disneyland Halloween 2012

Maybe Seattle schools struggle with Halloween, Disneyland however does not:

The Death of Halloween in Seattle

It's one thing when the self afflicted, high and mighty want to eliminate Halloween candy, but it's another thing when they want to take Halloween away.

The Lafayette Elementary School in Seattle has banned students from celebrating Halloween.

They have decided to forbid students from dressing up in costume for Halloween this year because of Halloween costumes could offend and upset students who come from other cultures.

Parents have complained to the school over the ruling, demanding a explanation.

Lafayette’s principal, Shauna Heath,(photo above) e-mailed media outlets, including The West Seattle Blog, arguing the decision was made because of the limited instructional time that falls on Halloween this year. Seattle Public Schools observe a half-day of instruction on Wednesday, October 31.

“This decision was made by the entire staff after two deep and detailed discussions. The initial conversation was initiated by staff members who suggested that since Halloween falls this year on a half day of school, we not allow costumes. It takes students a while to change into their costumes, and students are distracted taking away from the already limited instructional time.

Many parents believe the decision was based on concerns about cultural sensitivity. Why the school would want to offend the majority of kids who celebrate Halloween, than it is for a handful of students who do not is anybody's guess.

We seriously doubt the decision has anything to do with costumes changing times, otherwise just have the kids come to school already in costume.

We believe the Seattle school system has been trying to end Halloween for years, even wanting to change the name to “Harvest Day”

Red & Black Candy Apples

8-10 medium sized Red Delicious or Honey Crisp apples

8-10 wooden twigs, trimmed and cleaned

3 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 cup of waterseveral drops of cinnamon flavored oil

1/4 teaspoon of red food coloring

1/4 teaspoon of black food coloring

Clean and dry the apples. 

Remove any stems or leaves and insert a twig into the end of each apple. To make things easier, you can carefully sharpen the end of the twig or use a candy stick to create a guide hole.

Set apples aside.

Heat and stir sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan until sugar has dissolved.

Boil until the syrup reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer. 

Don’t go over 310 degrees or your candy will burn.

Remove from heat and stir in flavored oil and food coloring.

Dip one apple completely in the syrup and swirl it so that it becomes coated with the melted sugar candy.

Hold the apple above the saucepan to drain off excess. 

Place apple, with the stick facing up, onto a baking sheet with parchment paper or non stick-foil.

 

Repeat the process with all the remaining apples. 

If your syrup thickens or cools too much, simply reheat briefly before proceeding. 

Let the apples cool completely before serving.

Regarding the black apples: darker apples like red delicious help the black candy appear as dark as possible.

The New Orleans Witches Ball

The Dead Head

With a face mold you can create this great Halloween dish.

Line the inside of the mold with plastic wrap and line the inside completely with Prosciutto.

Shread the Prosciutto into small pieces first, it's easier to eat that way.

You’ll need probably a double recipe to fill up the face mold.

Press your cheese ball mixture into the mold, and chill. Remove from mold onto a plate, add eyes using olives. 

 

Surround the face with your favorite crackers.

Face Molds can be found at an art supply store, but if you can't find a mold, you could make this with a hard plastic halloween mask--just line the inside of the mold with plastic wrap to cover the eyeholes.  

Use your favorite cheese ball recipe that features cream cheese and will hold it's shape.  

If you don't have a favorite one, here's a quick and simple one:

2 - 8 oz pkgs cream cheese, softened 

2-  3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese 

3 Tablespoons mayonnaise 

1 Tablespoons of horseradish

GRAVEYARD PUDDING

Because Graveyard Pudding is one of our most requested recipes, for you, we'll dig it up again.

It's perfect for parties, to celebrate Halloween at home, school or work. 

We post this recipe every year because you seem to like it.

Here's what you need:

Oreo type cookies crumbled, 1 whole box (we use Trader Joe's chocolate and vanilla JoeJoe's cookies)

Pirouline Chocolate Hazelnut Cream wafers broken (not crumbled)

Vanilla Pudding 16 oz prepared

Chocolate Pudding 16oz prepared

Heavy Whipped Cream ( we beg you, please, not from the can) 

You will need 1 pint of high-quality cream 

Simply whip the cream with your mixer until the cream looks like soft butter.

You wont be adding sugar, vanilla or anything, just plain whipped cream. 

Here’s a little tip, room-temperature cream won't incorporate air, 

so use well-chilled cream straight from the refrigerator. 

Here's how you make it:

First, layer the bottom of your bowl or pan with chocolate pudding.

Next comes a layer of whipped cream.

Layer some of ther crumbled Oreo type cookies on the top of the whipped cream.

Next comes the vanilla pudding, the whipped cream and more cookies.

Keep repeating this process until you run out of pudding and cream.

Now sprinkle the rest of your Oreo type cookies on top (so it looks like dirt)

Next add the broken Pirouline wafers on top (they are suppose to look like bones)

Halloween candy sales up this year

Americans will spend a record $2.3 billion dollars in Halloween candy this year according to the National Confectioners Association. 

Even with all the anti-sugar campaigns candy sales are expected to increase this Halloween season, with 96 percent of U.S. consumers planning to buy, a 0.5 percent increase compared with 2011, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).

The average consumer is anticipated to spend $24.25, an increase of $2.20 per person compared with spending during the previous Halloween, the federation reports. Overall, candy sales are expected to reach some $2.3 billion for the holiday.

In addition, a record 170 million people are expected to celebrate in some way this year and total spending for the holiday is projected to reach $8 billion. The NRF says spending is growing in every category for Halloween, which it attributes to increases in adult participation.

The NRF, says: “In recent years we’ve seen adults taking this holiday to a new level, everything from attending haunted houses to planning to trick or treat. That is something we’ve watched grow during the past few years.”

Our advice?

Don't be bullied by the candy buy back people.

Keep and eat all the candy you collect, you worked for it, it's yours.

Halloween Apple Shrunken Heads

A few years ago we talked about apple shrunken heads for Halloween, we wish to reprint in case you missed it.

Start by peeling large apples and then coating them in the lemon juice and salt mixture. This helps reduce the browning of the apple. 

Using a knife carve out a face with eyes and nose. Keep it simple, a holes for the eyes and nose and mouth.  

With the paring knife, carve exaggerated facial features, such as deep-set eyes and crooked, gnarling mouths. Start by making basic outline cuts and then just gouge the pieces out–and fortunately, the less pretty it is, the better it looks at the end!

It's time to "pickle" your apple.

Immerse it in a solution of  ½ cup of salt mixed with about 4-6 cups of water.

Adding 2 or 3 tablespoons of lemon juice will keep it from oxidizing.

Let it soak for 24 hours. 

It’s important to leave them in long enough, or they won’t preserve as well, mold is not the look we’re going for here!

If you live where it's humid,  your apple shrunken head may tends to rot instead of drying, so let's move things up a bit by placing it on the center rack of a warm oven 200 degrees, until dry.

Dry the apple in the oven at the lowest heat for around 4 hours.

After drying in the oven, put in a cool, dry place for a few days to continue the drying process.

As the moisture evaporates, the apple will shrink and turn brown.

For some heads try using rice (teeth) or staples, this make it look like they were stitched, weren't shrunken heads mouths generally stitched up? Otherwise, we like left gaping mouths look as well. 

We will not be held responsible for anyone with homicidal  tendencies.  Shrink only apples, never another person's head.  Use good judgment!

Halloween - The Celtic Festival of Samhain

As our favorite holiday gets closer we would once again like to share with you The Festival of Samhain - Halloween.

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain,  It's an Iish Gaelic word and depending on where in Ireland it can be pronounced as sow an, soow an, or sow en.

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1st.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death.

Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. 

On the night of October 31st they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future.

For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To celebrate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and told each others fortunes. When the celebration ended, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st as All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. 

It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. 

The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2nd All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. 

It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. 

Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. 

On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes.

To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.

On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Halloween Food - Dig In

It's almost time for those Halloween treats and the gathering of souls who will devour them.

So, for those who respect the culinary talents of Hannibal Lecter, we submit the following.

GHOSTLY CUPCAKES

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg with granulated sugar. You'll get a pale yellow foam and the texture of the egg will be thicker. Add the cinnamon extract.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 teaspoon of salt and baking powder. Sift all the dry ingredients.

Cream 8 tablespoons of butter with the brown sugar (whisk using a stand-mixer to get as much air as possible into the butter). Add the egg mixture and the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add the buttermilk, pumpkin purée and the mini chocolate chips.

Place about 2-3 tablespoons of the pumpkin cake batter into 3 12-hole mini muffin pans. Plastic wrap the trays and place in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes (or until you're ready to bake).

Remove the plastic wrap, then bake the cupcakes for 5 minutes at 375°F, then lower the temperature to 350°F and bake for another 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven. 

Let cool completely.

To make vanilla butter-cream frosting, combine the remaining butter, remaining salt, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract. Put the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a round tip. Pipe immediately onto the cupcakes, starting with a circle around the cupcake and finishing with a mound of frosting on top.

Decorate the frosting with sprinkles, forming ghost faces.

MUMMY HOT DOGS

1 (8 ounce) can Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls or Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations™ refrigerated flaky dough sheet

10 large hot dogs

Cooking spray

Mustard 

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Crescent Rolls: Unroll dough; separate at perforations creating 4 rectangles; press perforations to seal. Recipe Creations: Unroll dough; cut into 4 rectangles.

With knife cut each rectangle lengthwise into 10 pieces, making a total of 40 pieces of dough. 

Wrap 4 pieces of dough around each hot dog, stretching dough slightly to completely cover hot dog. 

About 1/2 inch from one end of each hot dog, separate "bandages" so hot dog shows through for "face."

 

On ungreased cookie sheet, place wrapped hot dogs, spray dough lightly with cooking spray.

Bake 13 to 17 minutes or until dough is light golden brown and hot dogs are hot. With mustard, create the eyes and anything else you want.

What collection of recipes for Halloween would be complete without some CRUNCHY COCKROACHES? 

Ingredients:

1/3 C. cream cheese, softened

1/4 C. walnuts, chopped semi-fine

20-30 dates, pitted

 In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and nuts til well mixed.

Carefully fill each date with cream cheese/nut mixture (you may have to split the dates a little.

For that realism effect, add several plastic roaches and a sign

reading:  "Fresh-caught Cockroaches."

We'll have more Halloween food ideas in the weeks to come.

Halloween Survival Kit

Here's a scary statistic: Last year, Americans spent a record $5.07 billion getting ready for Halloween. 

Yes,over five billion dollars were spent on candy, costumes, and decorations.

More and more people love celebrating Halloween, which is the second most popular consumer-driven holiday behind Christmas, but still, many of us are also managing budgets.

You might think that people could care less about Halloween when people are being careful with their money, but the numbers say that Halloween is actually more popular than ever before. 

People are spending less on holidays like Christmas and spending more on Halloween.

Why? Halloween is something everyone can enjoy without the worry and stress of Christmas, like having to spend all that money on gifts, decorations and having to spend the day with relatives.

 

Halloween is the escape from all those things and for people who want to be able to get a break from the issues of the everyday world.

Besides, dressing up in fun costumes you get to live in a fantasy world for a short time.

The good news is, you can still enjoy Halloween even if you’re on a really tight budget.

Yes, you can celebrate Halloween without spending a lot of money.

Here are some fun ways to make Halloween special without spending a fortune:

Make fake tombstones out of cardboard. Just cut out the shape, paint it gray, and write RIP or other sayings on them. They can then be placed in a window, or out in the yard.

Ghost Walkway:

You have time, get a collection of milk jugs and you can create a ghost-lit walkway that will look fabulous.

The Scream mask look makes an instantly recognizable, scary ghost face that you can easily replicate on your milk jugs.

Here's How:

You will need several milk jugs and some black construction paper.

Wash and dry each milk jug.

Once dry, use a knife to cut a small hole in the bottom of each jug.

Make ghost faces for each jug by cutting out a pair of eyes, a nose, and a mouth from the black construction paper.

Turn the jug so that the handle faces the back. Glue the faces onto the front of the jug.

Line the jugs along your walkway and turn on the lights. You can also use white Christmas lights to light up the ghosts. Line the ghosts along the pathway, and insert a handful of the string lights inside each jug.

Have a scary movie marathon: 

One of the most inexpensive and most fun ways to celebrate Halloween is to get all your friends together for a scary movie marathon. Encourage people to bring one horror movie with them. Watch the movies slumber party style on pillows and blankets spread on the floor with lots of great snacks. 

Shop for decorations on November 1. You can save a lot with clearance-priced items -- typically 50% to 75% off -- the day after Halloween and cut your costs for next year's celebration. 

Specimen Jars:

With a few leftover glass jars, you can convert a table into a scientist’s lab. By tossing just about anything you can imagine into a glass jar with some food coloring, you can quickly create a cheap Halloween decor piece. Look online for craft ideas for fingers, eyeballs, and other body parts to fill your specimen jars. Make the jars and the rest of your decor seem even creepier by using mood lighting. Turn off overhead lights or switch them out with colored light bulbs, to increase the creepiness factor in your home.

Directions

Collect a few glass jars in different sizes, such as mason jars, spaghetti jars, or old baby food containers.

Find an object to place in each jar. For example, I popped the head off an old doll and stuck it inside a mason jar.

Wash and dry the jar. Place the object inside.

Fill the jar with water and drop in two drops of food coloring. The food coloring will make the object look like a specimen at a lab.

Pro Tip: Around the Halloween season, hobby stores sell small, plastic party favors. These party favors, including miniature skeletons, eyeballs, and severed limbs, all work well in specimen jars.

How about creating ghosts that are chilling and scary?

These homemade Halloween decorations are easy to make.

 

All you need is tape, a few large white latex balloons, black markers or construction paper, thin white ribbon or string, and a large piece of white tulle for each balloon.

 

Start by blowing up the white balloons. Either draw faces on with markers, or cut shapes out of black construction paper and tape them to the balloons. Place a sheet of tulle or cheesecloth over the top of the balloon – the larger the fabric, the longer and fuller your ghost will appear.

Gather the fabric at the base of the balloon and tie it with the ribbon, knotting it to keep it secure.

To attach your ghosts to a rail, chair, or other anything else, simply loop a length of ribbon through the back of the "neck" and tie it to another object to hold it up.

How about garlic bulbs and crosses, you never know when vampires will come knocking.

Halloween is our favorite holiday because of the fantasy that surrounds it, as well as the fun events, food and the music.

It doesn't matter if you are a kid or an adult, the idea of dressing up and becoming someone else, if just for one night is just a lot of fun.

Whether it is a party, a haunted house, or sightseeing the  spooky houses on the block, it's all fun.

Next week we'll start talking Halloween food, treats and beverages.

Eat, drink and be scary.

The Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Challenge

With Halloween not far away, HALF MOON BAY organizers (California pumpkin weigh-off championship) said a $25,000 prize will go to the person who grows the world's first 1-ton pumpkin.

The winning pumpkin at the Half Moon Bay, Calif., competition must break the 2,000-pound threshold and be the heaviest pumpkin weighed in at the October 8 weigh in.

The world record for heaviest-recorded pumpkin is 1,818.5 pounds, grown by Jim and Kelsey Bryson, of Wellington, Ontario.

(photo above)

"It's only a matter of time before someone grows the first one-ton pumpkin, and it would be incredibly exciting to have that monumental landmark established right here," said Cameron Palmer, chairman of Half Moon Bay's Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off. "With Half Moon Bay's proud tradition and legacy, it would not only be fitting but also a tremendous honor for our weigh-off."

Jimmy Kimmel plays Halloween prank on kids

It wasn't pretty, there were tantrums, tears and lots of screaming.
This is what happened after hundreds of parents told their children they had stayed up late and ate all their Halloween candy.
And now the video of Jimmy Kimmel urging parents to play along with the joke.

He asked viewers to give their children the bad news, capture the results on video and post the results online.

There was one boy who told his dad: 'Good for you, daddy's probably going to have a belly ache.
'That's why you shouldn't eat so much candy.'

Jimmy Kimmel said he was surprised how many children burst into tears after hearing the news












And another little girl bursts into tears and shouts: 'Dad, you're ugly!'
But Kimmel, said the joke would cause so many tears.
He said: I kind of thought kids would be mad - but almost all of them cried.'

Trick-or-Treater, 10, pulls gun

A 10-year-old trick-or-treater pulled a gun on a woman who joked that she would take his candy on Halloween.

Once again, the photo above isn't him.
It's the best photo we could come up with.

Anyway, the 28-year-old woman said she recognized some boys from her neighborhood while they were trick-or-treating about 6:30 p.m. and was just kidding when she told them she would take their candy.
One 10-year-old in the group of about 10 kids said, “no you’re not …” and then pointed a 9 mm handgun at her.
Apparently the clip was not in the gun at the time, but the boy did have a loaded clip in his possession.
The boy’s brother, also 10, told authorities he also had a gun.
The second weapon was recovered.
The boy who pulled the gun on the woman was taken to the police station where he was turned over to the custody of his parents.
The two boys got the weapons from their grandfather without permission.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

From all of us here at the Voodoo Kitchen, we wish you a frightening and delicious Halloween.

It's A New Autumn Passage of Halloween

Here we are again this year as the summer has faded and Fall begins.
Halloween, one of the world's oldest holidays, (and one of our favorites) and is growing more popular throughout the world.

This autumn passage is a tradition, All Souls' Day, the third day of the three-day Hallowmas observance, is the most important part of the celebration for many people.

Halloween," actually began its origins from within in the Catholic Church. It comes from a perversion of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" or "All Saints Day, is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain which means "end of summer, the Celtic New year.

Let's look at some of the customs and how they may have started.


Trick for Treat

There are probably several origins to this. During Samhain, the Druids believed that the dead would play tricks and cause panic and destruction. So, the local folks would give the Druids food as they visited their homes as an "protection offering" of sorts.
There's also an Irish peasant practice going door to door to collect money, breadcake, cheese, eggs, butter, apples, in preparation for the festival of St. Columb Kill.
Additionally, there is a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2nd, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes" made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The idea here was, the more soul cakes collected, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the "soul cake" givers. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and this prayer, even by strangers, could move things along for the soul's passage to heaven.

Halloween is also known for "barnbrack", something like a fruitcake that can be bought in stores or baked at home. As the story goes, this cake, can foretell the eater's future. If a ring is found, it means that the person will soon be wed; a piece of straw means that you would have a prosperous year.

Bobbing for Apples

Some say the custom of bobbing for apples dates all the way back to pre-Christian Ireland and the festival of Samhain. It has also been associated with Pomona, the ancient Roman goddess of fruits, trees, and gardens, in whose honor a festival was supposedly held each year on November first, even though there seems to be evidence to support any of this, and it appears to stand on shaky historical ground.
We do know for certainty that the practice of bobbing for apples goes back at least a few hundred years, beginning in the British Isles and that it originally had something to do with fortune telling.
British author W. H. Davenport Adams, wrote about bobbing for apples in his 1902 book, Curiosities of Superstition:
[The apples] are thrown into a tub of water, and you endeavor to catch one in your mouth as they bob round and round in provoking fashion. When you have caught one, you peel it carefully, and pass the long strip of peel thrice, sunwise, round your head; after which you throw it over your shoulder, and it falls to the ground in the shape of the initial letter of your true love's name

The Witch's Broomstick

The name comes from the Saxon wica, meaning wise one. When setting out for a Sabbath, witches rubbed a sacred ointment onto their skin. This gave them a feeling of flying, and if they had been fasting they felt even giddier. Some witches rode on horseback, but poor witches went on foot and carried a broom or a pole to aid in vaulting over streams. In England when new witches were initiated they were often blindfolded, smeared with flying ointment and placed on a broomstick. The ointment would confuse the mind, speed up the pulse and numb the feet.
The "insane root" which Shakespeare spoke of is a member of the Mandrake (yes, just like Harry Potter) and other plants of the nightshade family. They contain alkaloids that block nerve impulses, which may lead to hallucinations. There are those who think the witches ointment may have something to do with plant species.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Irish children used to carve out potatoes or turnips and light them for their Halloween gatherings. They celebrated Jack, a shifty Irish villain so wicked that neither God nor the Devil wanted him. Rejected by both the sacred and profane, he wandered the world endlessly looking for a place to rest, his only warmth a glittering candle in a rotten turnip.
During the Irish Potato Famine (1845-50) many Irish immigrated to the Americas. These immigrants brought their traditions of Halloween and Jack o'Lanterns, but turnips were not as readily available as back home. So they replaced the turnip with, you guessed it, the pumpkin.

Halloween Mask

From the beginning people wore masks when natural disasters struck. They believed that the demons who had brought these disasters would be frightened away by the scary masks. Even after the festival of Samhain had merged with Halloween, Europeans felt uneasy during this time of the year. Food was stored preparing for the winter and their homes were warm and comfortable. The jealous, cold, envious ghosts were outside, in the neighborhoods and people who went out after dark often wore masks to keep from being recognized.

Black Cats

Here in the Voodoo Kitchen we are partial to black cats, we have five.
While the fall festival of Samhain which was celebrated by the ancient Celts of Ireland and is the ancestor of our present day Halloween, it did not however involve sorcery or devil worship.
Samhain did involve a belief that Oct 31st, which marked the changing of the season from summer to fall, and during a brief time the natural barrier between our world and the spirit world was temporarily lifted allowing spirits of the dead to return. Once back in the world many believed that the spirits of the dead would enter the bodies of people and animals and, for some reason, a myth became a belief that returning spirits were attracted to black cats.
There really was no connection between black cats and witches until the Puritans came to America.
The deeply religious Puritans who settled in the New England colonies saw the devil and evil everywhere. Because of their association with witches, black cats were also looked upon as evil and therefore, were not to be tolerated. While the poor women accused of witchcraft in seventeenth century Salem, Massachusetts and neighboring colonies, were at least given a trial before being executed, the poor black cats didn't even get a trial.

White House Hands Out Halloween Candy, Yes Candy

We congratulate the White House for handing out White House M&Ms, and not only dried fruit.

Earlier this week, Obama joked that he had warned his wife that if she wanted to avoid a Halloween rebellion she might want to hand out more than just fruit and raisins.


"I told her the White House is going to get egged if this keeps up," he said, suggesting that she might want to add "a couple of Reese's Pieces or something.

Halloween Candy Off To A Great Start

We don't want to talk about dentists who buy back candy, or sugar content of Halloween treats, or silly healthy Halloween alternatives.
Instead we are pleased to report that Hershey raised its full-year sales target on Thursday as Halloween candy sales got off to a strong start.

"Results were slightly better than our expectations as both U.S. chocolate and non-chocolate candy categories continue to grow greater than the historical average despite macroeconomic challenges," said John Bilbrey, Hershey's chief executive.


The maker of Reese's peanut butter cups, Twizzlers and Kit Kat bars stood by its full-year profit growth goal, but raised its sales target. It now expects 2011 sales to increase about 7 percent, instead of 6 percent.


"Halloween got off to a solid start and we now anticipate higher seasonal sales for the full year," Bilbrey added.

Yes, candy is alive and well.