Like most sane people who have not been cursed with allergies by Ixcacao, chocolate is my favorite sweet.  Oh, I get seriously happy about good caramel, & if you've read my older blog entries you know my obsession with pie.  But chocolate...is something else.  It's something special--I'd even say transcendental.  Not to mention historical, as archaeologists in Ecuador just discovered proof that chocolate was used over 1300 years earlier than previously thought. 

These guys look pissed.  Somebody didn't follow the recipe.

      Aside from being a confection fav, chocolate has another claim on Halloween: a bloody past.  The Aztecs believed one of their gods was cast out for sharing chocolate with humans.  Chocolate drinking cups were buried with the dead.  Removing the cocoa beans from the pod was a stand-in for removing a human heart as part of ritual sacrifice.  And if you think the ancient South American cultures were brutal about this stuff, remember what the Europeans did when they got their hands on it: war and slavery in the name of commerce rather than religion.
       These days chocolate is more innocuous.  More and more high quality chocolate is available free-trade, organic, & sustainable.*  So on this All Hallow's Eve, as I mark the path to my door with grimacing gourds & ready my stock of sugary handouts, I want a little something special for myself.  There's plenty of great ways to enjoy chocolate, but for something to relish over the course of an evening hot chocolate tops my list.  It's slightly under-sweet--if you want more sweetness &/or creaminess, finish with a drizzle of sweetened condensed milk.  And if you REALLY want to take it to the next level, use a flamed orange peel on the rim & in the beverage for a little extra something-something.


Z.D.'s Spiced Hot Chocolate
makes 1 cup - multiply as desired

Ingredients:
8 oz 2% milk
5 teaspoons golden brown sugar
1/8th teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch kosher salt
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Spice to taste (cinnamon, cardamom, smoked paprika, cayenne, etc.)
Sweetened condensed milk to taste

Directions:
 - In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the milk.  Add the sugar, vanilla, & salt & stir frequently until the sugar is dissolved.

 - Up the heat to medium & sift in the cocoa (you may roll your eyes when you see "sift," but trust me, cocoa clumps, so just get out a fine-mesh sieve & sift it in there).  Whisk until cocoa is completely incorporated.  Continue to heat, stirring occasionally to prevent skin from forming, until beverage it hot and tiny bubbles appear around the edges.

 - Select your spice(s) of choice & add by pinches, whisking thoroughly after each addition, until the flavor is balanced just the way you like.  Stir in sweetened condensed milk to taste.  Enjoy!



*But if the facts inspire you to write a horror story about a cursed chocolate trade ship, don't let me stop you!

      Just in case you haven't heard, I am a Halloween *fanatic.*  It is my favorite holiday.  Which is bizarre, because I am a total wimp when it comes to scary movies & haunted theme parks.  I even get squeamish at the idea of the old children's game, "Bloody Mary."  Yeah--I am that kind of wimp.

I am not a wimp about spiders, though.  Unless they're huge.  And in my bathtub.

      But I have plenty of decorations put up, "Sweeny Todd" to sing along to, & creepy boardgames to play. And more than that, this year I put together the itinerary for the Perfect October Day for anyone who lives in western Washington.*  So if you're looking for something different to do this weekend--or if you have friends coming from out of town & you want to show them a great time--here's my recommendations.

      This little berg is out on the Olympic peninsula. It's one of my favorite day trips in the state & getting there is half the fun.  Here's my itinerary:

9:35am - Catch the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston.  Depending on where you are, this might mean getting up early, or giving you time to sleep in a little bit.  Either way, if there's a Top Pot on your route, stop for a pumpkin old fashioned doughnut and a cup of coffee to enjoy while waiting at the ferry dock.

      It's about a 30 minute crossing, & then you head west & north.  As you drive, set the mood with a creepy podcast: I suggest any of the Spooked episodes, or my current obsession, Lore.  Your route will take you through Port Gamble, a charming town so tiny you could miss it if you didn't have SLOW WAY THE F*** DOWN to make that hairpin turn through the middle.  It's one of the most haunted places on the West Coast, so if you feel like stopping & poking around, by all means, do!  Just make sure you get to...

11am - Farms Reach Cafe, Chimicum.  Small, casual, & homey-delicious food awaits you here.  I took the recommendation of a regular & had the beef stew with a buttermilk biscuit for lunch.  My belly was soooo happy.  I wanted to stay & try some of their amazing looking cookies with a cup of tea, but I knew I had to leave room for the next stop, which was only three blocks away.

12pm - Finnriver Cidery, Chimicum.  Ohhh, ho hooo...& you thought you knew hard cider!  Boy, were you wrong!  Go straight into the tasting room & treat yourself to a guided tasting.  Then beg to taste whatever's on tap that you haven't tried yet.  Then order a glass of something & stroll around the farm, enjoying the gorgeous scenery.  Then buy a couple bottles to take home.  The brandy wines make excellent holiday gifts!

What I have from them in my fridge at this moment.  See that one second from the right?  That's Salal Berry & Cedar hard apple cider!  It doesn't get more Pacific Northwest than that! No, Finnriver is not paying me to advertise.  But if they happen to see this & want to thank me with some free cider...I mean I wouldn't say "no."

Whenever you're sober enough to drive the last 30 minutes - Port Townsend.  There's so much to do here.  The Mt Townsend Creamery is off to your right before you descend the hill to downtown.  Or if you've a sweet tooth, Elevated Ice Cream is really, really good--& they sell it by the ounce instead of the scoop!  I've never gotten a bad coffee drink anywhere in town.  All the shops are cool, there's great local art, & some quality steampunk attire is available as well.  Check out every nook & cranny--including the antique mall--but be sure you're at the Haller Fountain on time for...

4:15pm - Twisted History Tour, Port Townsend.  Every boom town has it's history...most of which it would probably prefer to forget.  The Twisted History Tours of Port Townsend bring those stories back from the grave, & you will never look at the town the same again.  If you like macabre history, I recommend the Uptown Haunts.  If you like a little more ghost story in your history lessons, try the Downtown Dare.  Wear good walking shoes & a warm raincoat--& let the tales of dead liven up your evening!

The fanciest house in town was built by the undertaker.  Enough said.

      You'll wrap up around 6pm.  Depending on how you're feeling, you may decide to dine in town & take a late ferry back.  But if you want to keep the good times going, I suggest you grab a coffee to go & head back now.  If you live around Seattle or Bellevue, Mox Boarding House is your next destination.  If that's out of your way, plan ahead & order your favorite food for delivery, because it's game on.

Conclude your evening with a board game.  For a crowd, try One Night Ultimate Werewolf--an easy party game with short rounds & an app that practically walks you through it.  For smaller groups, try the goofy Betrayal at House on the Hill, the eldritch themed Mansions of Madness, the ghostly Mysterium (my favorite for Halloween), or any of the Zombicide games (we like Black Plague).  These will keep you up until the wee hours of the morning, steeped in eerie fun of the season.  And the next morning...another Top Pot doughnut, because those pumpkin old fashioned's are only around for a short time!




* If you don't live in western Washington, most of these activities are still available to you--you'll just have to research local substitutions for the rest.  Or come visit.  Either way.

      Everyone who celebrates Halloween has their own way to seek out a good scare.  Some people like to go on zombie tours or haunted houses.  Other people like to search for real ghosts.  Some people seek out terror on the screen or in the pages of a good book.  Others like their spookiness mingled with a few good chuckles.
      And then there are some people who think Halloween is really meant just for kids.

This totally says "kid friendly" to me.

      Who are these people, and what is wrong with them?  Kids don't need holidays to play dress up or eat sugar!  And did you miss that part where monsters, murderers, vermin, and dead people are involved!?!
      Anyway, for me it's Gothic Horror, all the way.  Give me the dreary antiquity, the gloomy and forlorn, the doomed beauty and the unavenged wrongs.  Give me ghosts who want more than gore.  Give me settings as gorgeous as they are petrifying.

Conan Doyle's "Hound of the Baskervilles" is a good one.  Actually, it may have been my first...I watched a lot of Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes growing up.

      Perfect example?  Just got back from watching Del Toro's Crimson Peak with my girl Camela Thompson.  This is my second time seeing the movie.  And I freaking love that movie.
      If you haven't seen it, then guess what?  Tomorrow is Halloween!  You have the perfect excuse!  It's got everything Guillermo del Toro does best: jaw-dropping sets, tantalizing plot, vibrant characters, and that exquisitely perfect mix of heart-rending beauty and truly shocking violence.  Why shocking?  Because he uses it just right.  Del Toro uses violence the way Hitchcock used suspense: just the right amount, at the right time, in the right way to really take your breath away.  I've seen hard-core slasher movie fans flinch and gasp at some of the key moments in Pan's Labyrinth.*

      The sad thing is how easy it is to make gothic horror cheesy, or over dramatic.  When it's done well, it's just so terrifyingly yummy.  When it's done badly, it's like opening a bottle of expensive wine, only to find it's gone to vinegar.  It'll probably be too damn long before another great gothic horror film comes out.  So I'll just rely on books.
      Or better yet, write one myself.


*If you've seen it, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  If you haven't seen it...*sigh*  Just...go watch it.  You'll thank me.

      If you're a long-time reader of this blog, or if you know me personally, you are aware that Halloween is my favorite holiday.  I celebrate all October long!*  It's the epitome of so many of my favorite things: hanging out with friends, playing dress up, eating sweets, and telling scary stories.  That last one in particular is a weird one for me, because I'm also a total wimp who can't watch horror movies.

When I finally own my house, it will be decorated like this for Halloween.  Except cooler, with more spider webs & a fog machine & motion-activated bats.

      When I say I like a scary story, I mean I like a well-told tale that makes my spine go rigid.  I enjoy visions of splendid buildings fallen into decay.  I want the sound of wind moaning louder and louder, until you can no longer lie to yourself that it's just the wind.  I enjoy old tragedies that inspire regret beyond the grave, lingering like mist low to the ground.  I like the mystery of the unseen.

And nothing transports the imagination like a good book.

      My tradition the last few years has been to indulge in both a modern and a classic scary story during the month of October.  This year I was going to read House of Leaves, which has come to me highly recommended.  Based on what I know about it, however, I think it would frankly freak me the fuck out, and I can't read that before bed when I'm sleeping alone.  So it's being postponed one more year.  Instead, this year I plan to indulge in a non-fiction book entitled The Curve of Time.  Although not intended to be a scary story, there are apparently plenty of creepy, otherworldly encounters recorded in it's pages.  And since it a) takes place in my area, and b) is ostensibly a true story...yeah.  I think that might do the trick nicely.
      In terms of the classic, I'm debating between H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man, or the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe.  I've never read Wells.  Although not strictly a horror novel, I think it often gets grouped in the "scary story" genre because of the science-gone-wrong aspect.  Plus it preys on the inherent fear of being forgotten--literally "disappearing from the world."  But then again, Poe is classic, and creepy, and gloriously gothic.  I read his short stories in high school, but I think the language prevented me from absorbing as much as I could.  So is this the time to revisit?

I am so this kid.  Why do I do this to myself?

     I have a week yet to make up my mind.  I'm open to suggestions.  If you have a favorite scary story, I'd love to hear what makes your skin prickle, and leave the light on as you sleep.


*But not BEFORE October.  It drives me nuts that stores start putting out their Halloween merch in August.  I can't get in the creepy gothic mood when I'm still working my tan!

      My Halloween obsession with pumpkin this year is definitely getting my culinary creative juices flowing!  The other night I was in the shower, thinking about what to do next with pumpkin.  I wanted something more distinctly breakfast-y this time.  "Pumpkin bread?" I asked myself.  "Like, the usual kind?  Nah...too repetative.  Pumpkin muffins?  I like pumpkin muffins, but there are so many recipes for them in the world.  Pumpkin curry?  Other cultures have curry for breakfast, and I do love curry...."
      Then I started thinking of other foods and flavors that I love, especially the ones that make rare appearances in my life.  Which inevitably got me thinking of spumone.

Just looking at this picture makes me want to lick this plate clean.

      If you've never had spumone (or "spumoni," as it's spelled in the plural) - or worse, if you've never had GOOD spumone - then I feel really, really sorry for you.  Spumone is what Neapolatin ice cream wishes it could be.  It is a three-layer gelato dessert, with at least one layer being flavored with fruit (usually cherry), another being flavored with nuts (usually pistachio), and the third layer being, of course, chocolate.  It's Italian in origin, like so many other delicious desserts, and it's really hard to find.*  But the creamy gelato and the perfectly balanced flavors make it an ice cream experience worth hunting down!
      I have never made spumone, mainly because it would require making three separate batches of ice cream, and my home does not need that many extraneous calories on hand.  However, the flavor profile can be applied to other foods for a gentle reminder of the scruptious original.  Which is how we arrive at today's Halloween breakfast: Spumone-Inspired Pumpkin Flapjacks!

This is why breakfast is my favorite part of the day.

      In order to make proper pumpkin pancakes, whipped egg whites are required.  The pumpkin purée is simply too dense for regular dry leavening to do their work.  With this particular recipe, you also have chopped nuts and cherries adding weight--an airy cloud of protein must assist for fluffy flapjack texture!  Therefore, these are not your throw-together-half-asleep-on-a-Saturday-morning pancakes.  These are plan-ahead-and-wow-everybody-for-Sunday-brunch pancakes.  I feel pretty safe saying nobody will have had these before.

Z.D.'s Spumone-Inspired Pumpkin Flapjacks
Makes about 12

Ingredients:
1/3 Cup dried tart cherries, cut into pieces if too large
1 tsp almond extract
2 large eggs
5 oz buttermilk (or 2 tsp white vinegar + milk to = 5 oz)
1/3 Cup (generous) pumpkin purée
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 Cup cake flour**
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/3 Cup finely chopped roasted pistachios (salted is just fine)
2 T unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing skillet


Directions:
 - Place cherries in a small, heat proof bowl, and sprinkle almond extract over.  Add just enough hot water to cover, and set aside to soak while you prepare the batter.

If you love cherries (I do), feel free to increase the amount use in this recipe, up to doubling.  Just make sure that your cherry pieces aren't too big, and increase the amount of almond extract accordingly.

 - Separate the eggs, putting the whites in a clean, small bowl with tall sides.  Put the yolks in a large bowl, and add the buttermilk, pumpkin, sugar, and vanilla.  Whisk to combine, set aside.

Not a lot of pumpkin, but the flavor does come through.

 - In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, including the pistachios.

Make sure you chop these pretty fine--too chunky and you'll feel like you're eating granola.  On the other hand, chop them too fine and they'll disappear.  Bits about the size of dried black peppercorns worked for me.

 - Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Drain the cherries and discard the soaking liquid.  Put your skillet over medium high heat to warm.  Now you're ready to bring everything together.

Good kitchen tip: use a big bowl.  When in doubt, bigger than you need.

 - Whisk the 2 T butter into your pumpkin mixture.  Add the cherries and the dry ingredients, and mix well.

This will have the consistancy of a heavy muffin batter.

 - Stir a quarter of the egg whites into the batter to lighten, then fold in the remaining egg whites.  With pancakes, it's Ok to have a few faint white streaks--you really don't want to over-mix!

Feel the fluffiness as you fold!

 - When your skillet or griddle reaches 375º F, brush with melted butter, and spoon on the batter in generous 1/4 cupfuls.  Manage your heat so that it remains between 365-375º.  Cook the flapjacks so that they are golden brown on the bottom (about 4-5 min), then flip and cook until golden brown on the other side (about 3 min longer).

Because the egg whites make this a little thicker, they take a minute or so longer to cook than regular flapjacks.

 - Serve immediately with a good chocolate sauce or chocolate-hazelnut spread, such as Nutella.

The necessary final step to creating that spumone trilogy of deliciousness!

      I served these with some good, oven-roasted bacon, fresh fruit, and hot coffee.  If you wanted to try for a little more Italian, serve with pancetta and espresso.  And if you wanted something a little more autumnal, I'd suggest pork-apple sausage and cinnamon spiced tea.  But whatever you do, don't leave off the chocolate!



*Finding GOOD spumone is even harder.  Do yourself a favor, and skip anything cheap, major-brand, or mass-produced.  The best spumone is found at small, genuine Italian restaurants, made in-house from scratch.  Which is why it's so freaking hard to find.

**Those of you who read a lot of my recipes are going, "WHOA!  Z.D.!  What's with the cake flour!?  Aren't you a passionate devotee of spelt and all-purpose flours!?!"  To which I reply: Yes, but everything has it's place. The fine grain and protein content of cake flavor guarantees the perfect texture for these flapjacks.  If you're going to make these, don't go halfway--go get the freaking cake flour.

      Halloween draws ever nearer, and my quest to perfect All Things Pumpkin continues.  Yesterday I took it upon myself to create Pumpkin Spoonbread with Candied Bacon.

The color was gorgeous, and the smell as it baked was even better!

      This was a double experiment, because I'd never made spoonbread, and I'd never cooked with candied bacon (my usual approach to candied bacon is to take bacon, candy it in whole strips, and cram them into my mouth as soon as temperature will permit).  I am pleased to report that the experiment was a marvelous success!  It had all the robust flavors one craves in the fall, with great balance of texture.  Everyone who partook thoroughly enjoyed the dish, and I - as my own worst critic - could find nothing I would change next time around.
      We ate this for dinner along with steamed broccolini and fresh pears.  However, I think this would really be superb as a brunch entrée, served with fresh fruit, hot coffee and biscotti.  In point of fact, I think that is precisely what my Thanksgiving brunch will look like this year.  It'll impress the pants off my guests.  Which is fine, because we never fit into our pants at the end of the holidays, anyway.
      Oh yeah, and this is gluten free!  If, y'know, you care about that sort of thing.

Z.D.'s Pumpkin Spoonbread with Herbs and Candied Bacon

Ingredients:
6 thick slices of bacon, diced
1/2 Cup minced sweet onion
1 & 2/3 Cups whole milk (2% is Ok, but no lower)
5 & 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 Cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 Cup pumpkin purée
2 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon freshly chopped thyme
1 teaspoon freshly chopped rosemary
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Generous pinch white pepper
1/4 Cup packed golden brown sugar

Directions:
 - Pre-heat your oven to 350º F, and set four 3/4 Cup ramekins on a baking sheet.  In a large nonstick skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon with the onion, stirring occasionally, until the onion is golden brown and most of the bacon fat is rendered.  This will take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes, so meanwhile prepare the spoonbread batter.

The key is to only render about 80% of the bacon fat before adding the sugar at the end.

 - In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the butter into the milk, and add the salt.

Don't ignore your milk mixture or it will boil over and you will be a very unhappy chef.

 - When the mixture reaches a strong simmer, whisk in the cornmeal and remove from the heat.  Whisk for another minute or so until the mixture is thick and even, then stir in the pumpkin purée until thoroughly combined.  Set aside.

This will have the texture of good mashed potatoes.

 - In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.  Set aside.

Remember: stiff peaks means when you lift out the beaters, the little tufts of egg whites stay upright, they do not sag!

 - In a large bowl, beat together the egg yolks, herbs, nutmeg, and pepper.  Add the cornmeal mixture and stir vigorously with a spoon until thoroughly combined.  Set aside.

I used fresh thyme and rosemary because a) they were what I had on hand, and b) I think both go great with bacon.  However, feel free to substitute other fresh herbs that compliment pumpkin, such as sage, or chives, or parsley!

 - Carefully pour off all but about a teaspoon of the bacon fat from your skillet (I just tipped the whole mess into a strainer rather than risk losing precious bacon, then put it back in the pan).  Add the brown sugar and stir often, so it starts to melt and coat the bacon.  Then divide the candied bacon mixture evenly among the ramekins, spreading to cover the bottoms.

If you're looking at this and thinking, "That's not enough bacon," don't worry: with the onion and the sugar, I promise this will provide the flavor punch you crave.  Trust me.

 - Stir 1/4 of the egg whites into the pumpkin batter, just to lighten, then fold in the remaining whites.

Yes, you really do have to fold the egg whites, not stir.  Stirring deflates them and that defeats the purpose!

 - Spoon the batter equally among the ramekins, covering the candied bacon.  Transfer the ramekins on the baking sheet to the oven, and bake for 27 - 32 minutes, or until the spoonbread starts to pull away from the sides and the edges of tinged with brown.

I used my 1.5 Cup ramekins to be on the safe side, and they were twice the size I needed.  So feel free to use 3/4 or 1 Cup ramekins if you have those instead.

      Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes before eating.  The spoonbread has a great texture, and finding the candied bacon at the bottom makes every bite a pleasure!

Smokey, salty, creamy, meaty, savory, and a little sweet.  The herbs add depth and the portion size is perfect for the richness!

     If you were looking to simplify things a bit you could probably make the candied bacon a day or so ahead.  Seal it in a tupperware container - or scoop it into the ramekins and cover each with plastic wrap - and stash it in the fridge.  Just make sure it's at room temperature before adding the batter and putting things in the oven.

Pumpkin Beer Bread from left to right: With Raisins and Walnuts, With Bittersweet Chocolate Chunks, and Savory Plain

      This weekend recipe continues my Halloween preparations by using pumpkin, but also incorporates another passing fad. See, for my household, this autumn and winter will be the Long Seasons of Beer Bread.  Back in August, I helped cater a friend's pool party.  There were over 60 people invited, and my friend insisted that a big chunk of them preferred the popular domestic lager I tend to refer to as "cheap-ass beer."  So under her instruction, we bought four cases of it--that's 96 cans of beer.  Now, guess how many of those beers were consumed at the party?  No, really, guess.  I'll put the answer at the bottom of the post.*
      That leaves her with a garage fridge overflowing with cans of crappy, low-alcohol beverage, the name of which rhymes with "spud blight" (which is also, coincidentally, how it tastes).  My friend doesn't drink, except for champagne toasts at weddings.  I drink on occasion, but when I do drink beer I prefer craft brews with a flavor and texture resembling chocolate milkshakes.  So what to do with almost 100 cans of cheap-ass beer?
      This is why beer bread was invented.
      Beer bread is great with soup or stew, and fabulous for grilled cheese sandwiches.  But you know me, I like breakfast.  So when I noticed the pumpkin ales that become available for the holidays, my mental gears began to turn.  That's why this weekend I delved into the Great Pumpkin Beer Bread Experiment!

Baking pumpkin bread is a much better way of welcoming Spiritual Seasonal Gourds than catching a cold by waiting in a pumpkin patch.  Trust me.

      I took my favorite beer bread recipe, doubled the dry ingredients, and added 15oz of pure pumpkin purée to the beer and butter.  Then I divided the batter into three loaves and doctored each a little differently.  One I left plain, just to see what it would taste like.  One I added a touch of honey, traditional pumpkin bread spices, golden raisins, and walnuts, for a heartier autumn loaf.  And one I added a little spice, honey, and a cup of freshly chopped bittersweet chocolate, to test my spouse's theory that "everything is better with chocolate."  Then I baked, and this morning we ate.
      I'm happy to report that I would consider all three loaves a success.

      Assuming that you - like most sane people - aren't interested in messing around trying to divide bread dough into three equal parts and making each into an unique recipe, I'm going to provide the recipe for each as a three loaf batch.  Meaning if you follow these recipes, you will wind up with three loaves of one kind of bread.  Which is fine, because bread freezes really well.  Or you could give them away and be really popular.  Just don't give any to me, I've got plenty of beer bread!

Z.D.'s Pumpkin Beer Bread
makes three 8 x 4 loaves of plain bread

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter melted butter
2 Cups whole wheat flour
4 Cups AP flour
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2/3 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
12 oz. Cheap-Ass Beer
14.5 oz pure pumpkin purée

Directions: 
 - Pre-heat your oven to 375º F.  Brush some of the butter to coat the inside of three 8 x 4 inch metal loaf pans.  Reserve the rest.

I tend to melt my butter in the pans in the pre-warming oven while I make the dough.  Then I just pour it out and grease with what's left in the bottom.

 - In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and nutmeg.  Set aside.

 - In a smaller bowl, whisk together the beer, pumpkin, and all but about 1 T of remaining butter.  Stir into the flour mixture until fully incorporated.

This will take some mixing, and the finished dough will be fairly stiff, so make sure your bowl is big enough.

 - Divide the dough among the three loaf pans, pressing the dough into the corners. Bake for 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven just long enough to brush the tops with the remaining butter, then place back in the oven and finish baking, about 5 minutes.

 - Cool in pans about 5-10 minutes, then turn out loaves onto a rack to finish cooling.  Store at room temperature, wrapped in plastic.  Or, when cool, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then in aluminum foil, and freeze for up to 2 months.

A full flavor, like a good squash.

      This is moister than regular wheat bread, but less dense and yeastier than regular pumpkin bread.  Serve with chili, or a nice beef and barley soup.  Alternatively, slice thin and toast to accompany a good autumn cheese plate, with crisp grapes and apples.
      OR...you can try one of the variations below!  Follow the regular recipe, but add the additional ingredients as specified in the directions.


Z.D.'s Spiced Pumpkin Beer Bread with Raisins and Walnuts
makes three 8 x 4 loaves of hearty autumn raisin bread

Additional Ingredients:
1 Tablespoons cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger (alternatively, add 1/2 Cup chopped crystalized ginger)
1 Cup golden raisins
1 Cup roughly chopped walnuts
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 Cup canola oil
3 to 6 Tablespoons of honey, to taste
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions:
 - Pre-heat oven and prepare pans per the original recipe.  When whisking together the dry ingredients, add the cinnamon, ginger, raisins, and walnuts.

 - When whisking together the wet ingredients, add the eggs, oil, and honey (the honey is only to add a touch more sweetness, so adjust to your preference).  Beat well before adding to the dry.

 - Bake per the original recipe.  After removing from oven the final time, immediately dust the top of the loaves with powdered sugar, if using.

My spouse isn't a huge raisin fan, but in the right recipe I think they're delightful.  Nothing says "cool weather breakfast" to me like a good slice of toasted raisin bread with cinnamon butter!

      Serve warm with honeybutter for breakfast, brunch, or tea. Also makes for an interesting twist on a grilled cheese or peanutbutter sandwich.


Z.D.'s Spiced Pumpkin Beer Bread with Chocolate
makes three 8 x 4 loaves of chocolately enhanced bread

Additional Ingredients:
2 tsp cinnamon
2 Cups roughly chopped bittersweet baking chocolate
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 Cup canola oil
3 to 6 Tablespoons of honey, to taste

Directions:
 - Pre-heat oven and prepare pans per the original recipe.  When whisking together the dry ingredients, add the cinnamon and chocolate.

 - When whisking together the wet ingredients, add the eggs, oil, and honey (the honey is only to add a touch more sweetness, so adjust to your preference).  Beat well before adding to the dry.

      Bake and cool per the original recipe.  Serve...whenever.  It's chocolate.  It's a nice way to work chocolate into your breakfast without feeling like you're over-indulging by eatng dessert first.  Alternatively, if you wanted to 'zert it up, toast and add Nutella.  Or make into a sandwich with sweetened cream cheese and slices of banana!

I made this specifically to test the theory that "everything is better with chocolate."  While this by no means definitively prooves said theory, it certainly doesn't debunk it!

*If you guessed "4," you are correct.

      And may you have a good All Hallow's Eve, however you care to celebrate!
      My night will include a large feast of autumn treats (you are so not surprised by this, are you?) and some good reading. I finished re-reading "Rebecca" by Daphne de Maurier, and liked it just as much as I did the first time. "Gone Girl" was an excellent book, but it has nothing on "Rebecca" as far as I'm concerned. So wanting to finish the season with something a little more supernatural, I picked up "Something Wicked This Way Comes," by Ray Bradbury. His prose in this short novel is superb, full of eloquent phrasing that flies in the face of grammar, but captures human (and particularly childhood) experience with exquisite accuracy. Here's a quote from the prologue:

"But you take October, now. School's been on a month and you're riding easier in the reins, jogging along. You got time to think of the garbage you'll dump on old man Prickett's porch, or the hairy-ape costume you'll wear to the YMCA the last night of the month. And if it's around October twentieth and everything smokey-smelling and the sky orange and ash grey at twilight, it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft clap of bedsheets around corners.
"But one strange wild dark long year, Halloween came early.
"One year Halloween came on October 24, three hours after midnight."

      And if that doesn't make you want to read the book, then there's something wrong with you.
      So now I have tastes and smells and stories - and of course my decorations have been up for weeks - so that just leaves the sounds--or more specifically, the soundtrack. There are few things in this world as inspiring as music. We use it to set the mood in dozens of ways, from spiritual ritual to casual parties, from the hip restaurant down the street to formal celebrations. A lot of writers will tell you they also use music to set the mood when composing their tales (some famously so, such as Stephanie Meyer's unabashed adoration of the band "Muse"). I have been one of these from my earliest typing days: I remember sitting down at the Macintosh LC in my parent's office, slipping an Enya CD into the stereo, and furiously typing away on my fantasy novel with all the enthusiasm of raw Middle School naïveté. (I'm pretty certain if I went back and read that old manuscript, I would find that that the lulls and action scenes follow the sequence of songs on "Watermark" perfectly.)
      These days I usually find individual songs that set a certain feel for me. I like to play these just as I sit down to write, rather than keeping them on in the background. For my zombie novel, it's been "Come With Me Now" by The Kongos. For my gas-lamp fantasy novel, it was the "Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saëns. And it was also this classical piece that also inspired me to start my Ultimate Halloween Play List.
      On previous Halloweens I've tried Pandora and the albums you can buy in the party supply stores, but there's only so many renditions of "Monster Mash" I can take. There are too many good, eerie songs from too many different genres to be captured in those mass-appeal compilations. So I've started my own playlist and I'm always open to new suggestions! Here's what I've got so far:

"Danse Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saëns
"Possum Kingdom" by The Toadies
"Goodnight Moon" by Shivaree
"Enter Sandman" by Metallica
"Baby's Got An Atom Bomb" by Fluke
"Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky (oh, go on and click on the link--you know you want to watch that bit from Disney's "Fantasia!")
"The Real Man" by Yoko Kanno, from the soundtrack to "Cowboy Bebop"

      And I will be adding Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto, not because it sounds particularly scary, but because apparently it was lost, and then found again due to a ghostly message sent from beyond the grave! I heard about it yesterday on NPR, and if nobody's written a novel based on this story, someone should, and fast! It's one of those real-life situations that puts fiction to shame: a tortured artist is banished to an insane asylum, his unfaithful wife buries his last work, and then a descendent is prompted to find and perform the piece in a seance...wow.

Every day is Hallowe'en with my Fuzzy Princess around, but the Jack-O-Lantern adds to her spooky qualities!

      For our final week of Halloween preparations, we have one more grisly gourmet salute to the season. A pair of particularly distinct guts...specifically:

These kidneys came from three little lambs.

      Funny thing about kidneys: they really do look like kidney beans. They're the same shape, the same ruddy shade, and they have a white spot in their crook, just like the bean. Weird coincidence, that. I can guarantee you, however, that they TASTE absolutely nothing alike.
      Kidneys have an exterior that resemble liver in both taste and texture, only slightly less fragile. The very center has a tubule that cooks down to a texture like tender calamari, and a flavor like light fat. If you're squeamish, this can be off-putting, but if you can get past the unusual nature of your entrée I think you will find it meaty, savory, and very satisfying.
       Need more persuasion? Then let me reassure you thusly: we're using Julia Child's own recipe for Lamb Kidneys In Mustard Sauce.
       A few notes on preparing kidneys. Sometimes when you buy them, they may still have a thin film of membrane of them (and sometimes a layer of fat over the membrane). Carefully peel these away, but do not rinse or soak the kidneys in water! Remember, this organ is a filtration system inside a living body, so it will act like a sponge if you subject it to moisture. Otherwise, snip away most of the button of fat in the crook of the kidney using a pair of kitchen shears--most, not all, fat has flavor.
      If you're using veal kidneys, you really only need about one per person. Lamb kidneys are smaller, so allow two or even three per person. Once you've cleaned them, set them aside while you prep your other ingredients. This is a hands-on recipe, and it doesn't take long. Since this isn't my recipe, I won't write it out (copyright and all that), but I will tell you what I did.
      First, I got out a large non-stick skillet (I probably could have used a smaller one, but this is my favorite) and melted a few Tablespoons of unsalted butter over medium-low heat.

Have everything prepped and on hand--the French call this mis en place!

      I wanted the butter to melt, and the foam to subside, but not burn. While I waited for the slow melt I mashed three Tablespoons of room-temperature salted butter with about half that amount of dijon mustard. I also minced a shallot, and about five sprigs of parsley from my herb patch.

Not as delicate as liver, but they still started splitting and falling apart a bit.

      Once my butter was hot, I put in my kidneys and immediately turned them a few times to coat them. They started cooking immediately. To prevent the outer-most layer from over-cooking and getting tough, I turned the kidneys every couple minutes until they just got brown on either side (this took me about eight minutes).

They do exude some juice at the last, which I let stay in the pan to flavor the sauce.

      At this point I removed the kidneys to a warm covered dish. Then I added the minced shallot to the remaining butter in the pan, and let them cook for a few minutes. I wanted them to become translucent, but not brown. At that point I tossed in a half a cup of dry white wine and the juice of half a lemon. I upped the heat so that this mixture boiled, reducing it to a little under half its original volume (aim for about a quarter Cup of liquid in the pan).

It's Julia Child--of course it uses butter!

      Then I killed the heat, and began stirring in the mustard butter. This was done only a spoonful at a time, melting everything together before each addition. Mustard makes a wonderful emulsifier, and if done correctly this should make a smooth sauce. This is a good point to add a few pinches of kosher salt and a couple grinds of fresh black pepper.

My sauce wound up with a slightly curdled look, but it still tasted great.

      Once the sauce comes together, it was time to tend the kidneys. Quickly, using my sharpest knife, I sliced them into rings about 1/8th of an inch thick. I knew they should still be pink in the center, and they left quite a bit of juice in their warm dish.


    Once sliced, I added the kidneys and their juices back in the pan, placed over medium-low heat, and gently tossed until coated in sauce and warmed through. Sprinkled with parsley, they went immediately onto warm plates, and then my dinner table.

      I chose to take Julia's advice and serve this with braised pearl onions and potatoes (I chose Yukon Golds roasted in the oven), and to cut the richness a bit I took my brother's advice and also made crispy kale cooked with garlic. In my glass was a reasonable Cab Sav--I would not serve any kind of sweet beverage with this meal. The sauce was rich and tangy, and went with the savory kidney very well. Over-all, I was impressed with this organ. Next I might try steak and kidney pie. After all, it is still the Year of the Pie...and nothing says Halloween Tricks like serving up a hot slice of goodness and not telling people what they're eating until they're half done! MWAH-HA-HA-HAAAA!


*I really wanted to close out this recipe run with brains (hey, they're a delicacy!), but alas, it is illegal to harvest, sell, or serve calves brains in the U.S.A. This is due to concerns about Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis, also known as Mad Cow Disease. It's a rare, but rapidly fatal illness, and frighteningly hard to kill--so I guess it's better safe than sorry.