BOOmeringues & September LOL Food Blogger Posts

Although I love Halloween and will be attending a great party tonight in an apartment with a terrace overlooking the NYC Village Halloween parade, I am a bit sad about the state of my blog this month. October was a freight train whizzing by and it left all my fabulous Halloween baking ideas in the dust. They all will just have to wait until next year.  BOO-hoo.

I did do a huge amount of generic Halloween baking this month for parties and events, just didn't have time the spare time to photograph and post everything.

For my own Halloween kickoff cocktail party I made Halloween themed food and treats. All I have to show for it is this picture of a fleshless face dip.

These BOOmeringues are also from my party. They are a bit wonky and I was hesitant to post them but I had nothing else Halloweeny and the visual pun was perfect for the theme of this post.

For the meringues I used a recipe from the very creative The Art of Being Perfect. Instead of piping upwards to make standing ghosts. I made boomerang shapes.

Peppermint Pinktober Macarons Mactweets challenge #24

Those rosy and thoughtful ladies Jamie and Deeba over at Mactweets dedicated this months Macaron these to Pink raising awareness for Breast Cancer.

As I type this I am looking over at my referral paper for a routine mammogram lying on the table and I am reminded to make the time to get it done. So I will also remind all of you out there to put your health first. Early detection is crucial.

This month has been unbelievable hectic. I barely squeaked these in under the deadline.The result was not what I envisioned (why do those visions of macs that dance in our heads always look so much better there than on the baking sheet? ) The idea was to make macs that looked like a starlight mint fashioning the stripes into the awareness ribbons. Oh well. These did not turn out the right color -too fleshy pink and the feet are a mess and my ribbons are sloppy but they do taste pretty good. The peppermint buttercream is especially tasty.

A big thank you to the ladies of Mactweets for dedicating this month's theme to such an important cause.

Pretzel Mummy Munchies for a Halloween Snack

Just a quick post today. I made these for a Halloween kickoff cocktail party. The idea is not mine, I borrowed it from Midwestern Sewing Girl. She made hers in white and they are adorable. When I found some leftover royal icing and realized I had no white candy melts on hand, I improvised to make mine more colorful.

Let These Dry Overnight

I used electric green candy melts instead of white, melting them in the microwave with a little shortening. I snipped a small hole in the corner of a ziplock bag and filled it with the melted melts and piped them on the mini pretzels.

Pop the eyes on while the candy melt "bandage"s are still wet. When they dry you have the perfect little halloween mummy munchies for a party. 

Boo!

Dem Bonz Dem Bonz Dem Glittery Bonz Sugar Cookies

I was all about making bone cookies for halloween. I even went out and bought the Wilton bone pan.

I made sugar cookie dough, baked the cookies and smeared and sprinkled cocoa powder on them when they were finished. 

I thought they came out ok, but a too bit ho hum for my taste.

Plum Strudel with Cinnamon Glaze for the Break in the Fast

This is something I whipped up quickly today for a Yom Kippur "Break in the Fast" party we are attending tonight. I thought a strudel would be an appropriate Mad Hausfrau contribution.

The addition of the vanilla to both the preserves and the strudel dough added another layer of flavor to this rich, delicious autumn dessert. By bringing this winner strudel tonight, I am hoping to atone for my past baking sins.

Laptop MACarons with Apple Buttercream RIP Steve Jobs

Here's to the crazy one.

The misfit. The rebel. The troublemaker. the round peg in the square hole.

The one who saw things differently.

He wasn't fond of rules. He had no respect for the status quo.

You can quote him, disagree with him, glorify or vilify him.

About the only thing you can't do is ignore him.

Because he changed things. He pushed the human race forward.

And while some may have seen him as the crazy one, we saw genius.

Because the man who was crazy enough to think

he could change the world, was the one who did.

Steve Jobs  1955-2011

Click the photos for recipes and instructions

Candy Corn Mini Hi Hat Cupcakes

I am one of the people who fall on the side of candy corn lovers, not haters. When I was an expat, come October it made me sad not to have some around. Once a kind friend even mailed two bags to me after I  kvetched on Facebook about the woeful lack of it in Deutschland. I was not so much craving the taste (I mean, just how much can one eat of that stuff anyway?) as much as the Halloween memories they evoke. It's my my favorite holiday and when in the States, I always celebrated it to the max. 

Life is crazy busy right now but I am going to do my best in the next weeks to post some of the fun Halloween treat ideas that have been rambling around in my head this past year.

Admittedly, these looked much better in my head then they came out in real life. I need some practice with the multi dipping it took to create them. Next time I will try to experiment with a candy corn flavor for the cupcakes as well. I went with plain vanilla for this first round.

I couldn't find yellow candy melts so I colored a bag of white ones with Wilton's candy colors. It worked perfectly.

Here's how I made my little cupcake candy corn tribute.

Roasted Butternut Squash Hummus

Here I am with another hummus recipe. We have been doing a lot of entertaining on the terrace, trying to squeeze the most of having such a great outdoor space in NYC before the weather forces us inside. When making dinner for guests two to three times a week, I've found one of the easiest appetizers to throw together is hummus. What's been really fun is experimenting with flavors and adding different ingredients. Throw everything in the fopro and done. 

With the deep sweet flavor of the roasted butternut squash, this hummus does not need much seasoning. I tried the same recipe recently with sweet potatoes from the farmers' market. Perfect result. Just a little denser in texture and flavor.