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Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Friday Five: Celebrating Halloween

This week the Friday Five is about celebrating Halloween.

1. How did you celebrate this time of year when you were a child? When I was a little girl we weren't home for a lot of Halloweens. My dad managed the LA branch of what was then the Lutheran Church Supply Store. Later it became Fortress and now Augsburg Fortress. Every year for eight years we went to the Lutheran Church Women's annual convention held near Monterey at the Asilomar Retreat Center. It was much better than trick or treating! We got off from school for the week. Hundreds of "ladies" watched my sisters and I grow up. They brought us treats, took our picture and generally fussed over us. One memorable year Papa Joe asked us to each read a book. Then he put us on stools on a stage (see below) in front of hundreds of women and interviewed us. We gave our book reviews and of course, Dad sold out of those three books in a flash.


I think if you asked my sisters we would gladly trade a big bag of candy for a week at Asilomar any time.

2. Do you and/or your family “celebrate” Halloween? Why or why not? And if you do, has it changed from what you used to do? We don't overly fuss. There's way too much candy and decorations are usually to a minimum. Soda Chicky still wants to dress up. "It's free candy, Mom!"

When I was in the parish there was always a night of youth ministry that required dressing up. I kind of miss it.

2 again... Candy apples: Do you prefer red cinnamon or caramel covered? Or something else? I would rather not eat it if it's red cinnamon. Caramel by all means and if it has salted nuts and chocolate- even better!

3. Do you do Jack O'Lanterns? Any other ideas what to do with them? Sometimes... One year when I was in seminary and feeling very "Less is More" I cut up the pumpkin after Halloween and froze the pulp. We had pumpkin soup and later a fresh frozen pumpkin pie. I prefer the canned to the real stuff.

4. Do you decorate your home for fall or Halloween? If so, what do you do? Bonus points for pictures. Nothing worth taking pictures of.

5. Do you like pretending to be something different? Does a costume bring out an alternate personality? I love dress up! Always have. Dressing up tends to bring out the comic actress that lies somewhere beneath the skin.

Bonus: Share your favorite recipe for an autumn food, particularly apple or pumpkin ones. I love your basic Betty Crocker apple crisp with some pecans thrown in for fun. Then serve it with really expensive vanilla ice cream and the richest caramel sauce you can come up with.

15 comments:

Dorcas (aka SingingOwl) said...

Apple crips...Yumm! I tried pumpkin soup too. It was good..but waaaay creamy and fattning.

Unknown said...

I have never heard of pumpkin soup. That is definately a new one.

I'm Molly said...

When cooking, I really like canned better too. But I love to roast the seeds.

Jan said...

I stored the pumpkin one year, too, to bake punkin pie for Thanksgiving. I could see no difference between it and the canned pumpkin. So now I always use canned pumpkin. I'm glad I know someone who doesn't decorate much (or any).

leah said...

thanks for the great pics and stories, and I'll confess to preferring and using canned pumpkin (sometimes squash), too. fun play!

Sally said...

I love pumpkinn soup- but I've never tried apple crisps...

Diane M. Roth said...

betty crocker! hers are always the best recipes. I agree.

I have a couple of recipes fo apple crisp.

And I agree with you on canned versus real.

Processing Counselor said...

Your childhood sounds very interesting. Where is that place?

RevHRod said...

Asilomar is near Monterey in the northern part of California. Lots of pine trees and the ocean is a quick walk.

QuakerPastor said...

I've also eaten Pumpkin soup and LOVE it! Thanks for reminding me...
as far as pumpkin ice cream, a local ice cream maker/beer brewer(How cool is that combo?!) makes a way cool seasonal favorite of mine.
I also had a pumpkin steamer (think pumpkin egg nog-hot) and it was TO. DIE. FOR.
peace out, QP

Anonymous said...

When I read your Friday 5/6... I was so glad to see that someone else likes grocery store canned pumpkin... and that someone else isn't into bigtime decorating for Halloween. I guess I'm into easy/less fuss.

Mary Beth said...

What a great story about your childhood Halloweens. Precious!

revhipchick said...

great play! my hubby canned the pumpkin from our 3 pumpkins one year--it was crazy!

it wasn't great for pumpkin pie but it was fab for bread and cake.

Anonymous said...

Well played. And my wife would agree with you about the canned pumpkin, although this year we may try to freeze some.

Lori said...

Apple crisp....yum

Your Asilomar experience sounds awesome. How cool of your dad you include you in that!