Happy Hallowe’en!

Halloween, or Hallowe’en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, Halloween festivals, bonfires, costume parties, visiting “haunted houses” and viewing horror films. Halloween originated from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom. (ref: Wikipedia)

JT and I did our traditional pumpkin carving last night. It’s always so much fun – kind of a competition between us. We scour the net for cool templates, and then come home and carve. JT did the one on the right (grim reaper) and mine are the two on the left (the centre one was a centre piece for a dinner party on Sunday!).

2006 pumpkins (JT on left):

2005 Pumpkins (JT on right):

We’ll be out on the porch with a cocktail handing out candy tomorrow night – should be fun!

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Retro with a twist

We were doing a photo shoot for an in store POS on Cheese and one of the recipes was a disgusting cheese fondue that had tomato soup in in (YUCK), but the idea stuck and for our dinner party with Barb and Kevin on Oct 20, I made a fondue dinner. Here is the menu:

Smoked salmon three ways (I wish I shot this because it looked really cool): Mini bagels, smoked salmon and cream cheese (yes, I made the mini bagels myself, about 1″ in diameter so they were perfect poppers!); Smoked salmon ceviche shooter: smoked salmon chopped finely, finely chopped shallot, a few kernels of corn and cilantro chopped, 1 part lime cordial and 1 part vodka in a shooter glass-YUM; Smoked salmon tartar: finely chopped smoked salmon, finely shredded lemon rind, dill on a white Chinese soup spoon, dollop of cream fresh and some red fish eggs for texture (I put the tartar in a cylindrical sleeve for presentation, but just small enough to pop into your mouth in one fell swoop!).

Swiss cheese fondue, home made bread, cheddar cauliflower, brocoli and grape tomatoes. I also wrapped figs and pears in prosciutto for dipping.

Home made chicken soup broth with tartar quality beef finely sliced, sushi quality tuna, sliced in 1″x 1/4″ slices, and shrimp.

Dessert was chocolate fondue with strawberries, pineapple, and pears. Wow!

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