Halloween is less than a month away. And I have not experimented with a single tasty treat to cook on that special night. I just don't have a lot of time these days to figure out how to make cool Halloween food dishes. What with the baseball playoffs, hockey starting up, travels, birthday parties, working weekends, weddings....I'm barely finding enough time to make myself a piece of toast. Add the fact that it's 100 degrees outside today and I don't want to do much of anything much less figure out how to make a mummy wrapped red velvet pumpkin cake. The thought of trying to bake or cook things for Halloween puts me into a state of panic that makes me look...well it would work great for a costume on Halloween night to scare the neighbors.
I was reminded by reading something in a magazine earlier today that you don't have to try all sorts of strange new recipes that call for heroic feats of artistic endeavors to make food for Halloween, you just need to give normal food strange, horrible sounding names. Kids won't care when you put store bought cookies on the table if you give them names that put fear into their hearts. Lady Fingers become Aunt Ethels Fingers (after that crazy aunt they are all afraid of); Macadamia Nut Cookies become Cookies with Baby Teeth. Red Velvet Cookies become Vampire Blood Cookies...you get the idea.
Suddenly the pressure is off. I don't have to be Martha Stewart (Gweneth Paltrow? Blake Lively? pick your generation) and spend hours trying to create some concoction worthy of first prize at a Food Network competition. What I need to do is just cook some basic items and give them crazy names and get food on the table. Sure, I might find time to make that Monster Bacon Meatloaf in the shape of a zombie head, or bake those Candy Cane Cupcakes that look like ghosts. Or maybe I can just just dip some dates in chocolate, name them nesting Cockroaches, put dessert on the table, and call it a day.
My friend Pillownaut who works for NASA came over for dinner a few weeks ago and I thought it necessary that I make some sort of drink with Tang...specifically since I had Tang leftover from making Tang Pie with her months before. Checking around the net I found a simple recipe for a Buzz Aldrin which made great use of my leftover Tang. We enjoyed trying the concoction though I admit, they were a bit sweet to have more than a few. I say make these on Halloween, drop in a cute Halloween straw, change their name to "Graveyard Smash*" and you have a fun, adult drink for the Holiday.
GRAVEYARD SMASH aka the BUZZ ALDRIN
Tang (for garnish)
1 orange slice
4 ounces vodka
2 tablespoons Tang
Ice
Place garnishing Tang on a plate. Run orange slice around the rim of the glass; rotate rim of glass in Tang so that the rim is covered like salt on a margarita glass.
In a cocktail shaker, add Tang, vodka, and ice; shake. Strain into glass.
Makes 1 cocktail
NOTE: Actually the Tang around the edge of the glass was great. No sweeter than rimming the glass with plain sugar and it really did give it a bit of a tangy flavor.
NOTE: Mix the Tang well with the vodka before adding ice or you might have a pile of un-melted Tang at the bottom of the shaker.
*There is no rhyme nor reason for the Graveyard Smash name except that it sounded much scarier than The Buzz Aldrin. And possibly because if you drink more than one you might actually get smashed.
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