Week 6: Goulish Goodies

This week's installment is all about icky gooey Halloween goodness. Your friends will love to help you put these together and then help you eat them. Cue up "The Monster Mash" and get started!

Bloody Ears

1 sheet puff pastry, thawed if frozen
1/2 cup red seedless jelly (such as strawberry or raspberry)
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar ("Sugar In The Raw")

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Evenly spread the jam over the top of the puff pastry, going all the way to the edges. Beginning at one long side, roll the dough up to the middle, then repeat with the opposite side, rolling it up until it reaches the middle and butts into the other roll-up.

Spread the turbinado sugar out onto a baking sheet (or the counter) and lightly brush the outside of the cookie roll with the beaten egg. Roll the entire log in the sugar, pressing lightly so it sticks to the outside. Using a sharp knife, slice the cookies 1/4-inch thick and arrange them on the baking sheet (just push them back to their original shape if they begin to come apart).
Bake the cookies until light golden brown, about 20 minutes. When the cookies come out of the oven, immediately (and carefully) remove them from the parchment paper to a clean sheet of parchment. Cool the cookies completely before serving.

Source: http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=2223

Pudding Dirt Cups

This dirt dessert recipe is a great cooking activity for kids. Made with chocolate pudding, crushed Oreos and gummy worms, these pudding dirt cups are as fun for the kids to make, as they are tasty to eat.

This Oreo dirt dessert also makes a terrific Halloween party recipe, especially for kids who enjoy being grossed out.

Ingredients:

2 cups cold milk
1 4-serving size package instant chocolate pudding
8 oz. frozen whipped topping (such as Cool Whip), thawed
1-1/2 cups crushed sandwich cookies (such as Oreos)
20 gummy worms

Preparation:

Whisk together milk and instant pudding for two minutes, until pudding is completely dissolved and. Let stand 5 minutes to thicken.

Stir in frozen whipped topping and 1/2 cup of the crushed cookies. Spoon into 10 cups. Sprinkle remaining crushed cookies over the pudding mixture. Top with 2 gummy worms. Chill until ready to serve.

Makes 10 servings.

Source: http://kidscooking.about.com/od/desserts/r/dirt_dessert.htm

Monster Toes

Ingredients:

Biscuit dough
Green food coloring
Cocktail franks
Honey mustard
Black olives

Preparation:

If you make your own biscuit dough, add 5 drops of green food coloring to your batter before you kneed it and roll it out. If you buy ready made, brush the dough with green food coloring after the toes are made. Roll out your dough. Spread mustard on the dough. Cut pieces big enough to cover one cocktail frank. Roll it and seal shut. Cut a black olive in half. Push one half into the dough on the edge of the cocktail frank. This is the toenail. Place all of the toes on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for twenty minutes.

Source: http://parentingteens.about.com/od/recipesforkids/r/halloween212.htm

Witch's Brew

Ingredients

1 (6-ounce) package lime gelatin
2 cups boiling water
3 cups chilled pineapple juice
1 (2 liter) bottle chilled lemon-lime soft drink or ginger ale
2 cups chilled vodka, optional
Special equipment:
1 large black plastic cauldron (available at party or craft stores)
1 punch bowl that fits inside the cauldron
1 plastic hand (available at party supply stores), sterilized in hot water
1 block dry ice (available at supermarkets, ice cream shops or ice companies)

Directions:

Pour the gelatin mix into a large bowl. Slowly stir in the boiling water. Stir at least 2 minutes, until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir in the pineapple juice. Let cool to room temperature.

Wearing heavy duty gloves or using tongs, place the block of dry ice in the bottom of the cauldron. (Dry ice will burn skin, so handle it with gloves and tongs and keep it away from kids and pets!)

Use an ice pick to break the block into smaller chunks, if necessary.

Fill the cauldron with just enough water to cover the dry ice. It will begin to "steam."

Place the punch bowl inside the cauldron, on top of the dry ice. The cauldron will appear to be magically smoking.

Entrap the sterilized rubber hand between the cauldron and the punch bowl, squeezing it tight so the hand appears to be reaching out of the mist for help. Hot-glue the hand to the cauldron, if necessary, to hold it in place.

Carefully pour the drink mixture into the punch bowl. Slowly add the chilled vodka and lemon-lime soda or ginger ale. Stir gently to mix.

Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/witchs-brew-recipe/index.html

Miami University Ghost Stories:

About the Ghost Biker

It is well known that a drive on the roads surrounding Oxford can be dangerous. According to one legend, dangerous curves, oncoming traffic, speeders, and drunken drivers may not be the only things waiting for you on your trip. This tale begins with a young Oxford man riding his motorcycle on Oxford-Milford road. The man was in a hurry; he was going to propose to his girlfriend who lived on Earhart Road.

But fate intervened before cyclist arrived at his destination. Missing a sharp turn, the motorcycle flew off the road and cyclist was decapitated by a barbed-wire fence. It is said that death did not deter our cyclist, and that he is still today trying to reach his girl friend's house to pop the question.

In order to see him, you should drive to the girl friend's old Earhart road home, currently owned by a Mr. Falk, and park facing south. If you flash your headlights three times, you may see the headlight of the ghost motorcycle focusing straight ahead, only to disappear as it approaches the fatal curve. If, by chance, the cycle light does not disappear, it is recommended that you drive quickly away in the opposite direction.

Source: http://www.lib.muohio.edu/mysteries/files/ghost.html

About the Ghost of Helen Peabody

Throughout most of its existence, Western Female Seminary enjoyed a cordial, if not always warm, relationship with neighboring Miami University. During the nineteenth century in particular, contact between the men and women of the two institutions was strictly controlled by administrators concerned for the moral well-being of their charges.

Western Female Seminary Principal Helen Peabody, an outspoken opponent of coeducation, was especially protective of her students and always suspicious of the Miami men who occasionally, and not always innocently, wandered onto Western property. Ms. Peabody took her convictions to the grave, and it is not hard to imagine how she would have reacted to the sight of Miami men freely roaming the corridors of the Hall that now bears her name.

In fact, it appears that Ms. Peabody may have done far more than merely turn over in her grave. According to some witnesses, her spirit leaves the tomb occasionally to watch over the women of Peabody Hall and to haunt the men who now dare to walk its corridors. Those who have seen her claim that Helen Peabody remains in death, as she was in life, a very formidable woman.

Source: http://www.lib.muohio.edu/mysteries/files/peabody.html

About the Ron Tammen Disappearance

Old Fisher Hall was an ideal setting for the most famous Miami Mystery. Originally the home of Oxford College for Women, it was converted into an asylum and sanitarium after being purchased by Dr. Harvey Cook in the 1880's. Dr. Cook made a number of additions and renovations to the property, now called the Oxford Retreat. Among these was the acquisition of the building that came to be known as the Pines and an adjoining structure, dubbed Cook Place, which the Doctor used as his residence. Among the more interesting features of the Retreat property was an underground tunnel leading from the Pines to Cook Place. The purpose of the tunnel, it was said, was to enable Dr. Cook to get from his house to the Pines without being seen by his patients.

Miami acquired the Retreat property in stages beginning in 1925. The old College building, acquired first, was renamed Fisher Hall and became a residence hall for Miami students. During the coming years, Hall residents occasionally stumbled upon used straitjackets and other Oxford Retreat mementos. On April 19, 1953, one Fisher Hall resident stumbled from his room straight into Miami legend.

On the surface, Ronald Henry Tammen, Jr. appeared to be a typical college student of his day. A sophomore RA, he played string bass in the Campus Owls, the University dance band; belonged to Delta Tau Delta fraternity; and was a member of the wrestling team. At approximately 8:00 Sunday evening, April 19, 1953, Tammen left his Fisher Hall room to get new bed sheets from the Hall manager because someone had put a fish in his bed. Tammen took the sheets and returned to his dorm room to study psychology. It was the last time he was definitely seen alive. At 10:30 p.m., Tammen's roommate returned to find Tammen's psychology book laying open on his desk and all the room lights on. The roommate didn't think anything of it; he assumed that Tammen had decided to spend the night in the Delta Tau Delta house. It was only when Tammen failed to return the following day that the roommate became worried and a search for the missing student was begun.

To this day, Ronald Tammen's fate is unknown. Some believe he was murdered; others feel he might still be alive. One witness claimed that Tammen, dazed and unable even to remember name, came to her Seven Mile home early on the morning of April 20, seeking directions to the nearest bus stop. Other sightings, both of Ron Tammen and of his ghost, have been reported on a number of occasions. In 1973, the Butler County Coroner revealed that Tammen had visited his office, seeking a blood test, five months to the day before his disappearance. The Coroner claimed that, in his 35 years of practice, Ronald Tammen was the only person to visit his office with such a request. When Fisher Hall was demolished in 1978, an extensive search of the rubble was conducted, but no signs of Tammen's remains were found. As time passes, it becomes less and less likely that we will ever know what really happened to Fisher Hall's most famous resident.

Source: http://www.lib.muohio.edu/mysteries/files/tammen.html

Origins of Halloween:

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Source: http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=713&display_order=1&mini_id=1076