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Book Review: Ghoulish Goodies: Creature Feature Cupcakes, Monster Eyeballs, Bat Wings, Funny Bones. Witches’ Knuckles, and Much More! by Sharon Bowers

Here’s a blast from the past. My son, described here as just starting to read, will be 14 on Sunday.  Also, we now have SO MANY Halloween cookbooks.

Ghoulish Goodies: Creature Feature Cupcakes, Monster Eyeballs, Bat Wings, Funny Bones, Witches’ Knuckles, and Much More! (Frightful Cookbook) by Sharon Bowers

Storey Publishing, LLC; Original edition, 2009

ISBN-13: 978-1603421461

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

My son REALLY loves cookbooks. A few months ago, he could only look at the pictures, but now he can read a lot of the words, and he will look at, talk about, and try to convince me to read the recipes and make them… right away! Right now he’s especially fond of Halloween cookbooks, so when I found Ghoulish Goodies among the new books at our local library, I snagged it for him right away.  The introduction is dramatic and hooked him immediately, and the pictures are gorgeous. The author says it’s a “family-friendly” cookbook, so kids should be able to participate in making the recipes.  She doesn’t say what ages she’s talking about, though, and while I learned some new and easy kitchen tricks, I can tell you that my kids (ages 3 and 5) don’t have the patience, and I don’t have the skill, to elaborately decorate cupcakes or shape jack-o-lantern shaped cookies by hand. Other recipes that sounded good, and looked like they would be reasonably simple, like “Orange Rice with Bacon”, involved a lot more time than the recipe suggested and and didn’t really provide my kids with an opportunity to get involved- although the result was delicious. Other recipes that did allow the kids to participate a little more were still trickier that we thought they would be- when we tried making “Funny Bones” we discovered that it’s a lot more difficult to dip pretzels with marshmallows in melted chocolate than it sounds. We had fun, but our final product looked nothing like the picture!  Still, there are a lot of suggestions on how to create a creepy-but-not-too-creepy spread for a Halloween party, and the author’s “mom-sense” attitude meant that I felt a lot more comfortable trying the recipes. Ghoulish Goodies contains creative and easy to read recipes, attractive pictures (although we would have liked to see more), and some simple ideas that could really impress guests at a Halloween party. It’s a lot of fun to look at and to read. Unlike a lot of Halloween “idea” books, the recipes really are something you can see kids enjoying. But for the recipe-impaired, don’t be deceived into thinking that the author’s recipes are quite as “easy” as they look. If your kids like to cook, and like Halloween, they’ll get very excited about Ghoulish Goodies. My son was thrilled to see us review it here. Just make sure to supervise closely, both for safety’s sake and to intervene if the level of frustration gets too high. Recommended for families and for cookbook collections in either the children’s department or general nonfiction collection in the public library. Librarians, make sure you seek it out for your Halloween displays.

Posted on September 27, 2019 by , Reply

Musings: Valentw’een Dinner Dates

Maybe you are cynical about Valentine’s Day, or just not into cutesy pink hearts and Valentine’s tchotckes that basically have no purpose except to commemorate an arbirtrarily chosen date but that you can’t get rid of. Like my son got me this giant plush white bear holding an embroidered plush heart…

There are options. Maybe you celebrate Galentine’s Day, and go out with your girlfriends. Or, alternatively, if you love a good scare, you could take some inspiration from artist Brandy Stark, and celebrate Valentwe’en. Brandy celebrates by holding an art show and a ghost tour. On the Valentwe’en Facebook page, she writes:

While the normal person celebrates Valentine’s Day with roses, romance, and chocolates, we who embrace Valentwe’en enjoy a time of dark romance, the Grim Cupid, and cuddling with fellow creatures of the night. For those who have longed for a second Halloween, your entreaties have been answered! Valentwe’en offers the fun of bonding for couples merged with the thrill of supernatural intrusions. It is a true collision of these two candy-filled holidays, a spiraling combination of love and death, sweetness and suspense. Valentwe’en falls on the first full moon of February or it may be held February 13th. It consists of offering black flowers to one’s love (especially black calla lilies), Halloween-themed candy, and becoming entranced by movies from genres of horror, dark romance, or dark romantic comedy. This holiday is still evolving, so the rest of the celebration is up to you!

Not being a person who does a great job tracking the phases of the moon or even dates on a calendar, my plan is to celebrate today. I’m a laid-back sort of person (meaning that I forgot to make plans) but it’s just me and two tweens on a school night, so Oreo fudge and a mildly scary family movie are about all I’ll be up to. If you want to put a little more energy into it, here are some literary ideas you can explore with the one you love (or at least love to eat candy with).

One thing that’s pretty awesome is that there are many Gothic and horror-themed books that have been made into movies and that also involve a memorable meal.  One of the most interesting of these is Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, which was made into a movie that was originally released on Valentine’s Day, and has a well-known line from Hannibal Lecter:

Well, okay, maybe that is not the dinner you want to recreate. You could come up with a nice Italian red, though. You all might need that more than dinner while watching this movie, anyway.

If you want to prepare something more elegant, you will find a carefully researched, surprisingly elaborate meal fit for a vampire when Diana Bishop first invites Matthew Clairmont to dinner, in chapter 12 of A Discovery of Witches, the first book in the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness: smoked salmon with dill, capers, and gherkins; Riesling; thinly sliced raw vension; beets with shaved Parmesan; red wine; seared rabbit spiced with rosemary, celery, pepper; a biscuit made from ground chestnuts; berries, cheese, and roasted chestnuts. Diana may not know true love, but the meal truly is a labor of love. Matthew manages to consume everything except the beets. Although I do know people who would be delighted to eat their meat raw, if your company doesn’t belong to that group, they might still go for the smoked salmon, berries, cheese, and nuts, with plenty of wine. “Wine tastes wonderful,” Matthew says, and so long as you have plenty of that, you can stream A Discovery of Witches, now on Shudder and Sundance Now, with the one you love.

 

Maybe you’d rather have a night out? It would take some planning, because you’d have to get there, and reservations are suggested, but you could have a night out at The Beetle House, a Halloween/Tim Burton-themed restaurant with locations in New York and Los Angeles. I’m not sure how unique the dishes actually are, but their names are catchy, and it sounds like the waitstaff dresses in character. Chef Zach Neil said,

“The idea was simple. Create a space where people who love Halloween, horror films, and Gothic dark music can gather for a meal and drinks. A safe space where it really feels like Halloween all year round and people can come and enjoy good food, good drinks, listen to good music, and feel completely comfortable to be as freaky as they want to be. This would be my home for the freaks, weirdos, and grown up Goth kids of the city.”

Zach also has a cookbook now,  The Nightmare Before Dinner,  so if you can’t get out to the coasts, you can at least recreate the food (and with planning, the atmosphere). Treat yourselves with a macabre meal and follow it up with the Tim Burton movie of your choice. Or any scary movie.

Whatever you choose, we hope you go into it with your whole heart, like Horatio, here. Happy Valentwe’en from all of us at Monster Librarian.
Happy Valentwe'en!

Posted on February 14, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton

Haunted Nights edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton

Blumhouse Books, 2017

ISBN-13: 978-1101973837

Available:  Paperback, Kindle ebook, Audible, and audio CD

Haunted Nights collects sixteen previously unpublished tales of Halloween. It is co-edited by Ellen Datlow, a highly respected genre editor, and Lisa Morton, an authority on Halloween. Haunted Nights presents stories of related holidays as well (e.g. All Souls’ Day and Día de los Muertos).

While I enjoyed all of the stories in Haunted Nights, a few stood out from the others. In “With Graveyard Weeds and Wolfsbane Seeds,” Seanan McGuire weaves a great haunted house story that switches perspective between the dead and the living. Mary can’t abide the teenagers who disturb her house, especially on her birthday, but she knows how to take care of her house, and the intruders. Stephen Graham Jones presents a tale of familial loss and a disturbing return in “Dirtmouth.” Jonathan Maberry’s “A Small Taste of the Old Country,” set in 1948, proves revenge can be served warm and comforting. Garth Nix always delivers an excellent story, and his entry in this collection does not disappoint. In his tale, “The Seventeen Year Itch,” the new hospital administrator disregards all of the warnings from staff about patient Broward and the incessant itch he feels compelled to scratch every Halloween. “A Kingdom of Sugar Skulls and Marigolds” by Eric J. Guignard is set during Día de Muertos rather than Halloween. A misspelling on a sugar skull leads to an eventful night for a man in mourning. Paul Kane’s “The Turn” takes the perspective of multiple characters, and is surprisingly well done in such a short story. Tom Nolan has never gone out on Halloween, but the urgent call from the hospital about his dying grandmother drives him outdoors on the most haunted night of the year.

This collection belongs on the bookshelves of readers who love Halloween and other ghost-related holidays. Other authors in this anthology include Joanna Parypinski, Kate Jonez, Jeffrey Ford, Kelley Armstrong, S.P Miskowski, Brian Evenson, Elise Forier Edie, Pat Cadigan, John Lanagan, and John R. Little.

Contains: blood, bullying, homophobia, rape, sexual content

Recommended

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on August 15, 2018 by , Reply
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