Posts Tagged ‘halloween’

Almost everything posted on doomthings is my own work/experiment/epic fail/etc.  Sometimes you have to promote something delicious made by someone else.  

Today’s DoomFeature is MY DAD.  As a kid, my parents made all of our costumes.  I don’t remember ever having a store-bought costume.  My mom would sew things like unicorns, clowns (yeah, that happened), cows, princesses, court jester’s, etc.  My dad would build things like presents, dice, Rubik’s cubes, and alter existing clothing items with puff paints (he has serious puff paint skills, srsly).

My almost one-year-old niece had her first Halloween this year, and after my sister and bro-in-law decided she would be introduced to the world of Star Wars by being R2D2, my dad’s imagination went crazy.  Thanks go to my Dad for letting me post his production photos for your enjoyment and planning for next year.  

All photos are belong to my parents.

Vin2D2 Final

Vin2D2 1

Vin2D2 2

Vin2D2 4

Vin2D2 5

Vin2D2 Front

Vin2D2 Back

I guess the hat didn’t stay on.

I Can Haz Pumpkin Now?

Posted: 31st October 2013 by doomthings in The Foodening
Tags: , , ,

I like carving pumpkins (although I don’t know where the rest of my pumpkin pictures live). Happy Halloween!!

Gir pumpkin | doomthings

Plankton Pumpkin | doomthings

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies

Posted: 29th October 2013 by doomthings in Dessert, The Foodening
Tags: , , , , ,

October’s almost over and I haven’t made anything with pumpkin yet.  My best friend was over the other day and scolded me for having pumpkin puree in a can; she loves using fresh pumpkin.  In my defense, the cans were pretty old (just about ready to “expire”, although I’m not sure things in cans really expire unless they’re SUPER old, but I digress), and I’d gotten them before we started making a mess in her kitchen experimenting with fresh pumpkin.

Right, so about things that are going on right now:  I usually make the pumpkin cookies my parents made when I was little.  I came across this spiced-up version from EatingWell and tweaked it a bit.

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies | doomthings

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/3 cup bread flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ginger cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh)
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup dark molasses
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Sift together dry ingredients (except sugar).
  2. In a separate bowl, cream brown sugar and butter together until combined.  Add eggs, pumpkin, and molasses and mix well.
  3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.  Add chocolate ups.
  4. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 – 12 minutes.

These turned out SUPER SPONGEY!  Mmmmmm…  +15 cakey-ness

FINALLY, a costume post!  I have so many costumes tucked away and not really any desire to drag them out.  That’s really my fault; I should be working for my readers, but life and work happens a lot.  [lame, i know]  I swear I’m working on bringing you more doom.

What will you be for Halloween?  This year’s was thrown together from costumes from previous years.  I did have to make a scythe and do some makeup…

Death costume | doomthings

It’s kind of hard to see, but there are actually a lot of layers going on here.

Costume Parts (somewhat inside to outside):

  • Flowy black dress
  • Black corset
  • Black leggings
  • Knee-high black boots
  • Black hooded robe
  • Black rope/cord
  • Scythe

Scythe Parts (*from Home Depot):

  • Closet dowel*
  • Brown twine (the cheapest there was)*
  • Black duct tape*
  • Aluminum tape (in the plumbing section)*
  • Wire coat hanger
  • Poster board

How to make the Scythe:

  1. Wrap the dowel with the twine in a criss-crossing pattern (be creative!) and secure tightly.
  2. Wrap the dowel with black duct tape (make sure to put a few squares of tape on the top and bottom so the dowel won’t scratch the floor).
  3. Cut out a blade shape in two pieces of poster board.
  4. Drill two holes near one end of the dowel (make sure they’re close enough together to be hidden by the poster board blade.
  5. Twist up the hanger to go through both holes such that the ends can be bend back and taped to the dowel.  Tape them well.
  6. Tape the blade to the wire hanger such that the hanger  is hidden inside the two pieces of poster board.
  7. Go crazy with the aluminum tape!
  8. For some extra goodness, I etched some designs in the aluminum.

I apologize for not taking pictures, but I was making it up as I went along and finished it just hours before the party I went to.  Lesson learned:  always take pictures of the process, you never know when you might want to use them!

I copied the makeup based on my online and in-store searches for skull makeup.  A Google search will provide you with a multitude of possibilities!

Fall is here and apples are in season!  What better dessert than cookies made with delicious fall apples??  Fortunately applesauce is always in season.  My mom used to make these using my great grandmother Bond’s kick-ass recipe.  When fall comes around, I can’t not make them.  I also crave them around the holidays, but it’s way too early to start talking about Christmas, despite the commercials I haven’t seen on TV because I don’t have cable.

The original recipe calls for using an apple (granny smith), but unsweetened applesauce works too, which is what I used for this batch.

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium apple, grated  (or 3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Mix last three ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon) in a small bowl and set aside.
  2. Beat 1 cup sugar and butter until well combined.
  3. Add vanilla and apple (or applesauce).
  4. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda) in a separate bowl.
  5. Add to apple mixture and mix well.
  6. Shape into balls and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture.
  7. Bake at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Apple Cookies | doomthings

Grandma recipes are the best recipes.  +55 grandma power