A Happy Halloween

Little Baby Bobby helping Mama and Aunty pick out his first Halloween pumpkin!

Joe and I had a delightful time last night at my sister Andrea and her husband Robert's house. Our grandmother and father joined us with sweet baby Bobby, who wore two costumes: a white pajama suit with a hood with black pinstripes "Jail Bird" and "Casper" wearing our father's long white 100% cotton night gown with sleeves that folded over his hands...so cute!

Granddad with little "Casper" Bobby...adorable!

We all had dinner together; something simple: pizza, salad, oysters, chips & salsa, and pickled okra (ha ha, our typical family shmorgishborg)! We had Spicey Orange Punch (spiked with Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum) and my fun little Haunted Grave Yard Cupcakes (made with all-natural ingredients and food colorings of course)! These cupcakes were my favorite dark chocolate cake recipe with a raspberry preserve filling...Mmm, decadent!

I used a mini loaf pan to make the tombstones and a regular cupcake pan to make the ghosts (there is a tombstone for every ghost in this haunted graveyard)! The center cupcake features a smiling bat flying in front of a full moon (colored yellow with turmeric)! I didn't have Andrea's cake decorating kit with piping bag so I improvised and used the "Ziploc bag with tiny hole cut out in the corner" method...and it worked out pretty well I think! Doesn't the center cupcake kind of resemble the batman symbol...ha ha, that wasn't intentional. ;-) Oh, if you want to recreate this cupcake creation, don't forget the googly eyes for the ghosts; also, I used cocoa to color the brown bat and lettering.

After our dinner and while indulging on cupcakes and spicy orange punch, we all sat and watched the Tim Burton film "Coraline"...this movie was awesome; with amazing graphics and a very spooky/creepy story! Although this is a cartoon, I think it might be to scary for children...I could see this encouraging nightmares about freaky dolls with button eyes as well as frightening spider ladies! However, this movie is intriguing and imaginative for adults!

Here is Andrea and I with Daddy and Bobby (I am dressed up like a saloon girl and Andrea is "Suzy Homemaker"...our grandmother "Nana Sharee" dressed up like a geisha).