Fortifying "Spirits" at Halloween...
October 27, 2008
Halloween is the time we let the scary things out. We allow pint-sized ghosts to wander our neighborhoods, demanding bribes of candy. We let the frightened, and frightening, parts of ourselves come out a little bit too.
When my kids were little, it always seemed important to me to give them a good solid meal before they set out on their nighttime forays around the neighborhood. Now, I think, this would have been a good time to fortify their spirits as well, maybe chatting about what kinds of things scare us, and what we can do about the monsters that, at some time, find their way under all or our beds.
A night or two beforehand, why not make a special holiday meal? With little kids, especially, you can play at scaring each other with awful faces, wax teeth. Your kids can help make "ghoul gourmet" -- gelatin "eyeballs" made in round ice cube trays, broth reddened with food coloring to make "blood;" even "severed fingers." Then, eat up! The family table is a safe spot in a scary time.
[We can include recipes like "severed fingers" made by wrapping the ends of cocktail franks in strips of tortilla, and dabbing ketchup on the ends of the "fingers" for nail polish.]
Mealtimes Matter Video
from Miriam Weinstein
About Miriam
Miriam Weinstein is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. As a journalist, she has won several awards from the New England Press Association. Her work has appeared in Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe magazine, Hope, and ParentSource. A former staff member for North Shore Weeklies and freelancer for Essex County Newspapers, she writes restaurant reviews and food columns as well as features on a wide variety of subjects. She lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with her husband and has two grown children.
The Surprising Power of Family Meals
In her book, The Surprising Power of Family Meals, Miriam Weinstein shows how this basic human institution helps nourish and strengthen our families today.