Fester's 3-Week Anniversary Meatloaf | Addams Family Values #FoodnFlix

The Food 'n Flix club bloggers have scooched their chairs up to the Addams Family table this month, along with our host Kimberly from Coffee and Casseroles. There's no month more fitting than October to hang out with in the kitchen with one of my favorite families. Kimberly invited to watch either (or both) of the early 1990's films, The Addams Family or Addams Family Values. I watched both. Again.

Bloody Feetloaf (aka Halloween Meatloaf)

With Halloween less than a week away, I thought it would be fun to ask the other Progressive Eats bloggers if they'd join me in putting together a Halloween-inspired menu today. Cute and spooky, orange and black, maybe even kinda gross (that's me!)—I love all of the spirited menu inspiration that surrounds All Hallows' Eve!

Bucket of Garlic (Fries) | Hotel Transylvania 2 #FoodnFlix

This month's Food 'n Flix pick is the family-friendly, animated Hotel Transylvania 2, which (surprise!) picks up where Hotel Transylvania left off. Drac has accepted that his daughter loves a human, and Mavis and Johnny are married. Humans and monsters are coexisting throughout most of the world—even in Drac's hotel.

Fast forward a bit to a pregnant Mavis, and eventually baby Dennis. Dennis has big, curly ginger hair like his dad does, and seems human. But Vampa ("vampire grandpa"), aka Drac, believes that Dennis is just a "late fanger", since fangs might not pop out until a vampire's fifth birthday. But Mavis wants her dad to accept that Dennis is human and thinks that they should move to America, to be near the human side of the family.

Frozen Mexican Hot Chocolate with Liquefied Prom Queen Brains inspired by iZombie

I've been wanting to do an iZombie-inspired post for quite some time now, and with tonight being the 2-hour season two finale, I figured there was no time like the present. If you're not familiar with iZombie, you might be thinking "oh no, not another zombie show". But it's so different from all of the others out there right now, that I recommend not dismissing it before you've watched a couple of episodes (because then you hopefully won't want to).

iZombie airs on The CW and is based on the DC Comics' Vertigo imprint I, Zombie that was created in 2010. I've ever read the comics, but the title sequence and some scene openers throughout each show are in "comic form". Our lead character, Liv is scratched at a party in the first episode and wakes up a zombie. In this show you can recognize zombies by their white hair and skin—initially, as some choose to die their hair and visit a tanning bed.

Irish Barmbrack

Although I have a soft spot for Irish food (and Ireland in general), it usually takes the thought of March on the horizon and the imminent arrival of St. Paddy's Day before I consciously think about cooking up some traditional food...triggering a towering stack of Irish cookbooks, old photos and notes from my trip to Ireland, and endless internet scouting.

I have a few Irish foods ready to share over the next couple of weeks, starting today with a loaf of Irish Barmbrack as part of Twelve Loaves (our theme is Irish Breads). The word barm comes from beorma, an old English word that means yeasty fermented liquor, while brack (or brac) is the Irish word for speckled. And so it is a yeasty bread that is speckled with dried fruit, and often candied peel. It's also known by the names Barnbrack, Báirín Breac, Boreen brack, Bawreen brack, or simply brack.

Zombie Finger Cookies inspired by Hocus Pocus #FoodnFlix

This month for Food 'n Flix, we are watching the 1993 family Halloween flick, Hocus Pocus. I didn't see Hocus Pocus when it originally came out. I'm guessing that's because that was the year I graduated from high school and started college, so it probably wasn't even a blip on my radar at that point. I have caught it on t.v. quite a few times over the (22!) years since, though. But I think this may be the first time I've ever really sat down and watched it with intent.

It's definitely a cute movie for the season. Bette Midler is fantastic because...well...she is Bette Midler. Sarah Jessica Parker is an all-out goofball, but a lovable one. But my favorite characters are probably an adorably young Thora Birch as Dani and Doug Jones (Hell Boy, Falling Skies) as the lovable zombie Billy Butcherson.

In true 90's fashion there are plenty of stereotypes represented in the film: stupid bullies, the new kid in town with a younger sibling who falls for the pretty girl, a talking black cat, aloof parents, and witches with flying broomsticks (and mops and vacuum cleaners...). But personally, I'm always in the mood for cheese, so I'm okay with it.

There aren't a whole lot of food-centered scenes, though. You see pumpkins, a jello mold, cheese puffs, and plenty of Halloween candy. There's mention of Mummy Scorpion Pie and Scrod (fish) in breadcrumbs and olive oil. I thought a "witches brew" sort of drink served in a bubbling cauldron could be a fun thing to make, as a nod to the sisters' cauldron.

Ultimately, I chose a scene with the resident zombie, Billy. Billy follows the kids through an underground tunnel in which he has to lift a manhole cover to climb out of. As he looks around with the cover still held up, he hears a motorcycle coming, and as to quickly duck back underground. Well, all of his fingers don't quite make it—they're severed as the manhole cover bangs shut on top of his hand, leaving zombie fingers sitting in the road. This scene (just over 50 minutes into the movie) is the inspiration behind my zombie finger cookies!

You'll often see witches fingers cookies this time of year, and I went into the process with those in mind. I used a fairly basic spritz cookie recipe (the kind you see during the Christmas season a lot) as the base. I wanted to tint it green in honor of Billy's lovely coloring and decided that adding some Matcha to the dough was the way to go. Witches fingers often use almonds as the nail, but I wanted a more craggy, rotting and broken sort of look, so I chose to use pistachios instead. I was pretty pleased with myself because they turned out just as I'd imagined them.

Find more zombie-inspired recipes here!

Zombie Finger Cookies

These rich, buttery cookies with a hint of matcha are shaped like severed zombie fingers to delight kids of all ages during the Halloween season!

by Heather Schmitt-Gonzalez

Prep Time: 30 minutes (active) + 60 minutes (inactive)

Cook Time: 14-16 minutes

Keywords: bake dessert vegetarian soy-free matcha pistachios Halloween cookie American fall

Ingredients (3 dozen)

• 1/2 cup (1 stick / 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at soft room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon Matcha green tea powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 18 pistachios, cut in half the short way (it's good that they look craggy and broken)
• 2 tablespoons seedless strawberry or raspberry spread, preserves, or jam

Instructions

Beat the butter, sugar, egg, almond and vanilla extracts together in a medium mixing bowl until light and creamy. Combine the flour, matcha, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl, then gradually add it to the wet mixture, beating as you go. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour before using.

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Lay a piece of wax paper on your work surface (this is essential as the dough is sticky to work with once it touches the heat of your hands).

Remove dough from the fridge. Spray a 1 teaspoon measuring with nonstick spray, then scoop out a slightly heaping teaspoon of dough onto your wax paper. Use your wax paper to roll the dough into a thin finger-like log.

Press one half of a pistachio into one tip of the log to make a fingernail; press dough around nail a bit to make it look more lifelike. Use a sharp, thin-bladed paring knife to cut a few thin lines in the place where the knuckles would be. Squeeze the dough a bit between the knuckle lines to make them jut out a bit. Transfer finger to prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all the dough and pistachios are used up. When lining up the fingers, leave at least an inch between each finger because they puff as they bake.

Slide trays into preheated oven and bake until the cookies have just started to turn golden at the edges, 14 to 16 minutes. If you're baking both trays at once, switch them from top to bottom and front to back halfway through cooking.

Scoop the fruit spread into a small baggie and cut off a tip from one of the corners. While the cookies are still warm, squeeze a thin line of fruit spread all around each fingernail; it's okay if it's a bit messy. It should just give it a sort of "light blood" appearance.

Enjoy immediately or store cooled cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

This month's edition of Food 'n Flix is being hosted by Elizabeth at The Lawyer's Cookbook with her timely pick, Hocus Pocus! Submissions are due on October 29th, so if you want to join us this month, you still have a few days to get your Hocus Pocus-inspired food or drink up on your blog.

Also join us next month as we watch The Hundred-Foot Journey, hosted by Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla.

A Devilishly Good Halloween Party!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Casillero del Diablo Wines. All opinions are 100% mine.

This one is for all of the grown-ups out there who enjoy a little Halloween fun as much as the kids do. I'm partnering with Casillero del Diablo Wines, the single most distributed wine brand in the world (and sold in over 146 countries), to bring you ideas for throwing A Devilishly Good Halloween Party. Once the front porch lights are extinguished and the trick-or-treaters have dumped out and sorted all of their goodies, it's your turn.

This party starts with a century-old legend. The Legend of Don Melchor de Concha y Toro, the founder of the Concha y Toro winery in Chile, built a wine cellar (or "casillero") for storing his very best wines. One day he noticed that his wines were disappearing from his cellar. He suspected a thief, and in order to protect his wines, he started a rumor in the community that his casillero was haunted by the devil himself! The rumor spread through the town, and his cellar became known as the casillero del diablo—or the devil's cellar! His plan worked, and his wines were never stolen again.

Dark and Stormy Gingerbread

I was planning on making a good cocktail to represent Halloween again this year.  Instead of something literally creepy and fitting, I was going to go instead with an aptly named cocktail- a Dark and Stormy.  But after realizing that I didn't have any dark rum in the bar, and not wanting to go out and spend any money, I opted for the next best thing - a twist on the Dark and Stormy cocktail.  Dark and Stormy Gingerbread.  Of course?

I believe its name originally came from the look of the dark or black rum floating on top of the ginger beer; it looked like a storm cloud.  Without the dark rum, it's just not the same.  But when you put the flavors into a dessert, no one's the wiser.

Shrunken Heads in Spiced Cider

I had every intention of sitting down and telling you a little Halloween story.  Something about how trick-or-treating was so much different when I was growing up than it is now.  But, as things stand, my game just ended...fantastically, I might add...and I have to get something off of my chest.  Here goes.