Hello Halloween With A Fun Ice Cream!

Having read the title of this post you might be given to thinking that I have started writing poetry! No, give me a scoop in preference to a pen any day! It's just that Halloween is all about fun for children and I'm a great believer in "The Fun Of Ice Cream". Put the two things together and you can enjoy a fabulously, fun Halloween with ice cream as part of it.

My ice cream recipe idea for this Halloween?
Licorice toffee ice cream.

It's a creamy, sweet and sticky ice cream with a gloriously, ghoulish grey color - what I call "Gothic ice cream". I was thrilled when I first had the idea to make this ice cream because I wasn't quite sure what the color and consistency would be. Would it be too black? Would it be too sticky? Not a bit .... it worked out superbly.

Here is my Gothic ice cream recipe if you would like to try it.

Go Political This Halloween - Costume Mask Fun!

The mask is a good old-fashioned staple when it comes to costumes and Halloween is no exception. Your kids might want to wear a Batman or Robin costume which come complete with their own mask or they might wear a homemade costume and just buy a black or silver mask separately to complete the effect.

There is a new and growing trend however .... costume masks based on whoever is in the media spotlight at the time. This year of course it's none other than the Presidential candidates themselves! According to what I've read, the biggest fashion in costume masks this Halloween is to have either a Barack Obama mask or a John McCain mask.

I can imagine a lot of students having fun with these this Halloween .... but also a few parents. There are going to be some great Halloween photos taken this year!

Personally, I will won't be donning a mask or costume - it's enough to concentrate on the food, especially the ice cream. Well, someone has to do it!

Happy Halloween!

Dorothy & Peter Pan on Halloween

I've already written about Halloween ice cream and if you follow the link you'll get some great ideas for how to give your family and friends a really appropriate dessert!

Many people have already made their costume preparations for Halloween - especially for the kids, but if you haven't and you are beginning to panic a little, don't worry because there's lots of ideas out there and, hopefully, still enough time to place an order online and get your costume delivered before the big day itself.

Of all the great halloween costume ideas for children these are my favorites ....

Dorothy (Wizard of Oz) costume (photo) - 5 star rating
Oh and don't forget the special red shoes!

Batman costume

Robin costume (really cute for toddlers)

Peter Pan costume

Spider-Man costume

Happy Halloween everyone!

Halloween Ice Cream

Summer's over, the children are back at school and autumn has arrived. October can be a wonderfully atmospheric month - golden leaves on the trees, a nip in the air with a hint of winter to come, darkness falling earlier and before you know it Halloween is just around the corner.

For many children Halloween is a day of fun and excitement and if you are involved in organising anything for Halloween you will know only too well that it can take a lot of time and effort to plan your Halloween party just right.

You might be looking for ideas for childrens' Halloween costumes for example or for food recipes to celebrate Halloween. Pumpkin dishes of course are usually on the menu - but how about some Halloween ice cream? If you have an ice cream maker it's not difficult to produce a batch of tasty, unusual ice cream for a Halloween celebration. Here's my idea for a Halloween ice cream recipe: Pumpkin and Maple Ice Cream. Made with heavy cream, egg yolks, caster sugar, cooked, cooled & mashed pumpkin, maple syrup and a touch of ground nutmeg, it's simply delicious!

But what if you don't like pumpkin? OK, then just go for a quick and easy ice cream recipe such as this vanilla ice cream.

Did you know that the pumpkin isn't a vegetable?
Do you know why the pumpkin is associated with Halloween?
Do you know what the Pumpkinfest is?

Find out the answers on this Halloween blog post.

Halloween - Halloween Ice Cream Recipe

Halloween provides a great excuse for family and friends to get together, eat together and have fun, especially the children. Many people eat a traditional pumpkin pie on Halloween and that's fine but how about a special Halloween Ice Cream? If you use pumpkin in any of your cooking, just save some (about 12oz or 300g), cook it and use it (mashed) along with some maple syrup in this great Halloween Ice Cream recipe.

There seems to be an automatic association of pumpkin with Halloween but do you know why that is? I didn't until recently. Apparently, the tradition of hollowing out a pumpkin as a lantern at Halloween is an old Celtic custom, brought to the USA by Irish immigrants and 31 October is the New Year of the traditional Celtic calendar.

Also what do you and your children actually know about the pumpkin itself? I had always thought of pumpkin as a vegetable but I was wrong! Its botanical classification is actually that of a fruit; maybe that's why it works so well as a dessert when you come to think of it. Pumpkin is also the state fruit of New Hampshire and in Keene New Hampshire there's a Pumpkinfest every October - this year it's October 20. To read more visit the Pumpkinfest link (Wikipedia).