A Honolulu Halloween

Come, oh, Labor Day or so, all our local stores started featuring Halloween-wares. Maybe that does not seem so different than 'back home", but, as Liz pointed out, this is a place where missionaries came early and worked hard to eradicate all worship of spirits and multiple gods, etc.

So, it is a bit interesting that Halloween is a such a big deal here.

Many of you were asking, "What will your kids be for Halloween"? We were asking that, too, and we got performance artists in a manner of speaking:


















We got one "Abby Montana", and one Joker-like Zachary. They each had fun, as they have friends with whom they were able to go around trick or treating.

That was Sunday evening, but there was also Sunday AM at Zach's soccer game - no, Zach could not dress up, but Liz and Abby did (Steve had to coach). You see, here, when parents supply "snacks" for their kid's soccer game, it is NOT simply orange slices at half-time and donuts at the end.

No ... it is a full blown, four course meal. No one bothers with half-time snacks. Apparently, the feeling is that the kids can do with just water at the break.

But, toward the end of the game, the parents break out the collapsible tables, and all the necessary accoutrements.

So, given that the Sunday game for which we were one of the snack-supplying parents landed on Halloween, we decided that our contribution had to have a special Halloween flavor.

Well, for one, Mummy Dogs. Yes, that's right; don't they look treaty?



















A particularly frightening one - just staring back up at you, yeah? I do not think this one went down all that easily......
















It just takes some dough, some dogs, and two earnest cooks wrapping them up for a quick bake, and ....















Voila, a platter of mummies!
















But, that was not all we decided to make for our post-soccer game goodies. I was the brains behind this one (stolen recipes from the Web, not an original idea here).

To prepare brains, like below ....


















You must start with a nice round watermelon, and peel it. Yes, peel it (I never had done this before.......). It seemed so, un-carrot-like:














Then, take your favorite CARVING knife ..... with deft handling, incisive manipulations and not too much surgical precision ...















You got something to move into cold storage 'til the morrow:

















Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Steve, Liz, Zach & Abby