Halloween, 1967

Here's my entry for the Big Wicked Online Pageant. I had a few childhood costumes to choose from, but I went with one from October 1967. I think you'll see why:

















I have never mentioned this before, but for several years before the birth of my younger brothers, my parents were circus people. This was taken at a stop in Port Washington, NY.

_____________________

Pie

Even when you're kind of blue, and a little bit down, there's always pie. Pie can be better than a stiff drink.

I turned on the TV the other night, and John McCain was yelling at me. "GROW THE PIE", he demanded. Well, I may not be a McCain supporter, but I definitely consider myself pro-pie. So tonight MizBubs peeled up the last of the Honey Crisp apples from southern Michigan, and we grew ourselves a pie.


Compound apple crumb pie



Ingredients:

1 pie crust of your choosing (Both my mom and MizBubs have made absolutely brilliant, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth pie crusts in the past, but tonight I used one of those rolled Pillsbury crusts.)

5 apples, peeled and cut into eight slices each
1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 chopped pecans (Unbelievably, I forgot to add pecans to the pie you see pictured above. It was a delicious, and yet sadly incomplete, pie.)

• Preheat oven to 450
• Place crust in pie pan
• Slice apples and arrange in pie crust
• Pour the 1/2 cup sugar/cinnamon mix evenly over the apples in the crust
• Mix 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2/3 cup flour, 1 tsp cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Use a pastry blender to mix in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. This will be your topping.
  
• Mix the chopped pecans into the topping. Spread the topping over the apples.
• Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for about 40-45 minutes until it's dark and bubbly.
• Enjoy your pie.

_____________________

While I'm at it, this is as good a time as any to remind everyone about the Big Wicked Online Pageant over at A Cup of Coffey (Coffey goes great with pie!)

On Monday evening, post a picture of yourself as a kid in your adorable/scary/unfortunate/dorky Halloween costume on your blog, and email Beth with your link. If you can't find a picture of yourself as a kid, pick something suitably mortifying from your more recent past and post that. The pageant is being co-hosted by yours truly and Florida expert Dale.

All the cool kids are doing it. My favorite procrastinating noir writer Cormac chipped in with an early contribution just to help everyone get in the spirit.

It's going to be very scary!

The Big Wicked Online Pageant.

Way back in ought-six, when I was new to all this, I was introduced to a swell group o' bloggers by the lovely Melinda June. Soon after that, the fabulous Beth of A Cup of Coffey, and silken-voiced Canadian Dale co-hosted the Little Miss Sunshine Online Pageant.

It was a roaring success. About 30 participants dug up old pictures of themselves from 3rd or 4th grade and posted them. And, for the record, may I say that in those brainy-cool glasses and knee socks Ms. Beth was anything but a "nottie" as she puts it. My studious and groovy self would've chased her like crazy.

I digress.

The reason I'm telling y'all about this is that Beth and Dale have graciously agreed to co-host a little something I thought up in a fit of whiskey-lubricated nostalgia:

The Big Wicked Online Pageant.

Go click on that link, like now, and read about it and enter. Here's the rules:

• Scan a photo from your Halloween past.

• Post it on your blog Monday evening, October 28.

• Once you post your photo, e-mail Beth at the address on her navbar. If you can, include the URL to that specific post.

• Beth, our hostess, will post a link to every participant’s blog Tuesday morning by 9 a.m..

I will sit around with Dale, snickering and poking each other in the ribs about how we got the girl to do all the work. And then I'll pat myself on the back for having such a swell idea. Dale will undoubtedly provide some wonderful commentary. (Added 10/14/08--you can see some of that commentary from Dale here.)

So, you go now. Find those old yellowed Polaroids. Show us your best hobo, your best gypsy, your best eyeholes-cut-out-in-a-plain-white-sheet ghost. And if you can't find anything that old, just find the best, most mortifying Jaegermeister and draft-beer Halloween party moment from your more recent past and send that instead. I'm just saying.

If you're good, maybe you'll earn the coveted Sprawling Ramshackle Compound Freak of the Week...