Monday, November 2, 2009

A Haunted Frozen Antarctic Halloween

On the frozen 7th continent on the bottom of the planet... its bright out and will be 24/7... the wind blows and the Jamesway creeks... eerie, creepy, scary, haunted and VERY COLD ANTARCTIC HALLOWEEN...


Halloween comes but once a year, and being 10,000 miles from home was not going to stop me from celebrating! The day started early for me; around 0600 hours I woke up, too excited for the day to sleep! I started putting the finishing touches on my cards and decorations. The day was scheduled to begin at 0800, so I started to prepared the wet and dry ingredients for my Pumpkin Pancakes. People started filing in and were greeted with a "Good Morning! Happy Halloween!" I started my first batch of Pumpkin Pancakes and everyone immediately jumped in. I grabbed one for myself to nibble on while I cooked and they were quite delicious! It was nice to have something that reminded me of all the tastes and smells of fall. I made two full batches. The first batch was enjoyed by SAS before they went off to celebrate Halloween with Endurance! Shilpa stayed in for Halloween, she was really sick. So after she napped and Maciek and Jim came home from their slumber party with the Bot, I whipped up the second batch. We enjoyed them on our Halloween, so here is the recipe for all of you at home!

Recipe for Antarctic Pumpkin Pancakes
Mix wet:
2 large eggs (we got 120 eggs on Halloween, we were almost tempted to egg Blood Falls camp)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 Tbsp sugar

Mix dry:
2 cups baking/pancake mix
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
I added a dash of joy (thanks for the measuring spoons Kristina!), maybe 1/8 tsp of baking Powder, because I learned Powder Pops, and the pancakes came out fluffier.

Mix together and cook on hot skillet in ANTARCTICA...
then you have Antarctic Pumpkin Pancakes*
(can be cooked elsewhere for regular pumpkin pancakes, but results may vary)
Pumpkin Pancakes a la Antarctica

Everyone left for the day and I began preparations to turn our normal Jamesway into a Haunted Jamesway. The windows got covered with ghouls and ghosts made out of large black garbage bags and white paper. Next I finished up my cards to everybody, jack-o-lanterns of everybody, and planning spooky dinner and dessert.

Dinner:


Witches' Brew:
Re-fried bean stew with
5 cans of re-fried beans
2 cans of corn
1 red onion
1 white onion
2 red peppers
1 green pepper
5 cups of water
and 2 adorable little vegetarian bouillon cubes
then I added 5 servings of cooked brown rice

Witches' Brew with Jack-o-Lantern garnish

Jack-o-Lantern Garnish:

4 large carrots sliced and meticulously carved into jack-o-lanterns

I was missing all the fall festivities at home so I decided to carve faces into carrot slices. It was like carving a pumpkin, but on a really small scale.

Maciek with his Halloween feast, happy as always

Dessert:

Pumpkin Loaf:

Mix wet ingredients:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 cup water
1 cup pumpkin puree

Mix dry ingredients:
1 2/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp cloves

Mix together and add in about a 1/2 a cup of walnuts. Place in 4 bread loaf pans and bake at 350 for 35 mins. Garnish with a carrot jack-o-lantern or two.

Pumpkin Loaf

I went as a 1950's housewife for Halloween. I had a my coral one-piece swimsuit that has ruching on the top. Over that was my wide-leg black pants and my Viking cooking school apron. It was quite an appropriate as I was cooking, baking, and decorating all day!
Emma, the 1950's housewife, at the stove
There were pictures and drawings up everywhere, from Kritof, Chris, and me drawing all night. Lake Bonney is a hodge-podge of many years of people's pictures, books, and there are even decorations and wigs! So everyone had a different silly wig on. We enjoyed some witches brew, pumpkin loaf, and a night of guitar and laughs!

Happy Halloween on the worn-out dart board
Vickie and I in costume with the Ghoul... Boo!
The Lake Bonney Ghouls

Boo,

Emma

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete