This is the worst Wurst I've seen!

During our Halloween celebrations, we stopped by the store to get some more wine and party things. My friend picked up a jar of Halloween Würstchen, which were somehow dyed or marked to show pumpkins on the skin.

My friends took them back to the party and ate them right out of the jar. I don't even...

Some Hallo-weenies!

I saw a cute recipe for "mummified" hotdogs for Halloween. Since I was going to attend a Halloween party I thought I'd give them a try and bring them as a treat.

The recipe is really easy; click here to see it. All it requires is hot dogs and crescent rolls. I bought both and made my own mummy dogs. I lack any domestic ability and they turned out well and people at the party thought that they were fun. If I made them again, I might want the crescent rolls to be a bit colder so they'd be easier to cut, but beyond that, it was easy.

Ready to be baked.

Baked. Got a bit well done.

The one thing that gets me about the original recipe is that the author says that these are part of a healthy meal. I'm not sure on which planet a meat concoction filled with sulfates covered in high fat pastry is healthy, but once I let go of that skepticism, I thought these were quite fun to make and take to a party.

Halloween Escapades

I was invited to a Halloween party hosted by some Americans this past weekend. The party was a fun mix of Germans, expats, students, professionals, etc. We dressed up in crazy costumes, brought creepy snacks (I made "mummy" hotdogs), and later paraded through town as a strange entourage with a Roman, zombies, vampires, a genie, a tiger, a ninja, a nerd, a murderous clown, and more.

I think that this was one of my favorite costumes. It was one of those small backpacks that organizations give away and the guy wearing it wrote the Pi sign on it. I laughed because it looked like a last-minute costume, for sure.

After we left the party and headed to the bar, we experienced the craziness that is Kaiserslautern on weekend nights. Usually I'm out of town so I don't head out to the bars. We passed by the American police from the Air Force. They help police the area because half of the problems (at least) come from the Americans who live here. Fair enough, eh? They didn't need to intervene on this situation, but it was definitely a bunch of drunk service members acting stupid: some guys started doing pushups in the street.

At the bar, I was talked into a light saber battle. My opponent had a few to drink and was narrating the fight in German (he's not German though). Later we had a conversation and he recited his schedule in German. I teased him and told him that I just did all of this in German class. I'm not sure why we were having the conversation, but I'm sure it made sense to one of us.


Batman showed up and was interested in the light saber battle so we gave him a turn.

Batman vs. "Rub Me for Luck; I'm Irish."

I then talked to his friend, Superman. I told Superman that his costume looked a bit like kids' pajamas.

Most of our group had enjoyed enough fun so we started  home. A bunch of German guys we passed were offended that we were celebrating Halloween already. I think they had that idea confused with the German rule for celebrating birthdays. In Germany, it's considered bad luck to celebrate your birthday before the actual day. Since Halloween is an American holiday, I think we can celebrate it whenever we feel like it. The guys said it wasn't Halloween yet and our German friend told them that at the bar we visited it was. Everyone has an opinion here and isn't afraid to share it with strangers! Sometimes it's hard to get used to, but if someone is being obnoxious, you can just flap your hand at them and ignore them.

It was a fun night and a bit wild and silly.

Best costume ever

At one of the best Halloween parties I've ever attended, my brother's friend showed up in a clear plastic rain slicker. He had random pieces of tin foil taped to the slicker. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what exactly he was supposed to be; there didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to how he had taped the tin foil. He told me that he was the Tin Man. It was awesome; I totally didn't get that. I thought that maybe he was dressed up as a homeless dude trying to insulate himself.

At the same party, my brother dressed up as the son of a preacher man (oh, how true!) but he was a preacher, too. He was a bit too into the costume because he kept blessing everyone.

Beware of the costume!

An acquaintance told me this funny story: one Halloween, he decided to dress up as a werewolf. His costume and makeup were exceptionally good; had he not opened his mouth (which is an impossibility), he said that no one would have recognized him. He even went so far as to use Elmer's glue to glue fake hair to his arms and legs to complete the costume.

Apparently he had a lot to drink at the party, and when he went home, instead of just washing the hair/glue combo off with warm water, he tried to shave the fake hair off. At least that's what he and his wife were able to discern the following morning when they say the patches of fake fur and real arm hair shaved off.

Around the...Halloween pumpkin

From Nov 5, 2010

One of my favorite things about Halloween time is homemade pumpkin seeds. The commercial kind just don't do it for me; they're way too salty and processed-tasting. Even better yet, I love slightly burned pumpkin seeds (I was absolutely delighted when my friend gave me several containers of them that she was otherwise going to throw out).

My mom, knowing how much I love pumpkin seeds, was awesome and mailed me a package of them this week. However, I started wondering how much she loved me when they arrived postage due ;)