Halloween Pizza

 Soooooo, i make my own pizza from scratch, but you probably know that, because i ramble on about it often enough.  then i saw this and thought this is brilliant, and you can of course add whatever you like, "make it your own"!!!!  Had planned to do some posts about foods realted to the season, but.....that didn't happen, may-be next year one hopes.

thesaltandsweet.com

Ghostly Pizza

Rose

4–5 minutes

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Make your Halloween dinner extra spooky with this Ghostly Pizza! This 10-minute Halloween pizza pan is made with store-bought pizza crust, pizza sauce, olives shaped like spiders and cheese shaped like ghosts! This Ghost shaped Pizza is sure to be loved by kids and adults alike.

Ghostly Pizza makes the perfect Halloween dinner!

Halloween is so much more than candy! Ghostly pizza is a great quick Halloween dinner idea that you can whip up before your little ghosts and goblins head out to trick-or-treat this October!

We are going strong this Halloween season with yet another recipe that is sure to impress your kids!

Ingredients You Need:

This spooky Halloween pizza requires minimal ingredients.

(Full recipe card at end of this post)

Pizza crust or naan bread.

Cheese. You can use sliced mozzarella or provolone cheese.

Pizza sauce: Use a homemade pizza sauce recipe or your favorite store bought.

Olives: Pitted black and green to shape the spiders.

Ghost mold. To make the ghost shaped cheese.

How to Make Ghostly Pizza:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Grease the bottom of a baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Cut out the ghosts. Use a ghost-shaped cookie cutter to cut ghosts from cheese.
3. Shape the olive spiders. Cut the olive in half. One half will be the spider’s body. Cut the other half lengthwise into 8 slices, which will be the spider’s legs.
4. Add sauce and cheese: Spread pizza sauce evenly over naan or pizza crust. Then top with the cut out cheese, create the ghosts eyes and mouth using small cut outs of olives.
5. Bake the pizza: Bake for about 8 minutes – the crust and cheese should be golden brown.  
6. Slice and serve: With fresh basil, dried oregano, or red pepper flakes and enjoy!

Pair it with a soup!

Whenever serving up personalized pizzas, I love pairing them with a hearty vegetable soup! Such as my:

Makhlouta-15 Bean Soup

Lebanese Red Lentil Soup

Lebanese Lentil Soup with Spinach

Halloween has always been a fun holiday for my family. I love everything from the decorating, to the costumes, the candy (of course), and making cute festive food like this haunted pizza.

If you’ve been browsing the internet looking for Halloween dinner ideas, you’ll love this easy Halloween recipe!

And if you try making Ghostly pizza this Halloween, please leave a review (these are always helpful), and let me know how it turned out for you in the comments below!

Ingredients

• 1 pizza crust or naan bread
• 1/4 cup pizza sauce
• 4 mozzarella or provolone cheese slices
• 1 green olive- pitted
• 1 black olive- pitted

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Grease the bottom of a baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Cut out the ghosts. Use a ghost-shaped cookie cutter to cut ghosts from cheese.
3. Shape the olive spiders. cut the olive in half. One half will be the spider’s body. Cut the other half lengthwise into 8 slices, which will be the spider’s legs.
4. Add sauce and cheese: Spread pizza sauce evenly over naan or pizza crust. Then top with the cut out cheese.
5. Bake the pizza: Bake for about 8 minutes – the crust and cheese should be golden brown.  
6. Slice and serve: Slice and serve with fresh basil, dried oregano, and red pepper flakes and enjoy!

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 1 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 156Total Fat: 70gSaturated Fat: 26gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 40gCholesterol: 109mgSodium: 144mgCarbohydrates: 99gFiber: 14gSugar: 12gProtein: 77g

Please note that the nutrition label provided is an estimate based on an online nutrition calculator. It will vary based on the specific ingredients you use.

guest blogger Declan Henesy on "Dining with the Dead"

  The tradition of the "dumb~as in silent~ supper" has always fascinated me.    It seems a beautiful tribute to those who are no longer visibly present at the meal.  Declan Henesy reminds us of it ancient origins.

 

Dining with the Dead in the Ancient World — SECONDS | Food history

Declan Henesy

6-7 minutes

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We go back to the ancient world to explore the rituals surrounding death and dinner.

Food has played a central role in death rituals for as long as humans have been around. Throughout history, food hasn’t only sustained life, it’s helped maintain a connection between the living and the dead. From Mesopotamian ghosts returning to earth in search of a meal, to Romans feeding their corpses with bread and wine, dining with our dead has helped us come to terms with loss. It’s helped us digest death.

Mesopotamia

According to ancient Mesopotamian literature, once a ghost entered the netherworld, things were pretty similar to when they’d been alive. Ghosts lived in houses and were reunited with family members who’d already passed on.

In reality, however, the netherworld was a dark and barren place, devoid of life. Food was believed to be ‘bitter’ and water ‘brackish’. For the dead, ‘dust [was] their food, clay their bread’. Ghosts therefore relied on food offerings from their living descendants.

In the Old Babylonian period (about 2000 - 1600 BCE), living relatives would leave food at the graves of the dead at the same time each month. If an offering was late or forgotten, the ghosts would return to the earth in search of sustenance, causing harm or misfortune to the living.

This relief, from around 1800-1750 BCE, could be the goddess Ishtar, Mesopotamian goddess of sexual love and war, or her sister and rival, the goddess Ereshkigal, ruler of the Underworld, or the demoness Lilitu, known in the Bible as Lilith.

Egypt

In Ancient Egypt it was common among royalty and nobility to have their servants, slaves and pets mummified alongside them, with the occasional bull, baboon or crocodile thrown in for good measure. But the dead also needed something to eat.

‘Meat mummies’ - literally mummified pieces of meat - were often buried alongside the departed to keep them full in the afterlife.

As far back as far 1386 - 1349 BCE (around 3,400 years ago), we find remains of mummified beef ribs and later examples of mummified goat leg (1290 BCE) and mummified calf (1070 - 945 BCE). In King Tutankhamun’s tomb, archaeologists found 48 cases containing cuts of beef and poultry. A feast fit for a king - though perhaps not enough for eternity.  

A mummified beef rib from the tomb of Tjuiu, an Egyptian noblewoman, and her husband, the powerful courtier Yuya, circa 1386 - 1349 BC.

China

From the Neolithic period (around 5000 BCE) to the end of the Ming dynasty (1644 BC), it was customary for the Chinese to bury grave goods with their dead. This extended to food and drink, which was stored in containers to provide sustenance on the journey to the spirit world.

In 2016, a team of researchers uncovered a 3,100 year old tomb in China which contained various bronze soup bowls, alongside other ornately decorated food vessels. These were probably reserved for religious or burial ceremonies, rather than everyday meals. Either way, they're cool as hell. 

This four-handled tureen was found in a 3,100 year old tomb and may have been used to serve soup. It's dotted with 192 spikes and is decorated with engravings of dragons, birds and bovines.

Greece

In ancient Greece, offerings known as enagísmata were made at the tombs of the deceased. Offerings included milk, honey, water, wine, celery, pelanós (a mix of meal, honey and oil) and kóllyba (dried and fresh fruits).

Animal sacrifices were also common - sheep, goats, fowl and, on special occasions, bulls. The animals were slaughtered over a trench, so, as one historian puts it 'the blood might run into the earth to appease the souls of the dead.’

Athenian red figure vase showing women caring for a sacrificial bull, circa 5th century BCE.

Rome

In ancient Rome, funeral banquets were often held in front of the corpses before burial. In the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, Romans sacrificed a sow to Ceres, goddess of agriculture and fertility. The meat was shared between the deity, through burning it on a pyre, and the relatives, who ate it at the tomb. Stone seats were even incorporated into tomb and cemetery designs so people could dine with their dead.

The Romans also built tubes connecting the top of the grave with the crypt, allowing mourners to pour food and drink (mainly bread and wine) directly into the mouth of the corpse. This helped ‘feed’ the dead as they awaited the afterlife.  

 

 

Randomly random Halloween thoughts and pictures

 

Jane Goodall

Sadly very sadly, it has taken me several days to choose my words slowly and carefully as she would have. Implausible and impossible her journey, enlightenment her mission.

 

Don't remember when i first learned about Jane Goodall, have read and reread her books

, there was always a new thought, or a new lesson in them every time i reread them.

 

 

 

usatoday.com

Jane Goodall's 'Famous Last Words' revealed. Here's what she said.

Saman Shafiq

~4 minutes

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Jane Goodall, in Netflix's "Famous Last Words," is sharing what she would want to be remembered for after her death.

The famed chimpanzee researcher, who died Oct. 1, said in the video released Oct. 3 she would want to be remembered as "somebody sent to this world to try to give people hope in dark times, because without hope, we fall into apathy and do nothing."

"And in the dark times that we are living in now, if people don't have hope, we're doomed," Goodall said. "And how can we bring little children into this dark world we've created and let them be surrounded by people who've given up?"

She continued: "Even if this is the end of humanity as we know it, let's fight to the very end. Let's let the children know, you know, that there is hope if they get together. And even if it becomes impossible for anybody, it's better to go on fighting to the end than just to give up and say, 'Okay.'"

While Goodall's "deeply reflective conversation about her legacy" was recorded earlier this year, according to Netflix, her "final words" and how she wants to be remembered were recorded "with the understanding that it would only be shared with the world after she passed."

Netflix, last year, had greenlit "Famous Last Words" by producer Brad Falchuk, Variety reported, which would feature interviews with major culture icons and air their final words only after they died. Goodall's words are the first of those interviews, according to Variety. The interviews will be preserved and housed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which also serves as producer.

What was Jane Goodall's cause of death?

Goodall, 91, died due to natural causes while she was in California on a cross-country speaking tour, according to The Jane Goodall Institute.

Who was Jane Goodall?

Goodall was a British ethologist – a scientist who studies animal behavior within their habitat. She had no formal training when she embarked on a study of chimpanzees in what would become Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, Africa, in the early 1960s. Goodall skyrocketed to fame thanks in part to a National Geographic documentary about her fieldwork and used her science celebrity status to advance conservation efforts for chimpanzees and other endangered species through her eponymous foundation.

"I passionately care about the natural world of which we are a part and which we depend. I love it," Goodall told USA TODAY in 2021. "I passionately care about animals. I want to fight the fact that many are becoming extinct and I want to fight the cruelty."

In 1977, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute, helping continue the long-running study of chimpanzees in the Gombe and boost conservation efforts for other species around the globe. Its Roots & Shoots program, established in 1991, also engages young people in local efforts to protect animals and the environment.

"Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world," the institute said in statement on social media.

A United Nations Messenger of Peace, Goodall was appointed a Dame of the British Empire in 2003 and awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025.

Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Keith Matheny, USA TODAY / Reuters

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.

  

haiku refection

 

 

watery mirror

ahead and behind all at once

drifting thru all time 

  

a memory about apples and apple picking

s!!!!

 

Apples! my kitchen, my house is filled with the aroma of apples. Each variety is slightly different, and when they meld together....WOW!!! i just love it.

Very much like when i was a kiddo, and there were bushels and bushes of different types of apples in the root cellar, the enclosed back porch, and perched on newspaper spread on ever surface in the spare room.  All grown in Grandpa and Grandma's orchard.  

Nearly 70 years later a few trees remain,  they don't produce alot of apples anymore. They are special apple trees to me.

By  extension each each old old apple tree in it's own way is important and special to me

 

The apples in my kitchen now were bought from an Amish farm  market. they are plump ,fragrant, beautiful and reasonably priced.   But they are not the gnarly old timers with their low water/moisture content and leathery skins, not  to mention their sundry flaws. like that touch of wild flavor. 

 

 

 

s

 

So today is a  superb fall day! Puffy clouds, rustling leaves, a touch of coal smoke in the air!!!

Even though this year was not a good year for me, or the apples,  today is a very good day to pick apples.  Yes, to pick those apple that are all that remains of an old farmstead or logging camp or cow pasture, those tenacious apples, knurled, gnarled, bumpy and rough looking survivors of a time before i was born when there was a homestead or a farm there. Time has changed the appearance of those apples, and the land but it doesn't change the joy of biting into the sugary red fruit. 

The trees broken by the snow and wind, this years drought has taken it toll on all of the land, and  my hope is that they will still be there.   

  I would be remiss at the very least not to remind you to use tick repellent, Lyme's Disease is a bad thing, please don't learn that the hard way.

OK, i broke my own train of thought. OK, you might well ask why am I looking for abandoned apple trees, the simple answer is so i can make apple butter, lots and lots of apple butter.   We like our apple butter cooked down to a thickness close to tomato paste.  The average yield of a 1/2 bushel of apples {21 pounds} is roughly 9 pints , i usually get roughly  5 or 5 1/2 pints.  I just thin

 The house smells so very good, spicy and sweetly applely, wrapped in all the other comforting smells of Grandma's kitchen.  Has always been my feeling that those un-fool-ed around with apples not only taste of sunshine and blues skys, rain on a hot summer day, laughter of the children who had a swing in the tree, the pride of the a farm wife when she tasted her perseveres, the memories of elders who were "young at heart".

 

YES! these apples, but then I peel and core and chop them before they go into the big stainless steel pot!  Time was it was a huge almost cauldron like aluminum vessel, i have one stashed away somewhere. Never i did find a use for it again.

Will be coring and peeling and tossing them in that stainless steel pot. Adding some cider, sugar,some spices, alot of my attention. The apples will do the work, cooking down into a thick rich savory sauce. One January morning, if not before, we will be enjoying a bit of Fall and looking forward to Spring.

 

Oh, yes, no i don't have a recipie, seriously , i just wing it. Go by the aroma and the thickness of the apple butter.  My helpful hint{s}, use a stainless steel pot, fresh wooden spoon,and cook it low and slow.

  

My winter forcast predictions.

 Somehow i earned a reputation for being able to predict the weather.  And  i am proud to say  that i am almost as good at getting the forecast wrong as most TV weathermen.  

 

First , must remind you that my interest in weather forecasting started when i read about a man in " TheYankee" magazine who became extremely accurate  at forecasting the weather in the area where he lived. He did this by watching the behavior of birds, insects and animals, Perhaps i should say the world that surrounded him.  Well i was already watching the activities of birds  and animals, even observed the  foliage  of certain trees and shrubs, love to observe clouds, sooooo it only made sense, to take it to the next step.  I also included observations from my garden journal, which goes neglected  alot, but still contains some information. 

 

Guided to some extent this year,  mindful that there were few apples on the trees and have still not found any nuts, just think this could be a mellower winter.  My reckoning on the lack of mast in the woods and poor yields from back yard garden is attributed to the  almost tropical early summer weather.   Nuff said,   So far Autumn has been fairly warm and really dry, the remaining days don't seem to be good snow producing weather. Perhaps the snowstorm lovers will be pleased again,or not.  

becI say this because  most years that the first snowfall comes early, i have noticed that the winter was mild .  

 

At this point, nothing would surprise me.  And I will update this if there is reason too. After all the initial Summer prediction was for colder and wetter weather than normal weather...... well DUH!!!!

 

To quote my favorite backwoods philosifer~~~Anne E. Mosse   "All you kave to do to be wrong is to say something that gets proved wrong."