Tytus Halloween

Thursday 31 October

This was the worst weather we've ever had for Halloween: overcast, windy and rainy.  Nonetheless, we'd asked all the Tytus scholars (Borja, Valéry, Tom, Moshe and his wife Greta) over to experience the great American holiday.  So despite the gloom, we sat out on the porch with our starry-eyed jack o'lantern burning, pouncing on the intermittent trick-or-treaters (only 27 of them total, way down from the usual 150) to shower them with candy as a nice change from rain.

In the meantime, we drank Madison's apple cider and snacked on other local specialties: smoked salmon, capers, and a nifty whipped spread Barbara made out of two parts cream cheese to one part goat cheese and a handful of the last basil leaves from the plants she put under cloches in the garden; bagel chips, tortilla chips, ritz crackers, and wheat thins; San Francisco genoa salami, Canadian brie, and Vermilion River triple cream blue cheese that Jon and Lois brought from Illinois.

When we finally came indoors, Holt dished up his venison chili and cornbread, along with a platter of Ottolenghi's roast pumpkin with parsley and parmesan and crumbs (without the garlic or sour cream), from the cookbook Plenty which our friend K. von S. so kindly gave us.

Dessert was (what else?) Graeter's ice cream: salted caramel, coconut chip, and cinnamon flavors.  And of course Halloween candy to go with it.