Tytus Halloween

Saturday 31 October

For the past three years we've had lousy weather for Halloween, but that hasn't prevented us from inviting guests over to enjoy trick-or-treat time on our front porch and dinner afterwards.  We especially like to have our Tytus scholars over for a true American experience, so tonight we invited Paul, Luca, and Sinclair on what turned out to be an overcast, but otherwise pleasant, night.  What's more, Sinclair gave us a Halloween surprise by not only coming in costume (as a hippo), but by bringing an extra guest, his friend Sopat, dressed as an alligator. 

Luckily, everything we were serving could be divided to serve six instead of five.  As we sat on the porch and handed out candy to what turned out to be 107 trick-or-treaters, we snacked on platters of cheeses and salamis, crackers and goat-cheese-and-sorrel dip, with wine and chimayo cocktails.

Then we went inside for hearty bowls of venison chili, cornbread, and a beautiful platter of roast pumpkin scattered with seeds (cumin and black and white sesame) and drizzled with pomegranate molasses and drained yogurt, as a sweet take on Ottolenghi's savory roast pumpkin that we've done for previous Halloweens.

Dessert was Halloween candy (natch), but also Holt's coffee walnut torta rustica topped with Graeter's coconut chip ice cream.  We wanted our Tyti to have the complete Cincinnati experience.