October 29. 2003

Once Upon a Halloween

I don’t know what has happened to Halloween to make it so popular. No, I take that back. What happened was that people figured out they could make a buck from it.

When I was young, it was a barely noticeable holiday. People bought 20-cent masks for their kids, dressed them up in mother’s or dad’s old dresses or suits and hats—or at the fanciest, an old white sheet with cut-out eyeholes. Many kids didn’t have costumes, just the mask or a paper bag over their heads for disguise. We went to a few of our neighbor’s houses for trick-or-treat, or to a party in the church basement. Each of the kids carved one jack-o-lantern, or perhaps there was only one.

When we were older, we were allowed to do our trick-or-treating in the nearest town, comprised of one main street and about 500 people. The treats were mostly homemade, like cookies or popcorn balls, with some candy and apples thrown in. Nobody was afraid of poison or razor blades.

Kids actually did play tricks back then, like tipping over outhouses. My first and last experience with “tricking” was the time Billy Fisher’s dad gave us some wormy old apples for a treat and we soaped his windows. The Fishers lived next door to my grandfather and Billy’s dad knew us so he drove around until he found us and made us come back and clean the windows.

If my mother or I were asked to do a “reading” around that time of year, we picked James Whitcomb Riley’s timely “When the frost is on the punkin’” or spooky poem “When de folks is gone”. The latter, in non-PC dialect begins, “Who dat knockin’ at de kitchen do’? I done heard dat for an hour or mo’”.

When my kids came along, we graduated to purchased treats and the costumes and masks were of real people, things and animals. I was amazed to learn that Halloween was one of their favorite holidays, almost equal with Christmas. My daughter has always made my grandson’s costumes by hand, and to this day decorates her house for Halloween. There are ghosts hanging from the trees, strings of lights in the form of pumpkins and eyeballs and designer jack-o-lanterns. Everyone in the family has his own pumpkin, but instead of being either “scary” or “friendly” faces, the pumpkins are cut into elaborate patterns. This year, there is a new figure, a giant pumpkin-headed scarecrow who sits on the wicker sofa on the front porch. And my 30-something son is probably planning his annual Halloween party.

I don’t mind all the commercialism, because it’s a holiday mostly for kids and I can ignore it except for buying a bag or two of mini-candy bars. But the Halloween party treat recipes with creepy names that are featured everywhere really get to me. Food that speaks of disgusting edibles or non-edibles like dirt, worms, spiders, fingers, blood and eyeballs will never make an appearance on my table.

Here’s the best I can do for Halloween…

Oven Caramel Corn To Die For

This recipe came originally from a “home show” on television in the late sixties. I liked it, but found it much improved if I cut the amount of popcorn in half. Usually, I make a huge batch by doubling this recipe and baking in two large foil “turkey roaster” pans. It’s fabulous, much better than anything you could buy.

4 or 5 quarts popped popcorn, unsalted
2 cups light brown sugar (a one pound box less a quarter cup)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Pop the corn in batches and pour into a large baking pan, such as a roaster, or a large bowl if you will be using two or more smaller pans.

Mix sugar, butter, corn syrup, cream of tartar and salt in a two quart saucepan (it’s going to foam up later) and bring to a boil. Stirring often, cook for 3 minutes over medium high heat. Remove from heat and add baking soda; it will start to foam. Stir vigorously until the foam starts to die down.

Pour syrup over popped corn and stir with a long handled spoon until well mixed. Place in a 200 degree oven and bake for an hour and a half, stirring every 15 minutes. The mixture will be very sticky at first, but will gradually dry until it makes a “rustling” sound. Let cool.

Store in plastic zip-lock bags or airtight containers.

Deluxe version: Stir a can of mixed nuts without peanuts into the syrup before mixing into the popcorn. This will make a version of “Poppycock”, the best commercially available popcorn product I’ve tried. You could use mixed nuts with peanuts, or peanuts alone, for a less elegant version, but why? Peanuts spread their aroma to make everything else taste like peanuts, so you might as well eat them alone.

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