Victoria's Vegetarian Victuals

Victoria Smith
Imagine a dark and winding dirt and gravel road through what seems to be an endless forest. Over hills you go, and around curves that you cannot even

see in the darkness. You know that there is supposed to be a full moon tonight, but the forest is so dense that you are not quite sure that there is any moon up there at all. Ah. You have come out onto a clear stretch. There are deer in the fields. You can see their eyes shining. There is, after all, a full moon. (You hope that these are deer....) Something howls. A farmer's dog, you think, and you roll up the car windows.

You can see scattered lights on the distant ridges and hilltops, above the dark pools of the tree-covered hollows. Farmhouses? Spooky castles? Who knows? The road dips into another hollow, and all is dark. Something cries out in the dark. You lock the doors. It is not an animal in pain, it is something else, you don't know what, and it is angry, and very close.

The dark and heavy trees arch above your car again. Where is this place? Are you almost there? What will you find? You reach the crest of a hill, and turn off this road onto an even darker one. Down, down again into a hollow. A wall of red pines looms on the right, and the mountainside drops away on the left.

Is that a light blinking behind those sky-scraping pines?

You turn right, off this last dark and bumpy little road. There is a lighted doorway up at the top of the hill... and bright windows.

Hi. Welcome to Tir Nan Og. This is where I live. Happy Halloween.

Now what shall we have to eat at this party?

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Monster Brew

  • 8 cups cranberry juice
  • 6 cups apple cider
  • Ice cubes

Mix 8 cups of cranberry juice and 6 cups of apple cider in a punch bowl. Add ice cubes and serve.

  • Yields: 14 cups
  • Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Pumpkin Pops

  • Orange juice
  • Popsicle sticks

Freeze orange juice in ice cube containers with wooden ice cream sticks.

  • Yields: as many ice trays as you want to freeze
  • Preparation Time: depends on how long it takes your refrigerator to

    freeze the ice cubes

Ants on a Log

  • Celery stalks
  • Peanut butter
  • Raisins

Rinse 1 or 2 celery stalks. Cut the stalks into halves or thirds. Fill the hollow of each celery piece with peanut butter then sprinkle raisins across the peanut butter. *Yum*

  • Yields: however many celery stalks you fill
  • Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Beetle Brunch

  • Half a pear
  • Orange or peach slices
  • Apple or carrot strips
  • Raisins

Use a pear half for the beetle's body. Add orange or peach slices for wings and apple or carrot strips for antennae and legs. Use raisins and apple or carrot strips to add details, like eyes, spots, or stripes.

  • Yields: 1 serving -- make as many as you need
  • Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Centipede Surprise

  • Pretzel sticks
  • Jumbo marshmallows

Place a pretzel stick into each end of a jumbo marshmallow (use the short, thin pretzel sticks.)

Keep adding marshmallows in either direction to make your centipede as long as you like.

Use pretzel stick halves for legs.

  • Yields: depends on how many you make
  • Preparation Time: depends on how many you make

Trick or Treat Cereals

  • Cereals, hot or cold
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Prunes
  • Raisins

Place these combinations on your hot or cold cereal.
Peachy Pumpkins: Place a peach half on your cereal, give it raisin eyes, nose, and stem. Then add an apple slice for a mouth.
Goofy Ghost: Use a pear half and place three raisins for the eyes and mouth.
Black Cat: Use a big prune for the body and a small prune for the head, raisins for the tail and ears, and bits of apple for the face.

  • Yields: 3 servings
  • Preparation Time: next to no time

Witch on a Broom

  • 1 prune
  • 1 banana slice
  • Shredded coconut
  • Raisins
  • Pineapple

Use a prune for the body, banana slice head, coconut hair, raisin eyes, nose, mouth, hands, and feet. Top it off with a pineapple broom.

  • Yields: 1 serving. Make as many as you need.
  • Preparation Time: the blink of an eye

Pumpkin Bread

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1 cup fresh pumpkin
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Combine pumpkin, water, eggs and oil and mix well. Add dry ingredients slowly and beat thoroughly. Stir in nuts and pour batter into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350" for 75-80 minutes. Cool 15 minutes before removing from pan.

  • Yields: one loaf
  • Preparation Time: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Little Pumpkin Pizzas

  • 2 English muffin halves
  • Catsup
  • Shredded cheddar
  • 1 vegetarian hot dog (Morningstar Farms or Boca)

Ready the broiler and toast 2 english muffin halves. Spread the english muffins with catsup and then sprinkle with shredded cheddar. Slice a vegetarian hot dog like coins and place a few on each muffin in a pumpkin face. Place the muffins on a broiler pan and broil them until the cheese melts.

  • Yields: 2 servings -- you will need more!
  • Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Stuffed Snails

  • 1 cup jumbo pasta shells
  • Assorted cheese and cold cuts

Boil and drain 1 cup of jumbo pasta shells. Let the pasta shells cool completely. Stuff the shells with small pieces of your favorite cheese and cold cuts.

  • Yields: 12 shells
  • Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Oil

Wash and drain seeds. Pour 1/4 cup vegetable oil on a large cookie sheet. Spread seeds on the sheet, coating them well with oil. Bake in oven at 350 until seeds are lightly brown (8-10 minutes). Remove, drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Store seeds in an airtight container.

  • Yields: depends on the number of pumpkin seeds
  • Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

  • Pumpkin seeds
  • Cooking oil
  • Salt

Wash the seeds in lukewarm water. Fill a bowl with water. Soak the seeds for 1 hour. Spread the seeds on a piece of foil to dry. Let them dry for 1 or 2 days. Put the seeds in a bowl. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of cooking oil. Stir the seeds and oil. Spread the seeds out on a cookie sheet. lightly salt them. Bake the seeds at 300 for 30 minutes. Turn the seeds every 5 minutes with the spatula or spoon. Let the seeds cool completely before you munch 'em.

  • Yields: depends on how many seeds you roasted
  • Preparation Time: 3 days

Pumpkin Soup

  • 2 large onions, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 5 cups chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 4 cups half-and-half
  • 4 cups fresh pumpkin

Saute onion in butter until tender. Sprinkle with curry powder and saute 2 more minutes. Remove and place in a large saucepan. Stir in pumpkin and salt. Add half-and-half, stirring constantly. Stir in broth. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally.

  • Yields: 16 servings
  • Preparation Time: 35 minutes

Yummy Pumpkin Cookies

  • 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 lb. can pumpkin
  • 2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 400. Mix sugar, shortening, eggs, and pumpkin thoroughly In a large bowl. Sift dry ingredients and add to pumpkin mixture. Blend well, Add raisins and pecans. Drop batter by teapoonsful on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven.

  • Yields: 6 dozen
  • Preparation Time: 45 minutes

Halloween Supreme

  • 2 dozen graham crackers (crushed)
  • l 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup margarine
  • 5 eggs
  • 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 envelope plain gelatine
  • 1/4 cup cold water
  • 2 cups fresh pumpkin

Mix graham cracker crumbs, margarine and 1/3 cup sugar together, and pack in a 9" by 13" pan. Combine 2 eggs, 2/3 cup sugar and cream cheese, and beat until light and fluffy. Pour mixture over graham crackers and bake for 20 minutes at 350". Remove and cool. Separate 3 eggs, combine the yolks, pumpkin, 1/2 cup sugar, salt and cinnamon in the top of a double boiler, and cook over boiling water for 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat. Sprinkle gelatine over water in a small pan and stir over low heat until dissolved. Add to mixture in double boiler, and let cool. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into mixture, and pour over baked layers. Refrigerate and serve with whipped cream.

  • Yields: 13 ... not enough. Betcha need to make more!
  • Preparation Time: 1 hour

Pumpkin Pie

  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh pumpkin
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons melted margarine
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 3 eggs
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 9" unbaked pie shell

Separate eggs and lay the whites aside. Combine the yolks and all other ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Fold in the egg whites and mix well. Spoon mixture into a 9" unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350" for one hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out cleanly.

  • Yields: one 9" pie
  • Preparation Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes