I grew up in Southern California, and one of the bits of history we learned in school was that the local Indians ate acorns as a staple food, leaching the tannins out by pouring boiling water over the acorn meal. I filed that information away in whatever portion of my brain allows me to recall a Dr. Pepper jingle from 1973 but not remember my sister’s birthday and didn’t think about it again for about 25 years.

And then a couple of weeks ago I ran across this post which describes how to make acorn flour, and I thought:

1. I’ve always sort of wanted to try that.
2. I’m an adult now. I can totally stink up the kitchen with acorns if I want.
3. I live in Northern Virginia. If there’s one thing we’ve got plenty of right now, it’s acorns.

So despite Shadow Jack’s smirking reminder that the only time anybody ate acorns was because there wasn’t anything else to eat,* I gave it a try.

A few of my notes:

• I tried using a dehydrator to dry out the acorns as the blogger suggested. This made the acorns easier to open, but also resulted in hard, brown nutmeats. This may be because I used acorns from a different species of oak, or I may have dried them too long. Anyway, I wasn’t happy with the results and decided to use only fresh acorns in order to maximize my chances of getting usable flour.
• I really didn’t find fresh acorns that hard to open; the shells are very thin. The nutmeats do cling to the shell quite a bit more when fresh, but they’re not difficult to pry out and it doesn’t matter if they’re in one piece because you’re going to grind them anyway.
• I frequently suggest doing mindless tasks in front of the TV; I don’t recommend opening acorns in the house. If you happen to get a rotten one, it will explode in a cloud of black dust when you try to crack it. Shell your acorns outside, or prepare for some serious vacuuming. Also a shower.
• The original post doesn’t go into a whole lot of detail regarding their method for leaching out the tannins. After making the initial acorn slurry, I poured it into a clean dishcloth set over a strainer, squeezed it out thoroughly, then just poured several cups of hot water over the acorn mush in the strainer, periodically squeezing it out again. It’s fairly easy to tell when the tannins are reduced even without tasting; the rinse water goes from muddy brown to almost clear.
• I had trouble grinding the meal very finely in the food processor. Shadow Jack** suggested using a small “bullet” blender, which worked significantly better; the four blades provided a much finer grind.

And the taste? Is pretty darn good. It’s got a distinctly nutty flavor, but a different nutty flavor than anything I was accustomed to. I made pancakes and replaced half of the flour with my acorn meal, and they were delicious. (The batter seemed a bit thin; I suspect that the lack of gluten in the acorns had something to do with it. Next time I’ll reduce the liquid a bit.)

The whole process is pretty time-consuming, and I can’t see myself ever doing this on a large scale, but it wasn’t at all difficult and it was fun to come over all Pioneer Woman. Something made out of this flour would definitely be a showpiece at a dinner party.

If you try this yourself, let me know your results in the comments!

*To his credit, Shadow Jack has treated the announcement of every harebrained scheme that’s ever popped into my head with nothing more than an absent nod. So smirking or not, he’s a keeper.

**Who, also to his credit, will eventually come around and actually help with my harebrained schemes if the situation warrants.

Etsy seller piddies specializes in hand-made slippers shaped like various animals, and for Halloween she introduced Vampire Bats and Spiders. Even the soles are decorated–a crescent moon for the bats and spiderwebs for the spiders.

These are just adorable. If I could induce Shadowboy to keep something on his feet for more than thirty seconds, he would totally be wearing vampire bats.

(The seller also offers adult sizes, just in case you’re tired of wearing bunny slippers.)

(via Out of Character)

The Ariadne Knits shop is selling a pattern for Vincent, a little knit vampire with removable shirt, pants and cape (he has underpants for modesty).* He also appears to be wearing sneakers, which one might not expect.

Since his clothes are removable, this would be a great dress-up doll: Make him two or three outfits in different colors and change them as the mood strikes. A sequined cape would be particularly entertaining.

Link

*Do vampires wear boxers or briefs? Now we know!

I’ve previously mentioned my predilection for steampunk, both in design and fashion.

Divine Caroline recently featured a roundup of steampunk clothing (thanks, Shadaughter!), which prompted me to dig around for related links.

There are at least two LiveJournal communities devoted to steampunk clothing, Steamfashion and Steamy Stitches. There’s also a Flickr group.

Aether Emporium offers a very large list of steampunk fashion resources.

AskMen has an article about modern men’s clothing that work for this style. They also offer a few tips for wearing these pieces as part of one’s everyday wardrobe without looking…eccentric.

Threadbanger did a Week of Steampunk feature, providing directions for making several accessories.

The Steampunk Workshop site offers all kinds of resources, including a number of project tutorials.

Brass Goggles is a blog devoted to the subject, and Steampunk Magazine is a rather nice Webzine.

For those in California, there’s even a Steampunk Convention.

Hm. I think I feel a series of costumes coming on.

Fred Einaudi specializes in “apocalyptic art,” presenting horrific images of death and destruction in iconic styles such as WWII propaganda posters and elegant Victorian portraits. The result is haunting, depicting little girls playing “nurse” with their deformed pet cats and corpses floating serenely in clear blue lakes.

These paintings are disproportionately creepy, and I think it’s the calmness of their subjects. A girl in a pinafore and gas mask lolling lazily in an arm chair is somehow much more unsettling than if she seemed distressed to be wearing the gas mask. I’m enormously taken with the style and execution of these portraits; the discomfiture they cause is somehow attractive rather than offputting.

The artist is talking about offering limited-edition prints, so if you’re interested you can request more information at his site.

Link (via io9)

“Frightenin’ away demons is the reason for the season!”

I love The Onion.

(hat tip to Mike)

I came across a post about adding “ghosts” to images at Creepy Cupcakes, and it looked like such fun I decided to try it myself.

I threw this one together just as a test, using a photo of Shadowboy superimposed on a picture of a cemetery I took in England (click the photo for a larger version). I blurred his body more than his face–I think his solemn little eyes are creepy–and used an angled gradient to make parts of him less visible than others. Then the whole layer was made slightly transparent. The whole photo was converted to grayscale, then the flowers from the original color image were layered on top.

This took me about 20 minutes of just fooling around. With a bit more time and effort you could create some really spooky, ethereal images. If you aren’t sure how to get started with Photoshop or a similar tool, let me point you to webdesign.org, which has tons of wonderful tutorials for doing all sorts of cool effects.

It’s fun! Go turn something into a ghost today!

Here’s a lovely, simple idea for turning inexpensive statuary into something spooky. The Gerbera Designs blog offers instructions for converting ceramic cherubs into little demons.

Their method involves adding horns and other excrescences with Sculpey and then baking the whole thing. You could probably also mold the horns on the statue, carefully remove them, bake them separately, then glue them back in place.

I like the drippy, stained painting effect on these, but there are loads of other ways you could spook them up a bit. Most craft stores sell faux finish kits that mimic verdigris and rust, if you’d prefer a metallic look. A spattering of dull green paint can replicate moss or mold.

If the statues you get are weatherproof, you can grow real moss on them: Stick a handful of moss and a cup of plain yogurt in a blender, whirl into a slurry, then paint the results thickly on the statue and put in a damp place outside. (Also a great way to quickly make terra-cotta flowerpots look old and weathered.) Obviously, you’d want to keep these outside instead of welcoming them back into your boudoir.

This would be a good way to make over all kinds of cutesy statuary. A massed group of these would look great on a mantel or bookshelf.

Link (via CRAFT)

I don’t generally do memes, but this one speaks to the foodie in me. It’s popped up on several blogs, but it’s originally from Very Good Taste.

Here’s what to do:

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4. Optional extra: Post a comment here or at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

Shadow Manor’s Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison (I love venison. It’s particularly amusing to serve it at Christmas.)
2. Nettle tea (I grow a lot of herbs for both culinary and medicinal purposes.)
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding (I love this. I’ve even made my own. It’s…messy.)
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (I’ve made my own apricot wine)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes (I grow my own. I’m very big into saving heirloom varieties of plants)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (Someday Shadow Jack will relent and let me raise poultry.)
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese (Meh. Too much aspic for my taste.)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (Not a whole one. I’m not that stupid.)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects (I did a speech in college on insects in human nutrition, complete with visual aids. Dry-roasted mealworms taste uncannily like Doritos. If that doesn’t worry you, it should.)
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

As you can see, there’s virtually nothing on the list that I wouldn’t be willing to try–the only thing I’d be even vaguely reluctant about would be fugu; I’d want some guarantees that I wasn’t about to go meet that Big Maitre’d in the Sky–but I’d try it if it were offered. I think 80 items out of 100 is a fairly decent percentage.

How about you?

Dia de los Muertos is today (or tomorrow, depending upon who’s doing the counting). If you don’t want the Halloween atmosphere to end just yet, throw an impromptu Day of the Dead dinner!

The Day of the Dead is a festive holiday, so you want a festive atmosphere. Pile gourds and chiles on the table, and sprinkle marigolds (which are reputed to attract the souls of the dead) around. Use tall votive candles to add some height to the display. String colorful paper garlands around the room; if you live near a Mexican market, look for papel picadillo (paper cutouts) for a little authenticity.

Set out bowls of different kinds of salsa and tortilla chips, preferably homemade. (Cut corn tortillas into wedges, fry in hot oil for a few seconds, sprinkle with salt. Easy!)

As a party favor, give your guests a Mexican Hot Chocolate kit: A disk of Mexican chocolate (which includes cinnamon and almonds), a cone of Mexican brown sugar, and a generous mug. Attach a recipe instructing your guests to break off a small chunk of the sugar (a tablespoon or so, or to taste), add it to 2 cups of milk, and bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add the chocolate and stir until it begins to melt, then remove from the heat and whisk until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is frothy. Pour into mugs and serve immediately. (Spike with a little Kahlua if the spirit moves you.)

For dinner, serve traditional Mexican dishes. These soups make nice starters. Serve them individually, or do a two-tone thing: Simultaneously ladle generous 1/2 cup of each soup into shallow bowls, allowing them to meet in the center. Top with cheddar cheese, pico de gallo, and/or sour cream. Each soup serves 4 individually, so they’ll serve 8 if ladled together.

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