The Halloween Movie Cookbook: 65 Hauntingly Delicious Recipes Inspired by Your Favorite Spooky Movies by Ryan Alverez and Adam Merrin

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

I came to this cookbook with two strikes against me:

I don’t really like horror movies and I don’t cook.

But I was intrigued by the concept, especially because the recipes are tagged as belonging to specific movies, including some not so scary ones like Coco, The Addams Family, The Haunted Mansion, Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic and, yes, The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  They even have It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Of course, they also have classic horror pictures like The Shining, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween.

The book is arranged by Bewitching Breakfasts; Spooky Snacks and Sides; Monstrous Mains; Potions, Drinks, and Boo-zy Cocktails; and Devilish Desserts. Each recipe gives the movie that inspired it, with a brief description of the scene.  Pumpkin Pancakes come from a scene in Casper and genuinely sound delicious, with pumpkin puree, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice.  Even though it doesn’t start out with “Buy a box of pancake mix,” I almost think I could make these.  There is not a calorie count, but then I fear it might be truly terrifying.

Another good-looking dish is Crispy Baked Scrod with Lemon and Parmesan from Hocus Pocus, inspired by the scene in which Mary’s child-sniffing nose gets confused by scrod.  With two kinds of cheese, lemon zest, and panko breadcrumbs, this is another dish that looks and sounds so good that I would like to try them, providing someone else did the cooking.

The section on drinks is robust, and often alcoholic.  The IT Bloodbath Punch really does look bloody, what with the cherry juice, grenadine, and red food coloring.  It also has pineapple and lime juice—not to mention two kinds of rum and peach schnapps. However, the photo of Lestat’s Bloody Mary creeped me out.  I’m not going to describe it. You have to see it.

Which brings me to the photos, which are gloriously staged, appearing both delicious and ghoulish.  They are fabulous. 

To me, the recipes skewer more toward adult tastes, which is fine—they are a number of recipes out there for kids’ spooky treats. I also like the way the recipes are introduced and written; these guys have a sense of humor.  They are also careful to point out ingredients that could be confused, like evaporated milk vs. condensed milk.

The thing I think I love most is that there are several lists.  You can do the recipes by the movie or by the theme—witches, ghosts, vampires, killers, undead, monsters and misfits, or family friendly.  They have suggested menus, like Spooky Musical Party or Tim Burton Tribute. There’s even a list of movies in chronological order.

This is a fun, entertaining cookbook sure to inspire cooks during spooky season, which now appears to be all year round.  I thing they missed a bet, though, by not including a roast chicken for The Birds.

Creepy Cat by Cotton Valent

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

I love cats and I like creepy (not horror) so this title was a natural for me. A young woman named Flora moves into an old mansion with a supernatural vibe.  She soon discovers it’s occupied by big white marshmallow of a cat who can shapeshift and who likes to play tricks.  That’s pretty much the setup.  There’s no real storyline to it, though other characters are introduced, such as Oscar, a former schoolmate who has a crush on Flora.  His attempts to flirt with her are constantly undermined by Creepy cat.

Each page is sort of a vignette, a joke with a visual punchline usually provided by Creepy Cat. I’ll admit there are some I don’t get.  This is a manga style graphic novel, and while I have read a few manga I’m not a regular consumer.  I tend to get a little confused: I understand about reading back to front but the dialog always throws me—I read the last part of a sentence first.  I’m also a bit hampered because I’ve found volume 2 of the series but not volume 1 so I’m a little hazy on the backstory. (There are four volumes total.)  I do understand that Flora needs to keep Creepy Cat a secret, or else an organization dedicated to investigating Mysterious Animal Sightings might take him away.

What I’m not hazy on is how much I love this little book.  For me, the art is a cross between Charles Addams and Tim Burton: Flora reminds me of Wednesday.  All the human-ish characters tend to be thin and pale while Creepy Cat and friends are pudgy round creatures with never-changing smiles.  I am besotted.  Those faces!  That maddeningly adorable way they cheerfully cause chaos! They enlarge and fly and split into numerous little cats and do all sorts of strange and enchanting things. I may not understand all that’s going on but I do know one thing:

 I want my own copies of these books.