I have come down with a cold, so yesterday I amused myself by making Gaufres de Liege, known to me as Belgian sugar waffles. These are amazing, and have left me uninterested in most all other waffles. They are made from a yeast dough and studded with big coarse sugar that melts and caramelizes as it cooks. They are so, so good.

I had my first one of these at Arosa cafe here in Seattle. (If you live in Seattle you can read more about Arosa's two locations and Hans, whom everybody loves, here at Voracious.) Even when not fresh (I brought it home and heated in the oven for a moment) it was delicious. I tracked down a recipe over at The Kitchn and had a go.

First I needed to find pearl sugar (though the recipe calls for turbinado sugar and only pearl sugar "if you choose"). I know I'd seen it in the Scandinavian Specialties import store in Ballard, the stuff I had seen resembles the large, opaque salt you see on soft pretzels. I ended up finding some at my nearest Red Apple Market:

This brand had two kinds, Swedish Pearl Sugar (like described above) and this Belgian Pearl Sugar which is far larger than I was expecting:

But, right there on the back of the box is a recipe for Belgian Sugar Waffles:

I don't know if you need sugar this large, but it certainly seemed to work well. You can also find this Lars Own Belgian Pearl Sugar at Amazon, along with hail sugar, the small kind, which is sold by Chef Shop (whose physical location just happens to be in Seattle). You can also find the Lars Swedish sized pear sugar occasionally at Ikea.

The recipe calls for 140 grams of sugar, which for me worked out to just over 3/4 cup, but I didn't use all of it because the dough seemed so crammed with sugar.

You divide the dough into 12 parts, let them rise a bit more and put them in your waffle maker:

These aren't meant to fill the space in your waffle maker, they are meant to be oddly shaped. The sugar bits melt, so if you have an older waffle maker you might want to use that one:

Here is my DIRE WARNING. The molten sugar bits will burn your fingers when you remove them from the waffle maker. So don't pluck them from the waffle maker with your bare fingers (ow ow ow stupid ow), and don't lift them from the waffle maker with tongs but place your bare hand protectively beneath it as the hot sugar will drip onto your lower hand (unexpected ow). Use tongs to pluck it out of the waffle maker, and a spatula beneath to steady it on it's way to the cooling rack. You have been warned.

What emerges will be so good you almost won't mind the amount of work it will be to clean out your waffle maker.

The waffle maker pictured here is on it's way out and I suspect our next waffle maker will be chosen specifically with Gaufres de Liege in mind. Smaller, deeper squares and with temperature settings. (If you're wondering what happened to the waffle maker I mentioned earlier, I returned it. It made a disturbing and obviously not right click when one closed it, something was catching and we couldn't figure out what. Also, it seemed to only under or over cook waffles and for as much as it cost I wasn't too pleased about that. I'd much rather have the 1/5th of an ottoman that it was worth.)

One last note, the recipe below calls for a low temperature setting for your waffle maker. Mine just has On and Off and yet the waffles turned out just fine. I just checked to see if the outside was dark enough for me, they all seem to have cooked through just fine (I, um, ate half of them so it was a good sample). You can heat them in the toaster, but be aware of the molten sugar warnings above and if you are going to just eat it by hand wrap it in parchment paper instead of a paper towel (which will stick to the caramelized sugar exterior).

Recipe by Chichi of My Chalkboard Fridge, by way of Doc Doughtery, and was found here at The Kitchn. Presented here with a few notes by Megan from NotMartha.org.

Gaufres de Liege
makes 12 waffles

• 6 tablespoons warm milk (no hotter than 110°F)
• 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 1/2 cups (230 grams) bread flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 medium egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) unsalted butter, at slightly cooler than room temperature
• 140 grams turbinado sugar, or pearl sugar if you choose (I went with 3/4 cup. It's worth seeking out Lars Belgian Pearl Sugar if you can find it.)
• Cooking spray

Dissolve the sugar in the warm milk; then add the yeast. Make sure that the milk is not too hot, lest it kill the yeast instead of promoting its growth. Place a plate or some kind of cover on top of the bowl with the milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside for about five minutes. When you check on it, the yeast should have bubbled up, looking light brown and spongy.

Meanwhile, mix the sifted bread flour with the cinnamon, vanilla extract, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour in the yeast mixture; then add the whole egg and egg yolk. Mix on medium speed until it is fully combined. The dough will be yellow and stiff, yielding only slightly to a poke.

Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest in a warm place for about thirty minutes. (I always find the top of my fridge is the best spot in my house.)

Beat in the butter piece by piece; you do not have to wait for the prior piece to be fully incorporated before adding the next. When the dough has incorporated about half of the butter, the mixture will be like a very thick, somewhat broken-up paste. If you keep engaging the mixer on medium-high speed, the dough will eventually become a cohesive whole, looking smoother and more feeling more elastic. Scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.

Kneading very gently, incorporate the sugar crystals just enough to get them evenly distributed. Work quickly so as not to soften the buttery dough too much.

Divide the dough into a dozen equal pieces, gently forming them into balls.

Place the balls of dough on a cutting board in a warmish place for fifteen minutes or so. During the last two minutes of this resting time, preheat your waffle iron until it is very warm, but not hot.

Spray the griddles with cooking oil. Place each ball of dough in a whole square or section of the waffle iron. (I could fit two in my smallish, round Belgian style waffle maker.) Like regular waffle batter, the dough will start to puff up. Cook the waffles until the surface is golden to dark brown. Be sure that the waffle iron you are using is appropriately deep, or else the interior of the waffle will not be cooked through. If you are using a vintage stovetop waffle iron, flip the iron every thirty to forty seconds, lifting the iron to check the rate of browning. The browning should be gradual to allow the interior to fully develop.

(Be careful when you lift them from the waffle maker! Very hot sugar can drip from the waffles and, trust me, it burns.)

Set the waffles on a cooling rack as they come out of the iron to promote a crispy exterior. Serve immediately with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Any leftover waffles, if they are not dark brown, can be carefully re-cooked in a toaster for approximately thirty to sixty seconds. (Again, beware hot molten sugar.) Leftover waffles may also be kept in an airtight container between sheets of parchment paper, for up to three days.

A question for the ladies about comfortable bras. | Ask Metafilter.

HerCut Long Layers Catalyst, at Outblush.

How can a guy dress more sexy? | Ask Metafilter.

Well look at that, I'll be a speaker at the Altitude Design Summit conference this January. Those Kirtsy ladies, who are behind the creation of the event, are so charming that they got me to agree to speak in public. I'm terrified. Come watch me lose my composure!

If you were considering attending Alt this might help you make up your mind, they are offering their Early Bird pricing through November 20th, it's a whole $100 off the normal price. Also Sundance will be taking place during the summit so there is a chance of celebrity spotting, and you might want to stay and attend a few screenings.

And while I'm at it I'd like to congratulate Laura Mayes on sending off her book Kirsty Takes A Bow: A Celebration of Women's Online Favorites. You can preorder it on Amazon. Congrats Laura!

Also a huge congratulations to Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge for sending off the final bits of her book, just months after she got married and had her wedding featured in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. You are a superhero. Probably an exhausted one. Grace is also a speaker at Alt, I'm wowed to be in the same company.

Last weekend Buick loaned me a car for the weekend* to drive down to Portland and attend the Northwest Food and Wine Festival. Scott was busy being a rock star with Explone so I took my friend Maggi, I couldn't have had a better partner in crime for the weekend!

We ate so, so very well. Buick put us up at the Benson Hotel which has a beautiful lobby and a very comfortable bar in the lobby that invited a little lingering. We checked in and headed to Fenouil for a hosted Tweetup. Fenouil is fantastic and and full of energy, and the upstairs has a nice view down overhead the kitchen. The front of the restaurant has a patio just off of a small city park and I wished it was warm enough to sit outside, it must be amazing in the summer.

That night we had a late dinner at El Gaucho, which is connected to the lobby of the Benson by a secret door. We ate steaks and one delicious Caesar salad. We got to watch some very dramatic presentations of kebobs brought out on flaming swords, very entertaining and probably will be a destination for us in the depth of this upcoming winter when we are desperately needing some distraction from the cold and the gray.

The next day at lunch I had the pleasure to meet Brett, the man behind Food Carts Portland, and Valerie who keeps The Wine Dog Review and gave us some tips on what wines to make sure we sampled at the festival.

We had a few hours to explore in the afternoon and made our way to the Waffle Window. Yum, and the indoor seating was most welcome on the chilly afternoon. We happened to stumble across the Yarn Garden and couldn't help but go in for a little look around.

The festival itself was a lot of fun, there was an overwhelming amount of things to sample and nibble. The standouts for me were the estate pinot noirs from Johan Vineyards. I also took note of the Phinny Hill Vineyard Carmenere from Tertulia Cellars that has an interesting story. Apparently it was thought mostly lost when it was rediscovered being grown in Chile and sold as Merlot, you can read more here at Wikipedia.

Amazingly we managed to find ourselves hungry later that night and walked a few blocks to Chez Joly, whose food we had sampled earlier at the festival, and had a lovely meal. Our waiter mentioned that they had a sparkling wine made from raspberries that night so we both ordered a glass. It was so lovely that we both ended up buying a bottle on our way out (and the waiter was sweet enough to comp us both a second glass, which made our walk home a bit tipsy!). The foil and the label are pink and it's almost too cute to stand. I'm not normally a sweet drink type of girl but this was lovely, and has an alluring fresh raspberry flavor.

On Sunday we visited Pine State Biscuits. I ordered the grits sampler and was shocked to find it came with a piece of fried chicken, a very happy shocked. The food was amazing and very welcome on a cold dreary morning, but the process of ordering and waiting was quite a challenge on a Sunday as the very few tables are up for grabs. I'm glad we opted to get our food to go, even though all the patrons were perfectly nice I couldn't have coped with vying for a table.

You'd think we would never be hungry again but on the drive back we needed an excuse to use the On Star service that was in the car, and which we'd been encouraged to take advantage of. The only thing I could think of was where the nearest Burgerville might be. (I couldn't handle the idea of eating a burger, but a milkshake for lunch sounded quite nice). We were given the miles and exit number of the next one and milkshakes were acquired and enjoyed.

And how was the car? People, it was nice. I was driving a 2010 Buick LaCrosse and it was quite the experience. The drive to and from Portland is a familiar trip to me and often feels unending but this time I we were arriving well before I expected. I even found excuses to keep driving around after I dropped Maggi off at the end of the weekend.

* Being offered a car to try out for a weekend? Totally not something that happens to me. My thanks to Buick for giving me the opportunity.

RobertSabuda.com: Simple Pop-Ups You Can Make!.

via Kirigami T-Rex » Curbly | DIY Design Community « Keywords: Kirigam, origami, pop-up, cards.

Make a pop-up paper garden! » Curbly | DIY Design Community « Keywords: paper, folding, greeting_cards, flower.

Gingerbread Caramels, marthastewart.com.

Amazon.com: Nordic Ware 3D Christmas Tree Pan: Home & Garden. Oooh!

Holiday Cards by theironcurtainpress on Etsy. Iron Curtain Press are the people who made my wedding reception favor cards and thank you cards, this is the holiday section of their Etsy shop full of good stuff.

What are some good online stores to buy cool, unique Christmas gifts? | Ask Metafilter.

Cakespy: Cherry Almond Osgood Pie | Serious Eats. Jessie from Cakespy made a modified version of my family recipe, I'll have to make it to compare.

Food & wine | Recipe: Penne with Smoked Turkey Sausage | Seattle Times.

Coconut Angel Food Cake, marthastewart.com.

Whisk: a food blog: Gingerbread Cookie Cups.

What's your fvorite aperitif? How do you mix it if at all? | Ask Metafilter.

Portland Watering Holes etc « SpiritsAndCocktails.com.

An Alternative Use for Your Soda Charger : You've never thought to carbonate fruit, have you? - CHOW. It's so easy!

The Best Waffle You'll Ever Eat: Gaufres de Liege Guest Post | The Kitchn. I'm hoping to find a recipe to make waffles like the ones served at Arosa here in Seattle, this might be it.

The Secret Garden Moss Terrarium Globe by doodlebirdie on Etsy. This is charming.

Unique Gifts and Classic Goods for Modern Men - Gent Supply Co. From the brilliant people behind Delight.com, this is good stuff.

Audrey and Grace by audreyandgrace on Etsy. I wish I knew about this shop earlier this year when I was looking for full skirted dresses!

Essentially Odd 826 National Design Catalog | Incredible Things. All the stuff from the 826 stores with comments from the designers, excellent.

swissmiss | Look! Authentic Jobs! All New!.

Cool Tools: Lenspen.

“Continuous partial attention” and “email apnea” from the CBC’s “Spark” podcast • Tiffany B. Brown.

Drupal vs WordPress: Which one is right for you? » Blog: Raised Eyebrow Web Studio, Inc..

Shopping: The search for designer doorknobs.

swissmiss | Luft Wall Shelf. I love how slim this is.

angry chicken: screenprinting on fabric made easy (really!). With a discount for EZScreenPrint, a good excuse to try it out.

all buttoned up.: The New Stitch Magazine and My Perfect Cookie.. The thermal pot luck carrier is fantastic!

lovelydesign: perfect boxes + drawer dividers. With instructions.

swissmiss | Inkjet tattoo paper. For DIY temporary tattoos. Must keep in mind for future Halloween projects.

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Slightly longer that would be: working out two to three times a week with the 30 Day Shred DVD and/or my Schwinn 430 elliptical machine while watching Gilmore Girls (or How I Met Your Mother) and eating carefully.

The Exercise Bits

I don't want to be outdoors, running makes my knees hurt, it rains a lot here and it's dark in the winter. I'm cranky and ugly when I break a sweat. I'm not motivated by competition or by being around people so a gym was not an option. I know I cannot be the only hermit who needs some exercise, so I'm writing about everything I've done in the hope that it will help somebody else. You can do it! Alone!

30 Day Shred was an easy choice, it's 18 minutes of exercise with a bit of warm up and cool down. By the time I get to the point of either being exhausted or bored it's over. It wasn't easy, and I remember being able to do little more than standing and gasping for air during more than a few sessions, but once I got used to knowing it would be over sooner than later it made me work harder. It's a good mix of strength and cardio and while I frequently swear at the television screen I still use it as my primary work out. I ignored the "30 days" in the title altogether and just did level one until I could get through it without stopping (which was a good long time). Then I'd do the next level and start all over again with the gasping. Levels two and three involve larger motions and are less repetitive, and to me feel like they go by faster. So if level one is making you nuts try level two.

I've written about this before so I'll be brief, I love my elliptical machine. The big point for me about this particular one is this: After trying out a bunch of models I found that the Schwinn 430 (as well as the newer Schwinn 431) have foot pedals that are closer together and create a much more natural stance for me and my short legs. We've had ours for almost two years and we still both use it regularly.

[Click to read much, much more:]

I worked out two to three times a week. I fully intended to work out five days a week but that never actually happened despite my best efforts. On most days I did 30 Day Shred and about twenty minutes on the elliptical machine (or, half an episode of Gilmore Girls). On days when I was particularly sore I would just use the elliptical machine, on days when I was pressed for time I would just do 30 Day Shred, and on days when I was feeling oddly energetic I would race a 22-minute episode of How I Met Your Mother to see if I could do 200 calories before the credits rolled. Note: the calorie counts on elliptical machines are notoriously high, in my case I started thinking of it as just another unit of measure. My machine will display various things and I find it less distracting when I'm not staring at a timer counting down.

I've also come to appreciate how helpful having the right stuff can be. Good shoes, I like New Balance, with these brilliant, heat moldable inserts from SOLE for my fussy feat and arch support needs helped a whole lot. I also use 2, 3 and 5 pound hand weights (using heavier ones when it gets too easy) and a yoga mat for push up and crunches. Most important, though, is a good sports bra. I personally require one that zips up the front because nothing will get me to put off working out more than the prospect of tweaked nipples while pulling on a bra without any closures. Yikes.

The Food Bits

The bits involving food slowly sorted out into simply eating in moderation. Previously I had tried low carb diets and counting calories or keeping track of what I'd eaten in a day. And you know what? All that being aware of food all day drove me crazy. The result was that I grew resentful and obsessive and felt hungry all the time. And then I would eat a whole bag of Doritos. So instead I decided to try to just not think about all that hard. I ate more carefully, more kale less Annie's Mac and Cheese, and smaller meals with more snacks. I started eating breakfast, something I'm not inclined towards, to keep my metabolism going. Slowly I learned how long it takes for me to get rid of sugar cravings (two weeks), and that bagged baby carrots make me ill, and that I really like farro and kale, and that a little bit of olive oil used to cook a meal makes it far more satisfying than when using one of those olive oil mister things. I cut down on sugar and white flour and beer and eventually started avoiding those things knowing that they would only make me hungry later. Apples and almonds and light Baybell cheeses are surprisingly satisfying snacks, a mug of green tea in the afternoon helps a lot. I ate more carefully during the week and less on the weekends.

Somehow this all worked out into a happy balance, I'm not desperately tempted by a second cupcake because I'm not otherwise denying myself food. I tend to not overeat at one meal because I don't have sugar highs and lows, or when I do have a low sugar moment I don't run straight for the nearest Twinkie. It's still not easy, mind you, and I don't do this all the time. But, I know that I can eat carefully without hating it completely, which makes me feel much calmer.

Evening, post-dinner sugar cravings do get me, though. I found that a single Dove miniature ice cream treat, 60 calories (small but effective), and a big mug of tea will squash it sufficiently that I don't go to bed dreaming about cheesecake. Fruit works too but, well, chocolate is good.

The Weight Loss Bits

It was hard to figure out that I don't have to lose weight at a miraculous pace. Forgetting all about trend/miracle/cleanse/easy diets, I still somehow had it in my head that if I didn't lose a pound a week I wasn't doing enough. I did lose a pound a week for a while and it made me miserable, and circled back to thinking about food too much. At some point I stopped trying for it and eased up a bit and discovered that I could lose half a pound a week without wanting to smash expensive things or sabotage myself. I'm perfectly happy losing weight slowly, it's the pace that works out for me, and once I ditched the one pound a week idea I found I was much happier all around.

I'm a girl so I know my weight fluctuates wildly based on things like the time of the month or if my hair looks good that day. So I weighed myself once a week, before breakfast. People, even with it being gradual the weight loss didn't seem to correspond with anything at all. I have notes that read "WTF?" and point to a week where I knew I ate pizza every day but lost a pound and a half, right next to a week where I did everything just right and gained half a pound. So now I don't pay too much attention. I still keep weekly track but only because it's sort of thrilling to look back at my weight in January as proof.

It feels strange to talk about how thrilled I am with a comparatively slow pace of weight loss in our culture of searching for effortless and miraculous slimness, but I keep in mind that even at this rate I was able to lose weight far faster than it took me to put it on.

The Motivation Bits

I let upcoming events for which I wanted to look good motivate me, I'm not going to claim I'm not vain that way. This year I got married and had pictures taken and saw a lot of family, and went to conferences and saw a lot of friends and people I knew but hadn't met in person and had more pictures taken. I set goals but I didn't set them too high (as in: the conference is in two weeks and I can definitely lose ten pounds by then!).

I also used the old trick of only watching certain shows while on the elliptical machine. I feel twisted about this but it's true: I started looking forward to working out because it's when I got to watch Gilmore Girls. Whatever, it works for me.

Also motivating? Reading about Sundry Mourning losing weight, having a second child and losing all that weight and starting up Bodies In Motivation, all while finding I was still sitting on my couch eating corn chips. I follow a few exercise blogs but unlike those I have no desire to up my exercise routine and train for a race or, damn girl!, finish a triathalon. Nope, I'm happy spinning the hamster wheel on my elliptical. I've run out of Gilmore Girls so I think I'll have to find something new. What do you suggest? I'm leaning towards racing against episodes of Secret Diary of A Call Girl.

I'm excited about our upcoming meeting for the Seattle Grassroots Business Association, we'll have Kaytlyn Sanders of Beneficial Design joining us for a night of Q&A With A Web Designer. She'll be talking a little about how to find and work with a web designer for your business website, but mostly she'd like to take questions. I heard about Kaytlyn through Shauna James Ahern of Gluten-free Girl and The Chef and have since discovered that Kaytlyn has designed a whole lot of websites I read.

The November meeting is also the first one where we'll be charging an entrance fee or taking annual memberships that will be good for all meetings through the end of 2010. We need to do this in order to cover our costs, so far we've been paying for things ourselves and hoping to break even while asking for donations. (Huge thanks go out to people who have donated through the year, you've been the reason we have been able to keep going.) An annual membership also gets you access to the meeting notes we'll be putting on the website. Annual membership is $25, or if you just want to attend this meeting it's $5. We deeply appreciate the support and hope you want to join us next year as well.

Please do RSVP to let us know you're coming. Thanks!

when and where:

Wednesday, Nov. 18th, 7:00 p.m. at the Richard Hugo House
1634 11th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122

The plastic skeleton embedded in an ice sphere was a lot of fun. In a drink it sort of rotated around on it's own and showed different bones, creepy.

On the left are gummy eyeballs I froze in a swizzle stick ice tray I found at Daiso, these were creepy submerged in a drink that had gone opaque (see just below). On the right is black vodka and orange juice, which turned a nicely disgusting greenish beige when mixed.

It took a few tries but I finally figured out how to float vodka in a flute. I filled the glass with juice (or tonic and lime), put in ice, put the vodka in a OXO small measuring cup with a spout and slowly poured the vodka, aiming it towards the topmost ice cube. It usually worked.

On the left is cranberry and vodka and small sphere ice, created in a tray bought at Daiso. The right is blood orange juice and black vodka (which I failed to float properly). There is a gummy eyeball on the end of a cocktail pick. I like the effect of the eyeball at the bottom of the glass. (The gummy eyeballs were from Target and tasted horrible.)

Vodka and tonic before and after mixing. In person it looked a lot more gray than green.

These are Brains! cocktails made in small shot glasses. I had good luck using a pipette to dispense the Irish cream, I dipped the end in the drink and slowly squeezed the Irish cream into the drink while moving the pipette around. I found this technique at Folkinz, which used a straw to a nice effect. The glasses on either side were given small droplets, but didn't look quite as spooky. They looked my like a cocktail that would be named Lymph Nodes!

Here is another skeleton layered inside of a squarish ice cube.

This is a White Russian made with black vodka, turning it a delightfully sickly gray/beige.

I attempted to capture the Frozen Smiles ice floating in tonic and cranberry, it looked creepier in person.

Trivia: the center glass is from Disgruntled Housewife and was aquired in a Smile and Act Nice gift bag from SXSW 2000 or 2001. If you're a knitter you might know Nicole better as the author of Thrifty Knitter (a website) and Naughty Needles (a book), and co-owner of The Harveyville Project (two middle schools in Kansas turned into spaces to encourage creative output, a daring and genius prospect). I've admired Nicole from afar for as long as I can remember, Disgruntled Housewife was one of the first websites I read.

My friend Maggi made these amazing (and delicious) gravestone cookies.

And here is my Halloween mirror picture. I was wearing synthetic hair extensions for the evening, my hair isn't nearly this long:

Hello!

Pear Dumplings · Edible Crafts @ CraftGossip. These are adorable.

What is the gin to rule them all? | Ask Metafilter. Good short descriptions of a number of gins. I'm afraid I'm a big fan of the old juniper berry.

Ultimate Buttermilk Recipe Repository « Pink of Perfection. You know how you buy a whole carton of buttermilk for pancakes and then have a lot left over? This will help you with that.

The Burger Lab: The Fake Shack | A Hamburger Today.

StillTasty: Your Ultimate Shelf Life Guide. Via Shelterrific.

candy_chart. Various temperatures, helpful for degrees of syrup as well as the usual candy stages, at Baking 911.

The world's best pancake recipe. at Kottke

Jell-O Head | Hanttula. A pixelated picture made from a table full of jello shots, I want to use this idea some day.

Irreference » Root Beer Float Pops.

What are some essential horror films for a movie marathon? | Ask Metafilter.

Make me deathly pale! | Ask Metafilter.

RECIPE: Breadstick Bones on Flickr. Cute idea for something savory to serve.

Halloween Food - Meat Head 2 on Flickr. I'm not sure if this is made by the same person but the meat head is one of the things I linked to way, way back in 2001.

earwax on a swab on Flickr. I could not eat this, but I like this idea.

Easy & Expert Recipes For Halloween Fingers | YumSugar. I love the way these are curled around a cup.

Note to self: buy Matthew Mead's Halloween books Halloween Tricks and Treats and Monster Book of Halloween.

Blood and Bones at Joy the Baker. Red hot chocolate and meringue bones!

Ghostly Eggs at Serious Eats. These are so darn cute.

How to make fake blood, at Wired.

This melting head cake is astounding. The whole thing is edible, with cake brains, a royal icing skull, edible eyeballs that popped open and oozed, a layer of red jam covered by frosting skin and topped with cotton candy hair. It was set under a heat lamp and allowed to melt in the most dramatic and incredible way. You must read to the bottom to see the melting pictures, I insist, go go. Bravo!

Zombie jello mold at Geekologie.

Bloody Tooth Cocktail at Martha Stewart, another one to make using black vodka.

Three shrimp cocktail brains: one, two, three.