To Trick or Treat? Or Not to Trick or Treat? That is the Question.

Halloween was always a family-favorite holiday. The kids got creative with their costumes, trick-or-treated in the chilly fall evening, and afterwards, neighbors and friends descended on our house for lots of Halloween goodness.

When we lived in the suburbs of the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, our kids were just the right ages for Halloween, and it was a holiday we all looked forward to celebrating. We would decorate the house inside and out. It was the mid ‘90s, and Martha Stewart was the rage. And didn’t she have all of us one-upping each other with recipes, home decor and every other inspiration she could manage? You don’t have to admit it if you were a closet MSer, I outed myself early on. I had all of the books. I would take the magazines to work and share the pages with my chef. He would roll his eyes and utter “Take it home to your mother”. A common phrase he used to differentiate between his professional standards and the crafty-home types. I walked a fine line between the two, admittedly.

Martha was a big Halloween fan as well, and those October issues were stunning achievements in cleverness and creativity. Everything from costumes for the kids and decorations for the front porch, to window decorations of scary silhouettes cut from black posterboard. We hid bowls of dry ice in the shrubs and played a spooky soundtrack for trick-or-treaters as they ascended the front steps through the fogginess.

My husband would take the kids around the neighborhood to collect their loot. I passed out candy dressed as Cruella de Ville, with our Dalmatian by my side. In between visitors, I would dash back to the kitchen to check on the simmering hot dogs in beer and homemade doughnuts. I signaled the neighbors and friends by turning on the stove hood, which vented the smell of frying doughnuts out into the street. They knew to come directly from their last stop, as platters of snacks would be waiting.

When we moved to Florida I continued these traditions with our new neighbors and friends. Eventually all of the kids grew up and went to college or moved away, but the “adults” still enjoyed any reason to get together. So I started some new traditions with fun cocktails. Ghosts in the Graveyard, Black Russians in martini glasses with a small scoop of ice cream, which melted slightly and looked like a floating ghost. Test tubes with cranberry puree and vodka. A brain shaped ice mold in the punch bowl. And everyone still wanted the doughnuts and beer-scented hot dogs!

This year couldn’t be a more perfect set up for Halloween. It’s a Saturday. Full moon. And the clocks change back to standard time. Despite current circumstances, many neighbors want to continue trick-or-treat “for the kids”, although there aren’t many these days.. I might find a fun mask and meet up with a few friends, socially distanced in the driveway. If any trick-or-treaters are braving it and show up, I can toss them a treat with a gloved hand from a distance. Perhaps I should find one of those t-shirt guns on Amazon and launch candy from the front porch? Right now, like everything else this year, Halloween plans are up in the air.

Despite my skittishness, I have re-imagined some of my favorite Halloween recipes to be in keeping with my paleo lifestyle. You’ve seen this Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog before, but it’s now “mummified” for Halloween. It’s a fun street-food style recipe that can be wrapped in foil and served individually. And the new version Pumpkin Chocolate Spice doughnut, not my previous New England Cruller recipe, but cakey, spicy and a little chocolatey, with monk fruit sweetener glaze.

There are ways to celebrate within confines, whether it’s due to the pandemic or personal preferences. Just like everything else in 2020, we adjust and make the best of it.