Friday’s Quotes for the Chicks
Linus: He’ll come here because I have the most sincere pumpkin patch and he respects sincerity.
It’s Halloween! Although the kids have their own plans for the night (some are trick or treating, some are going to parties, one is staying home and playing online games with friends) we still have to do some celebrating in this house.
Perhaps (in my opinion) the most important part of Halloween is the annual sauerkraut fest I prepare. This probably needs a tiny bit of an explanation – when I was young, there was a woman down the street who went all out for Halloween, she would get dressed up as a witch, have a friendly ghost that waved to us (much thanks to fishing line) and she served treats like ghost pie (you “cut” a slice of a flour filled dish and found a coin) and if you wanted a treat you had to reach inside a hallowed out pumpkin to get it.
Not only all that, but her house *always* smelled of sauerkraut. I came to associate that particular pungent smell with Halloween.
When I had kids I decided to re-create that memory and as a result, every Halloween, I start sauerkraut in a crock pot, early in the day and let it boil, boil, and toil all day long. A very important step of this recipe is to lift the lid of the crock pot every time you walk by to allow the smells to waft.
By the time the kids got home from school, pretty much the whole neighborhood smelled like sauerkraut. Sometimes, I’ll add pork ribs (as I will today) and then with the combination of the cabbage and pork, we get to make scary noises all night. WOooooooooooh!
I knew that I had established a connection when, after walking into a deli specializing in Reubens, one of my kids turned to me and said that it “smelled like Halloween” – mission accomplished.
The kids pretend to dislike this tradition, but would you know that everyone has asked me if I’ll be making the sauerkraut today? It’s simply not Halloween without spooky smells.
Of course, I will – as long as there is Halloween, our house will continue to smell like a giant, fermented cabbage for the occasion.
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Be safe and see you all next week.
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
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