OK, as you probably know by now, my favorite American holiday is Halloween. Nothing is more fun than Halloween. It's the one day of the year that I am legally allowed to be "myself". Yes, I use that term VERY loosely. I have spent way too many thousands of dollars putting costumes together for just a couple of hours of fun. I have been a pack of cigarettes (Marlboro's), a bottle of Clorox bleach, a vampire pancake, Amelia Earhart, the 102'd dalmation (totally special needs), Frieda Kalo (not pretty), a cinder block, a bottle of ketchup, a computer mouse, several different state cops and last year, Mount St. Helen. Hey, I spend at least half a year getting these things right. What can I say, money is no object. You just gotta do what you gotta do. Tomorrow I will be Medea. I just can't figure out which children to eat or what cliff I should throw myself off of after I set myself on fire. Yes, I dearly love Halloween!!!
But it's the next two days that really float my boat. Dia de los Muertes. This is where I really shine. This celebration makes me smile. You get to honor those who, how shall I say this, have gone "beyond". You get to build alters. You get to eat more skull shaped marzipan goodies than you can shake a chupacraba at. You get to party all night in a cemetery, eating and drinking your brains out at grandma's grave. With a boom box blaring. After you have spent the better part of a week cleaning it up and festooning it with marigolds and paper flowers not found in nature. I love that!!!
But the best part is that I get to raid every Mexican bakery in town for a trunk full of pan de muertos. Con azucar. This stuff just rocks and I am addicted to it. I vacuum seal it and freeze it so I can savor it over the winter. It is a bread so heavenly. It is sweet. It is flavored with orange blossom oil and a hint of anise. It will make you smile, think of grandma and do a whole-hearted "grito". Yeah, it's that good!!!
Several years ago in Mexico a opossum broke into our house during a rainstorm and violated the pan de muertos that I had stupidly left laying on the kitchen counter. I was not happy. I sat out bear traps for that little motherfucker. Do NOT mess with my pan de muertos!!!
On Friday and Saturday I will be indulging (overindulging???) in homemade bittersweet hot chocolate from Mexico and happily dunking large chunks of pan de muerto in it while the excess runs down my face and ruins yet another one of my polo shirts. What can I say, I have "food shirts" and the ones that I can still wear in public without being too embarrassed by the stains of my latest feeding frenzy. Yep, I'm kind of a sloppy eater.
My blood sugar is going to shoot through the roof. I will be covered in crumbs. My mustache will have sugar-cycles trailing off of it and my eyes will be sort of glazed over. Well, actually VERY glazed over. Life is SO good!!!
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