Orange you glad I didn't say banana?

Pre-post update: I rearranged my kitchen. I like it very much because it feels more open now that the fridge and tower of appliances aren't crowding my work space. Also, a few of you had asked about the size of my amazing flower fridge so here's a picture with me as a reference.

My potted basil and rosemary were a housewarming gift from my dear friend Liz.

My two burner stove that works about 37% of the time.

Post:

I knew before we came that Halloween wasn't a global holiday, but I didn't realize that even among Westerners, Halloween is kindof a nonevent.  To be honest, without all the overwhelming signage and the creepily cute seasonal section at Target to remind me it was coming I had almost forgotten it altogether.

My first cross cultural faux-holiday encounter occurred when I stumbled upon a "Halloween" section at the Carrefour supermarket.  Groups of Chinese people were standing around staring at the various items for sale. Some were poking at the costume masks. Several were picking up the over-sized gourds and fake cobwebs with looks of sheer bewilderment on their faces.  Almost everyone was taking pictures with their phones. 

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween, so I didn't feel like I was missing much this year in terms of dressing up, but I do have one Halloween tradition that I couldn't pass up. The traditional Halloween meal.

What? You've never heard of it? Well allow me to explain.

Every year at Halloween I make a meal out of predominately orange food...cupcakes that have been colored orange with orange frosting with candy pumpkins on top, cheezits, a bowl of m&ms with only the orange ones, or the same of reecies pieces, carrots, macaroni and cheese, you get the idea. Nothing has to "go." It's a meal of non sequiturs.

The only real rules are that you 1. absolutely must drink Orange Fanta (Sunkist can be substituted in rural areas of the US), and 2. there must be rice krispee treats. "But those aren't orange?!" Pipe down! I make the rules!  It's melted butter and marshmallowy goodness. Get with the program.

Please note the Snoopy Marshmallows (they're vanilla flavored).

For the last seven years I have not strayed from this plan. So, even in the face of an overpriced import market and a shocking lack of orange food coloring I knew I had to find a way. After a bit of searching we found this "Whole Grain Organic Gluten Free" rice cereal.  Not so gluten free now, are you? (sorry, that was for the cereal. It just looked so pretentious in its box I had to say something).

Orange, orange. check, check.

And here is what we came up with. I would have taken a picture of the krispee treats but they went straight from the pot into our tummies. (Don't judge- I only made a half batch because our ingredients were scant, although I have been known to eat the entire pan in a single sitting). In any event...Happy Hoolawoon!

I see you eying my table top "decor." Yes I made those in elementary school art last week.