Between drafts of my book and Kraft’s Battle of the Kitchen Bloggers, I never got around to sharing all my Halloween photos with you guys.

But, who says you can’t have a little Halloween in December? After all, signs of All Hallows Eve are never far away, especially when you live in Salem, Massachusetts, a.k.a. Witch City.

Here’s a look back at this year’s spooky season in Salem. We actually (oddly) enjoyed a little wintery weather on Halloween this year. Even though December has been unseasonably warm here so far, it actually snowed on Halloween weekend. That’s Pickering Wharf, below.

Costumes: Here, there, and everywhere

Hands down, Salem is my favorite place on the planet—even when we get flooded with tourists in October who come seeking glimpses of the strange and unusual.

The first of the costumieres start to show up the last week of September. By the last week of October, more folks are walking around in costume than not. Here are some of our favorites from Halloween week.

There were the pirates…

…who were conveniently located right by the Pirate Museum.

A posse of mice (!!!) hanging out by the fountain on Essex St.

And pointy hatted witches, real and pretend, in all shapes and sizes…

It’s a given that most of the street entertainers are dressed up.

And all the kids, too. (Even this very bored looking little yellow M&M…)

There were colonial folk…

…a Frankenstein…

…and a very authentic Captain Jack Sparrow.

We saw steampunks…

…and, um…a super awesome, snarly werewolf creature. (We weren’t too concerned. Seems like he had just eaten…)

There were fancy folks…

(That’s Witch City Ink in the background, one of the best places to get a tattoo in the greater Boston area.)

…and angels…

…and more than the city’s regular allotment of demons…

Not to mention some fabulous, classic costumes, like Beeker from the Muppets…

…a Ghostbuster…

…and Superman. (Yep, that’s me climbing on the light pole to get a little height. Next year, stilts!)

And that’s mostly all before the lights went down…

The spooky factor goes up tenfold after dark on Halloween night. I mean, just take a look:

(Pretty good Pinhead, right?)

The sketchy factor was also representing. (Hello, Spy vs. Spy!)

Thankfully, not everyone out that night was quite as terrifying.

Edward Scissorhands was posing for pics with party goers.

We even saw a Rebel from Hoth getting pretty cozy with a Jawa…(we blame the unseasonably cold weather).

And don’t forget the bride of Frankenstein…

…a super nice Indian chief…

 …and Batman (who was watching the religious protesters, who also always come out on Halloween in Salem).

There were more than a few Stanley Cups floating around…

And a hungry shark…

…who very obligingly tried to eat his friend when I asked.

We even saw a zombie banana smoking a stogie.

There were a bunch of bananas out and about, but this fellow was unquestionably the best.

Oh, and let’s not forget the gang of psychotic clowns.

And someone, somehow, managed to capture a picture of yours truly dipping into a glass of wine later that night.

Best costume of the night goes to…

Call me a geek, but hands down, my favorite costume of the night was Lloyd Dobler from Say Anything. (Yep, the boom box worked, and yep he was playing In Your Eyes.) It was kinda epic. It was totally epic.

Don’t underestimate the size of the crowds

When I say we get a ton of tourists at Halloween, I’m not joking. Take a peek.

(Even the dead aren’t safe from the horde…)

There’s plenty to see aside from costumes

Like the zillion attractions in town, which are almost always packed, with lines out the door. That’s Count Orlok’s Nightmare Gallery down on Derby Street.

Food vendors sprout up out of nowhere and take over empty nooks and crannies all around the city.

Including on the Salem Common.

Nom, nom, nom.

The Common plays host to the city’s annual pumpkin decorating contest.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, when you walk around Salem, especially in October…if you squint just right…it kinda feels like you’ve gone back in time.

A little local love

The shops around town get a ton of action in October. We love our local businesses, and are happy to be able to share a little of our city with you. That’s the window of the local knitting shop below.

The Broom Closet sells all sorts of herbs and magical wares…

They have a ton of dresses and cloaks…

…not to mention a massive wall of herbs.

Crow Haven Corner, Salem’s oldest witch shop, sits at one entrance to the Essex Street madness. It’s a great place to shop or get a reading.

Hex, Old World Witchery is another wildly popular shop.

Hex sells all sorts of goodies.

Three happy local authors

Rev. Lori Bruno (Dr. Leo Martello’s Weird Ways of Witchcraft) and Hex owner Rev. Christian Day (The Witches’ Book of the Dead) were kind enough to stop and snap a few pictures with me. If you visit Salem, be sure to have Lori read your tarot cards. She’s absolutely amazing. (Not to mention, our favorite person in town!)

Sigh. I’ll have a copy of my book in the spring. We might just have to have a do-over.

Oh, and speaking of local authors, our friend Sean is an amazing horror writer. If that’s your thing, check out his blog here.

A magic circle on Salem Common

Christian and Lori are the same folks who host a public magic circle on Salem Common every year.

Even the mounted police stopped by to check it out.

Curious? I thought you might be. Take a peek at the footage on YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Never let it be said that we locals don’t decorate

We may not always dress up in costume, but we do like to put on a good display around town.

Dave Eng, Derby Street florist extraordinaire, puts up our favorite display every year.

Spooky, eh?

And let’s not forget the Great Pumpkin!

A stroll around Old Burying Point Cemetery

Now, folks come from far and wide to visit Salem in October. They come for the Halloween attractions—and the historic ones. Old Burying Point cemetery is the oldest burial ground in Salem, and always attracts a ton of visitors.

Folks buried here include Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne, both judges in the infamous witch trials.

It’s not uncommon to see coins or other small items left at the the graveyard’s gate as offerings for the dead.

Let’s take a peek inside, shall we?

The cemetery definitely felt the effects of the recent storm we had.

Even though we were in the height of tourist season, it was still relatively tranquil.

There are a bunch of traditional gravestone carvings.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Somehow, it seems like we always end up walking the wolves down on Salem Wharf late Halloween night. That’s the Custom House below.

Always love the sight of the carnival ferris wheel, lit up over the water. Happy haunting until next year!

Want more Halloween in Salem?

Take a look back at previous years here:

• A Halloween Tour of Salem’s Essex Street

• Halloween 2010 in Salem, MA: A Photo Tour

• Celebrating Halloween in Salem, Mass. (2008)

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Sel de la Terre, Boston’s bastion of Provencal cuisine, is infamous for its rosemary pomme frites.

With good reason.

They’re cut thin as shoestrings, fried perfectly (crisp not greasy), and seasoned well with salt and rosemary. Believe me, my picture doesn’t do them justice.

I hit Sel de la Terre the other day for lunch with my friend Nicole. Hands down, it’s one of my favorite spots in Boston. Here’s a quick review of our meal.

I have a big post on tap about the etiquette of taking pictures in restaurants, so more on this topic soon.

For now, suffice it to say that the food at Sel de la Terre is so good, I couldn’t NOT take pictures. I snapped some quick shots with my phone before we dug in.

Sel de la Terre

So Sel de la Terre is located down on the wharf in Boston, by the New England Aquarium. It’s a few blocks from my office in the financial district, so it’s a really convenient place to grab a fabulous lunch.

The front window is lined with flour-dusted, crusty loaves of fresh bread. (Hungry yet?)

If you don’t feel like dining in, Sel de la Terre has a great little front take-out area. You can get soups, salads, sandwiches, and some of the best coffee downtown there.

I love the inside of the restaurant. It’s warm and inviting, with high ceilings and well spaced tables.

A note on the wine list

It’s huge. Seriously. We didn’t drink, but I couldn’t keep myself from peeking at their lengthy offering.

Nom, nom, nom

Warning: When you tuck into your table at Sel de la Terre, you’ll be presented with a basket of unbelievably chewy and crusty fresh bread. Don’t eat it all. You’ll be tempted. It’s that good. But you’ll be stuffed. Save some room. (I’ve been known to take bread home in a doggie bag that is most decidedly NOT for the dogs…)

My friend ordered a salad and the grilled steak frites with red wine-shallot reduction.

I ordered the three-course prix fixe lunch menu. For $24, it included a choice of starter (mixed green salad or potato leek soup), entree (crispy confit leg of duck or sauteed trout), and dessert (brown butter financier or honey-vanilla coeur a la creme).

Our salads were lightly dressed and really fresh. My salad had thin slivers of grilled onion and small bits of sun-dried tomato.

Nicole’s salad was dotted with toasted sunflower seeds and (ever so slightly under ripe) papaya.

Nicole’s steak was totally yummy. Perfectly cooked medium rare. Thinly sliced across the grain. Drizzled with red wine reduction. Crisp rosemary fries piled nearby.

My duck confit was meltingly tender. It arrived with topped with a couple of sweet potato chips (they were delicious…I wanted more). It was perched happily on a bed of earthy french lentils, carrots, and snappy haricot vert.

If you’ve never had confit, definitely seek it out. Basically, to confit a piece of meat means to slow cook it in its own fat. It’s an ancient method of preserving meats like duck and pork. (Which is great, but totally anecdotal in this case. I think my confit disappeared in all of 10 minutes.)

The skin was crisp and the meat was so tender you could basically pull it apart with a spoon.

I stopped just short of nibbling on the bones.

Dessert was delicious and impressive. It was a brown butter financier with blackberry ricotta and tarragon ice cream. I definitely want to figure out how to make these.

A financier is a little French cake made with beurre noisette (butter cooked until it’s nutty and brown), and crushed almonds. It’s kind of like a deliciously chewy shortbread.

It was topped with piped meringue that was browned on the top and soft and fluffy inside. It was sweet but not too sweet.

The blackberry ricotta had great fresh berry flavor. The tarragon ice cream was amazing. Another one on my list to experiment with in the kitchen. It was light, almost like gelato, and was faintly fragrant with licorice. Definitely more subtle than anise. It was just lovely.

Two thumbs up from The Mouse

Thanks a heap to the good folks at Sel de la Terre for a fabulous lunch. The service was attentive (not intrusive) and the food was great. I’ll definitely be heading back soon. If you’re in Boston, I definitely recommend stopping in for an hour or three.

Location & contact info

Sel de la Terre has a few different locations in Boston. Find them online at SelDeLaTerre.com.

Downtown
255 State Street
Boston, MA 02109
tel. 617.720.1300

Back Bay
774 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02199
tel. 617.266.8800

Natick
1245 Worcester Street
Natick, MA 01760
tel. 508.650.1800

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Halloween isn’t the only time of year that Salem gets into the holiday spirit. The city is all lit up, and has been hopping with winter-y events.

We stopped by Pamplemousse’s open house this past Thursday night. Here are some pics from the event.

Pamplemousse (our favorite kitchen store on the planet) is at the heart of Essex Street.

Let’s go in, shall we?

(I love this little guy.)

We ran into a bunch of good friends. Lisa (left) from Marblehead’s yummy Ataraxis Tavern was there. So was Gwen (right) from Boston Bead Company.

Lisa somehow managed to persuade this rather shy mouse to pose for a picture.

A couple of Santa’s elves even showed up. (That’s Colleen on the left, one of our favorite psychics in town, and Diane on the right, one of Pamplemousse’s owners.)

The guys from Cody Brewing Company were on hand with samples of their Banana Nut Bread Dunkelweizen (say that three times fast!).

They even sell some really good Gluhwein (German spiced wine).

There were samples of wine, and all sorts of snacks.

I haven’t heard what the final number was, but the place was packed while we were there.

There’s Lisa with our friend John, one of Salem’s resident Vikings.

I also got to meet Rick Welch from Cima Collina, who is the man responsible for keeping Pamplemousse stocked with one of my favorite wines, Howlin’ Good Red.

If you haven’t tried it, it’s totally yummy and reasonably priced. Cima Collina also donates a whopping 25% of the sales of this wine to The SPCA of Monterey County. Not necessarily local to Salem, but they do great work for our four-footed friends in California.

We also ran into our good friends DJ Vudu and his lovely lady, Shaina.

That’s it! Hope you enjoyed our holiday pics! Thanks again to the ladies from Pamplemousse for hosting such a great party!

Stay tuned for more holiday recipes and revelry soon!

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Alrighty, so a lot of you guys have mentioned to me that you’re surprised that The Hungry Mouse is partnering with Sam’s Club. Most of you say that it’s because you don’t associate it with a place to get groceries.

“You go to a place like Sam’s Club to buy a big TV or a palate of paper towels. I wouldn’t think about buying food there, really,” one friend said to me.

Think again.

Sam’s actually has a ton of good food for very reasonable prices. Don’t believe me?

Those pomegranates up there were 4 for just under $5. They looked great, and that’s just over $1 a piece, (a really good price for around Boston).

The $50 Thanksgiving challenge

As part of our partnership with Sam’s, they challenged us to create a Thanksgiving feast for under $50, using main ingredients purchased at the club.

We’re always up for a challenge.

The Angry Chef and I headed up to the Eighth Annual Holiday Taste of Sam’s Club Event this morning to check out what they have to offer this season. (Read more about the event here.)

The holiday event is going on all weekend from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., so if there’s one near you, definitely stop in and sample their wares.

I should note that Sam’s Club is paying me to participate in this program (thank you, thank you!). However, they’re not paying me for my opinion…and I wouldn’t have agreed to work with them if I couldn’t get behind their food 100%.

Price clubs like Sam’s can be a very smart and economical way to shop if you do it right, especially with the holidays coming. (Take it from me. I buy flour by the 25-lb. bag because I bake so much. I know where to find a good deal…)

Inside Sam’s: At the Holiday Tasting Event

We arrived at our local Sam’s around 11 this morning.

Now, if you’ve never been in a Sam’s Club, the first thing you need to know is that the store is huge. Like, super huge. They have pallets of goods stacked to almost to the ceiling.

They already have their poinsettias in for the holidays. (My iPhone photography totally doesn’t do them justice.)

Did I mention that the store is huge?

We went to check out their kitchen supplies first. You can tell that Sam’s was definitely thinking about restaurant owners and caterers when they stocked their kitchen department. They have a ton of basic, sturdy kitchen and catering equipment at very reasonable prices. (We picked up a 2-pack of meat thermometers for just around $5.)

If you’ve ever worked in a commercial kitchen, chances are you’ve used these heavy-duty aluminum pots. They’re workhorses.

They also have an impressive wall of spices.

We passed the kids toys on our way to the fresh food area. I was sorely tempted to bring home one of these playhouses as, um, a Penelope Detention Facility.

Sam’s also has their holiday goods out in full force.

We hit the frozen food cases first. Among other things, we noticed that they have a handful of different kinds of frozen cheesecakes. While I always prefer to make things from scratch, there are certain times when desserts like these come in handy.

We started to spot the tasting stations for the event. There were samples of everything from oatmeal and apple cider to freshly fried bacon and warm, spiral-sliced ham.

The produce section was well stocked, and everything looked really, really fresh. (When it comes to produce, I’m a squeezer and a sniffer…)

(If you haven’t had these red peppers, called Ancient Sweets, before, definitely look for them the next time you’re at the market. They’re remarkably sweet and flavorful. At Sam’s, I think a 2-lb. bag was under $5. At my local grocery store, I’ve seen them sell just three peppers for around the same price.)

And then, of course, they have a ton of cheese. (You may remember the Harvest Cheese Bread Wreath I made with some of these cheeses a few weeks ago.)

There was a lot of frozen seafood, including whole lobster tails, whole fish, and Godzilla-sized shrimp.

The king crab legs looked really good.

This was right around where we sampled the spiral-sliced ham.

Carnivores that we are, you know that we paid extra attention to the meat. The beef was all very, very red and fresh looking.

The pork was rosy and pink.

The bread was very clearly freshly baked.

I even managed to spot one of my favorite kitties in the cake case.

So what do you think we’re making?

Here’s our cart right before we checked out. What do you think we’re making?

We even walked out with a complimentary entertaining guide, which has instructions for making a Martha-esque ribbon-covered tree.

Stay tuned for our $50 Thanksgiving feast! We spent less than $50 on ingredients. Recipes start this week!

*Please note that Sam’s Club compensated me for my participation in this campaign.

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Welcome to Part II of my series about Halloween in our fair city of Salem, Massachusetts!

If you live in Salem, you’re probably thinking one thing this week: We made it! (Woohoo!) According to the Salem News, we had about 40,000 visitors on Saturday night, and 60,000-70,000 on Sunday.

Thanks to everyone who came and visited our city during our peak holiday season. Check out more local coverage in the Salem News.

Earlier this week, we took a little walk up Essex Street, to see what we could see this Halloween season.

So on Halloween morning, I went out walking with my camera. I wanted to be sure I could show you a range of what it’s like to spend Halloween in Salem.

There’s not one word that describes the experience. Electric. Raucous. Exciting. Spiritual. Spooky. I could keep going, but I think you probably get what I mean.

Halloween Morning: Down on Derby Street

I decided to start slow (if you know me, you know I’m useless before my second cup of coffee in the morning).

That’s me. Mighty tall for a mouse, I know.

I went down Derby Street by the wharf, away from the main action on Essex Street.

Shoppers at Witch Way Gifts are greeted by an almost-life size wooden witch.

They have a bunch of glass witch balls hanging in their window, plus a large sign explaining what they’re for.

The Witch’s Brew Cafe is right across the street.

Derby Street is also home to The Oracle Chamber, run by Michael and Therese Pendragon.

There are more than a few ghoulish doorways and gates in the area.

Even the bushes are decked out in their holiday finery.

At Jaho Coffee Shop, your tips can help decide the fate of epic monster battles. (I tipped in the vampire basket, go figure).

From there, I headed up to Essex Street, for a peek around before dark.

The Rev. Peter White was out and about and was kind enough to pose for a picture.

The city’s extra lighting was ready and waiting to illuminate streets full of revelers after nightfall.

The streets were already starting to flood with folks in costume.

I stopped in to Pamplemousse and ran into Colleen White, a dear friend of The Mouse House and fantastic psychic. (We love Colleen. To visit her in person, call The Broom Closet at 978-741-3669. If you’re not in Salem, visit psychicsforhire.com for a phone reading.) That’s Pamplemousse’s display of mead, by the way. (Mmmm, mead…)

Cady Vishniac, who works as a 10-foot tall living statue of a witch, was doing her thing outside of Pamplemousse.

What’s a living statue, you ask? Just what it sounds like…a live person, in costume, standing incredibly still for the most part. If you stop to watch one, it’s truly an art form. (Boston folks may remember Amanda Palmer haunting Harvard Square as an 8-foot tall bride before she made it big with the Dresden Dolls.)

In Salem, even the dogs get in on the costuming action. (This is Nigel in Bat Form. He’s a very nice beast.)

We ran into a pretty convincing Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was intent on trying to bonk both The Angry Chef and our friend John on the head with his mallet. (Brave and foolish, I must say.)

After a quick stroll, I headed over to the Salem Common, to take a peek at the Magic Circle there.

Halloween & Samhain

To a lot of folks, Halloween is actually better known as Samhain. If you’re a witch, Samhain is the last harvest celebration of the year. It’s also the witch’s new year—and a time to honor the dead.

Now, I’m not talking about the green-faced, warty witches of Disney and Wizard of Oz fame—or that twitchy-nosed, television witch Samantha.

For those of you who might not know, modern day witchcraft is actually an ancient religion—the Old Religion, centered around Goddess, God, and the Wheel of the Year—that’s still very much practiced today.

We stopped by the Magic Circle on the Salem Common, led by our friends, the Reverends Lori Bruno and Christian Day, to give you a peek into what modern-day witchcraft is all about. They host this free, family-friendly circle every year to celebrate loved ones who have crossed over.

This year’s event drew about 400 people.

The crowd gathered in a large, outer circle. The witches gathered in a smaller, inner circle, facing out.

Here are some stills. That’s Lori Bruno, with the sword.

And that’s Christian Day, with his sword, which originally belonged to the late Dr. Leo Martello, who, among many other things, fought for the right for witches to worship freely from the 60′s on.

You can watch most of the ritual on YouTube here. (Note: The title screens on the video are incorrect, but the footage is definitely from this event.)

After the Magic Circle, I ran into the cast of the Wizard of Oz.

Then I headed home to whip up a little dinner before hitting the town again.

Salem After Dark

After dark, Salem takes on a whole different feel. Take a peek, you’ll see just what I mean.

The majority of downtown has its roads closed off. This is what Essex Street looks like, right near the Hawthorne Hotel. (Bear with me…a few of my pictures are blurry. I was using my little camera, not my Official Mouse Studio Camera.)

The police called in extra forces for the day, including a mounted unit.

Most people were in some kind of costume.

Our first stop was Fool’s Mansion, a clothing boutique owned by good friends of ours. They had a full-on dance party going on in the back of the store. That’s DJ Pet on the left, and DJ MKB on the right.

We stayed for a little bit, then continued up Essex.

Most people come to Salem to have fun on Halloween. A handful, however, do come to protest.

We saw some really great costumes this year. The two best had to be Jack Skeleton from the Nightmare Before Christmas, perched on the steps of St. Mary’s church.

And Michael Myers standing on the stoop of this old house next to The Burying Point Cemetery, Salem’s oldest burial ground. (Maybe you had to be there, but he was super scary. He was just standing there in the dark, kind of swaying.)

We saw more and more costumed revelers.

I even met a very powerful wizard who was kind enough to stop for a picture with a little mouse.

There was a set of teeth and a pretty butch tooth fairy.

We even ran into Guy Fawkes. (A little early, though. Guy Fawkes day is on November 5.)

We wound up at a party with our good friends from Rippin Kitten and See My Drink. We met a few dastardly characters there.

Thankfully, they made their dramatic, caped escape before they could cause too much trouble.

We headed to the last party of the night by light of the ferris wheel at the carnival on Derby Street.

Before heading over to DJ Vudu’s house, we stopped in to what is possibly Salem’s most notorious liquor store to grab a bottle of wine.

We hope you enjoyed our tour!

From all of us here at The Mouse House, we wish you a very happy Halloween! We’re pleased as punch to have shared a little Salem with you. Happy haunting…

…until next year!

(Mwahahahahaha…)

And on Halloween Day

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