Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Fecund with Little Pumpkins

Taken on yesterday's bike ride:


Didn't realize how terrible the quality was until I got home (thanks, phone!) so maybe I'll swing back by before the big night and snap some better pics. 

Could someone tell me if there a way to admire Halloween decorations and take pictures without looking like you're casing someone's house?

Saturday, October 18, 2025

Toad Bread: Attempt 1

Two weeks ago, The Ghoulfriend and I were inspired by a video posted last year which has been resurfacing again this season. In it, Nikk Alcaraz (@practicalpeculiarities on Instagram) promotes his Halloween-themed cookbook, Peculiar Baking, by showing a sneak peak of one of his recipes: Toad Bread!

This is what we were attempting to recreate:
Click above image for Instagram video

We both knew that we had to attempt something similar, but Alcaraz hadn't published his recipe online anywhere, and since we didn't have his cookbook, we decided to do some internet research and try our own hand at it.  Eventually, we found this recipe for Frog Bread from The Fresh Loaf!  

The Fresh Loaf's beautiful frog bread.

It's your average basic dense bread recipe. They shaped it into a frog, but we wanted to use the same recipe and make it more toad-like as Alcaraz does in his video.

We followed the recipe instructions pretty closely, but perhaps not close enough... *dramatic foreshadowing*



The Fresh Loaf's recipe instructed us to let the dough rise for 90 minutes, then shape it into a frog and cover loosely with a towel, letting it rise for one more hour.  Here is where we messed up. We lost track of time during the second, post-shaping rise.  

Meaning our toad went from this:


To THIS:
 

A rather plump fellow!  We would have been happy with our unexpectedly big-boned toad, but by over-proofing the dough, all the gluten had begun to lose its strength!  As soon as I began shifting it into the oven, our poor boy began to deflate.

After applying an egg wash and baking him one rack-height too high, we had our own "Toad" Bread!


The air bubbles did make some fun warts though!


Despite bearing a closer resemblance to Lepidobatrachus laevis than Bufo bufo (though the former is nicknamed "Freddy Kreuger frog" so at least it's still Halloween-y!) our bread was delicious!  I have no doubt The Fresh Loaf's recipe would have worked fine without our proofing mistakes.  

But the most ironic part? On the very same evening, Nikk Alcaraz actually posted his full original Toad Bread recipe on YouTube!  After a year of it being exclusive to his cookbook, he posts it for free mere hours after we tried to emulate it.  So now, of course, we'll be attempting it again!

Ain't that just the way...

Still tasty, though!

Stay tuned for Attempt 2!

Listening to: Halloween at High Noon: KULT FM

The newest album from Halloween at High Noon!  

I look forward to their annual releases every year

Click below to listen on their Bandcamp:

Sunday, October 5, 2025

The Great Pumpkin Project: October 1st 2025

I'm tired of neglecting this blog! I completely forgot to post this on October 1st, so here it is now. I'm trying to remind myself that something is always better than nothing, so.... better late than never!

We kicked off October with my favorite annual tradition: The Great Pumpkin Project!
 

It was the ghoulfriend's first time participating (which was very exciting for me and her!).  It was a cooler night than usual for Central Florida, so we sat out back and carved up two jack-o'-lanterns.  I don't know how, but I always forget how much fun carving pumpkins is; such a simple but fulfilling pleasure.

Mine's on the right, hers is on the left.  Hers is much better than mine, I think.
 
 
We also drew up our own tags this time. I put the URL to the GPP mission page on mine, but after seeing how much space it took up, I decided to make a shortened version (tinyurl.com/GPP-Mission) for future use (the ghoulfriend put it on hers).  


The gf placed hers on a retention wall along a dark but busy road.  A popular bike/pedestrian path runs by as well, so it definitely got plenty of visibility!


I placed mine near a bridge along that same path.  Not as much foot traffic, but hopefully one or two people saw it and appreciated it.




Afterwards, we hit up Lazy Moon Pizza for a cheese slice and a PBR.  All in all a wonderful evening spent together!


If you want to know more about The Great Pumpkin Project or participate yourself, check out this post of mine and follow @GreatPumpkinProject on Instagram!