Mixology with Beetology (sponsored)

Beetology beet-tini

Yeah, yeah, Halloween is for kids to dress up and go door-to-door to beg for candy. Maybe that's your thing, but I'd rather stay home with the lights out and drink. Or, more accurately, I'd rather pack up the pup, leave the neighborhood, and drink somewhere else. (My poor dog is traumatized by strangers at the door, and he is not fond of children. He is much like me.)

Beetology sent me some yummy samples (I LOVE BEETS! Yes, I am Polish.) and recipes to share. Beetology juices are 100% cold-pressed, which means the fruit and veg in their blends retain the bulk of their vital nutrients. And veggie nutrition balances out the booze, amirite? Well, it does in my head.

There are five flavors of Beetology: cherry; tropical fruit; lemon + ginger; berry; and veggie. Any one of them would be great in a Beet-ini with 4 ounces of juice and 2 ounces of vodka or gin. Garnish the veggie version with olives and the others with a lemon twist. The veggie flavor also works in a Bloody Mary. There are more drink recipes on the Beetology web site, plus hummus and chocolate cupcakes. (!)

Beety Mary

4 oz Beetology Beet + Veggie Juice

2 oz vodka

1 tsp prepared horseradish

2 dashes Tabasco sauce

2 dashes Worcestershire sauce

pinch smoked paprika

pinch black pepper

squeeze of lemon

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake to blend. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with a celery stick, some green olives, and a lemon wedge. If you're feeling it, add a slice of pickled beet.

Adult beverages with protein and fiber are a great idea, but it might be an even better idea to get your kids to drink Beetology (without the liquor, of course!). Just dress them up like vampires and tell them it's blood....

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Pumpkin Spice Forever!

I don't own a pair of UGGs. (I think they are UGG-ly.) I do love a cardigan, but none of mine are oatmeal-colored or fisherman-style. I most definitely do not decorate the house for Halloween--in fact, Mr Minx, Minxdog, and I flee the neighborhood to avoid the little candy-grubbers on that holy fall holiday. I don't make a turkey feast on Thanksgiving because there are hundreds of things I'd much rather eat. So while I am a white American female human whose favorite season is autumn, I am perhaps slightly atypical. Except that I wholeheartedly embrace all things Pumpkin Spice. Well, perhaps not all things, but many. At least those items that are meant to be sweet and spicy (as I am).

Pepperidge Farm Pumpkin Spice Milanos - real, or fake?

Once upon a time, the only pumpkin spice things to be found were variations on pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie, but it's special, to be consumed solely on and around Thanksgiving. Or so I once believed. The combination of pumpkin (or butternut squash, which comprises most canned pumpkin) with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg, is both tasty and fragrant and can be a real mood-lifter. So why limit the consumption of this heavenly elixir to only one or two days a year? Why not dedicate a whole season (maybe a season and a half) to it? 

Blue Diamond Pumpkin Spice Almonds - real or fake?

We can probably blame the geniuses at Starbucks for making pumpkin spice everything a thing. They start serving their OG pumpkin spice latte on AUGUST 30, well before the barest whisper of chill in the air, while leaves are still green, and my cucumber plant is still producing obscenely large specimens. Dunkin' puts out their pumpkin coffee variants even earlier in that month. (I tried their pumpkin spice cold brew last year and still don't understand why people think Dunkin's coffee is good.) August is also the time for pumpkin-y items to start popping up on supermarket endcaps.

Starkist Tuna Creations Pumpkin Spice - real, or fake?

Literally everything from soup to nuts is flavored with pumpkin spice these days. And those two items make total sense. Pumpkin or winter squash makes a lovely creamy soup that can go totally savory or a bit sweet. (Wouldn't pumpkin+cumin+coriander+chiles still be considered "pumpkin spice?") And the thought of a squash-based soup seasoned with dashes of cinnamon and ginger and a wee splash of maple syrup is not at all controversial. The same goes for nuts, which are neutral enough to work well with sweet spices, or curry, chiles, etc. 

Cheetos Pumpkins - real, or fake?

A few years before regular supermarkets started tempting shoppers (well, some shoppers are tempted) with seasonal orange-hued packaging for every product imaginable, Trader Joe's was the king of Pumpkin Spice. I looked forward to their seasonal newsletter, as I imagine most basic white bitches do, and oohed and aahed over the myriad pumpkinified options, from cookies to salsa to body butter (which was usually sold out before I got to the store).

Pillsbury Grands! Pumpkin Spice Rolls - real or fake?

There are, however, some things that don't need to be tarted up with pumpkin spice just because 'tis the season. I'm not sure we need pumpkin spice salsa, or hummus. Or pumpkin ravioli, samosas, or raw vinegar (srsly?). Budweiser has created a pumpkin spice Bud Light Seltzer, and Nissin introduced pumpkin spice Cup-O-Noodles. No thanks.

Rachael Ray Nutrish Zero Grain Beef & Pumpkin Spice - real or fake?

There have been spicy pumpkin beers around for a few years now. Some taste like pumpkin, most don't. (I like Southern Tier Pumpking Imperial Ale. It's sweet and spicy and at 236 calories for a 12-ounce bottle, best sipped for dessert.)

Burt's Bees Pumpkin Fiber & Cinnamon Towelettes - real or fake?

Clearly, the pumpkin spice trend is lucrative. Consumers bought over half a billion $ of pumpkin spice whatnots in 2019. Starbucks sells about 31 million PSLs (pumpkin spice lattes) a year @ $6-ish a pop.

Secret Pumpkin Spice Deodorant - real or fake?

What do you think of the Pumpkin Spice Industrial Complex? Too much? Not enough? What products do you like and which do you think are ridiculous? Do you have any pumpkin spice in your house right now? (We currently have a bar of pumpkin spice-scented soap in the shower.) As always, please leave a comment!

˙ǝɯ ʎq sǝʞɐɟ doɥsoʇoɥԀ ǝɹɐ ʇuɐɹopoǝp puɐ 'sǝʇʇǝlǝʍoʇ 'pooɟ ƃop 'soʇǝǝɥƆ 'ɐunʇ ʇnq 'lɐǝɹ ǝɹɐ spuɐɹפ 'spuoɯlɐ 'souɐlᴉW

 
* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Choice Bites 10.20.11

Playboy's got a new interview with Anthony Bourdain in which he discusses Haiti, celebrity chefs, and makes some interesting insinuations about Ronald McDonald.To save you the trouble of rifling through pages of T&A, it's also online.

Eater has another interesting interview with Christina Tosi, of Momofuku Milk Bar. Her first cookbook is coming out next week, and I, for one, am interested in getting my hands on a copy.

Guy Fieri - nice guy, or douchebag? I've always gone with the latter, and after reading this article, I stand by my opinion.

Serious Eats is a site I check literally every day. It's full of good food-related stuff. And just in time for Halloween, they have an article on pumpkin-carving. Props also to their chat board, which is full of ordinary people talking food. No elitist super-food-snobs there. ...well, not many.

Hopefully it will soon be cool enough to eat soup on a daily basis. Here are eight delicious-sounding recipes from super-chef Marcus Samuelsson. I particularly want to try the carrot with star anise.

Salon.com's short-lived food section seems to have disappeared, but Francis Lam is still cranking out some interesting stuff for Gilt Taste.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Candy Corn

I gotta know - does anyone like the stuff? Personally, I've always hated it.

poll by twiigs.com

Barack-o-lantern

I've been seeing a lot of these on the Innerwebs today, but this particular pumpkin version of our future president is pretty darn good (except for the blurriness of the photo).

Unless of course it's Photoshopped (not by me).

Halloween

I like to avoid Halloween completely. It comes from living in Baltimore City for many years, a stone's throw from Greenmount Avenue. Few little kids braved our long driveway, but lots of hoodie-sporting older teens with nary a mask did. Go buy your own #@#*(@ candy! When he was still around, I would answer the door with our Rottweiler, Max. Off the leash. He'd leap on the glass-over-cast-iron vestibule door and usually scare the yutes away. I miss that dog! After he died, we just turned off all the downstairs lights and hid upstairs, hoping for the best.

These days, Mr Minx usually hangs out on the front porch with a book and a bowl of candy, but in this economy, why should we be expected to hand out free cavities to strange kids, most of whom don't live in the neighborhood and are driven in from the city? So we're going to spend the evening elsewhere and hope no beasties will mistake our turned-off porch light for an invitation and pound furiously on our all-glass storm door, breaking it.

Holidays should be fun, not torturous.