Alucard's Bat-tastic Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku..... Day #02 - FIENDISH FOOD FRIDAY (First Course)

Welcome back, Boils & Ghouls...

... to 'Day Two' of "Alucard's Bat-tastic Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku" and to the first instalment of "Fiendish Food Friday" where I will be recommending some "scary starters", "macabre mains" and "devilish desserts" plus an assortment of (ahem) "finger food", all of which are very well suited to cater to the ghoulish guests at your spooky soirée this Hallowe'en season !!

So, if you're planning to host your own ghastly gathering on October 31st, you should make a point of visiting this blog EVERY FRIDAY between now and Hallowe'en for some inspirational ideas on how to conjure-up all those tasteless treats (sic) to fuel the zombie horde at your Hallowe'en celebration !!


For this "first course" I've decided to return to some old favourites, without which it simply wouldn't be Hallowe'en... at least, not in our house! In fact, if some of the fiendish foodstuffs I plan to share with you this month were not on the menu come Hallowe'en, I think there would be a genuine "murder scene" for our party guests to stumble in on! Anyway, do forgive me if today's tortured treats are already familiar to you from last year (or previous Hallowe'en-themed posts) but, if you're new to this blog - perhaps as a result of being redirected from the "Countdown To Hallowe'en" website's 2015 list of Cryptkeepers - then there's a good chance you'll find something with which to "wow" your ghoulish guests on October 31st, or else to treat yourself - if you're "home alone" watching movies! ;-)

Anyway, the great thing about entertaining at Hallowe'en is that you can really let your imagination run riot and your party fare can still be really simple, as well as creative, if you throw yourself into the spirit of things. For example, I came across this great idea for a Hallowe'en pizza, on one of the other blogs taking part in the "Countdown To Hallowe'en" last year, which makes use of mozarella "ghosts" and green olive "spiders" on a backdrop of "splattered blood" tomato sauce for the pizza base:- 

So, as you can see, it's pretty easy to come up with a creepy creation that will feed your ghoulish guests without too much trouble! That said, even if you do happen to get a bit stuck for ideas, you'll still be able to find plenty of inspiration among the one hundred plus channels which populate the "Food" category of the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store. As a "for instance", and by way of an introduction to my regular Friday "food theme" this month, I'm going to suggest a video recipe for "Halloween  Blood Cherry Sorbet" courtesy of the 'Caitlin Cooks' channel, details for which are outlined below:-

CAITLIN COOKS.............................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]

If you haven't already got it in your channel selection, you can easily add it to your Roku player(s) using the recently introduced 'Roku Search' feature. Just start typing "Caitlin Cooks" into the text entry box within 'Roku Search' and it will soon appear in the results column on the right. In fact, you will (most likely) only have to enter the letters "c" & "a" before it pops up! For those who prefer to look it up the old-fashioned way, you'll find "Caitlin Cooks" listed among the "Food" channels in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store - itself, found by navigating to 'Streaming Channels' from the home screen and scrolling through the options - then click "OK" to access the list of "Food" channels and scroll up (or down) until you see the channel icon (as per image above). The good news is... that it's completely FREE-TO-ADD as well as being FREE-TO-VIEW so, once you've located it in the list of channels, just click the "OK" button on your Roku remote to select it and then click "OK" again where it says 'Add channel' to install it on your Roku player(s). Having done that, it's a case of launching the channel via the 'Go to channel' option and navigating the on-screen menu to access the search function. From there, just type in the search term "halloween" using your Roku remote in conjunction with the on-screen keyboard and you will soon see a thumbnail image of some cherries among the "Searched Results". Using your Roku remote, simply navigate to, and select, the "Halloween Blood Cherry Sorbet" video recipe and click "OK"to play the video [RUN TIME: 1m 58s] and watch the tutorial.

A QUICK TIP: when watching the "Halloween Blood Cherry Sorbet" video recipe, it's worth keeping the Roku remote handy to pause and rewind, if necessary, as well as a pen and paper to make your own notes about the procedure as you go along. There's no need to worry about down the ingredients, though, as I've done that for you...

INGREDIENTS:-

3 CUPS of Black Cherry Juice... OR... Blood Orange Juice (depending on what is available)

1 ORANGE... the recipe requires the zest of one whole orange

1/3 CUP of clear honey (whichever is your favourite)

1 1/2 CUPS of Raspberry Preserve, i.e. Jam (seeded or unseeded - whichever you prefer)

1 Splash of Club Soda (optional) to serve

A Few Leaves of Fresh Mint to garnish

Once you've combined the ingredients, you'll need to use an ice cream maker to freeze the mixture OR, you can freeze it right in the bowl (leave it for about an hour) and then you're good to go. Whichever juice you opt for with this Hallowe'en sorbet, the colour is sure to be a visual treat for your guests !!

There are several other Hallowe'en recipes on Caitlin's channel, such as Halloween Chocolate and Rum Balls, Halloween Pumpkin and Oreo Cheesecake Bars, plus a very colourful Halloween Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cake, all of which can be found using the built-in search function within the Roku channel with the search term "halloween".

Meanwhile, to round-off this first instalment of "Fiendish Food Friday" on 'Day Two' of the annual 'Countdown To Halloween', I thought I'd share a short clip of how NOT to approach your pumpkin carving, courtesy of that very well-known "celebrity chef" from Sweden...

REMEMBER: DON'T BE A 'MUPPET'... chainsaws are for texan-style massacres at the movies, so be sure to carve your pumpkin(s) carefully using something better suited to a task such as this !!

Anyway, that's all for today... just remember to come back in 24-hours for 'Day Three' and more Horror / Hallowe'en-themed content, via "Alucard's Bat-tastic Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku", when I will reveal another "themed" day for every Saturday throughout the month of October as we continue our "Countdown To Hallowe'en" for 2015...

Fangs (as always) for reading !!