Dia de los Muertos cookies

I wanted to make a few special cookies to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. I searched for a skull cookie cutter but to no avail. The closest I could come up with was a skull and cross bones. Not quite the same.

dia de los muertos cookies

I went ahead and just drew the skulls on larger cookies with some royal icing. I’m still working on my technique, although I think these came out nicer than my Star Wars cookies.  I would have liked to draw on some roses and other decorations but I don’t think I couldn’t have managed the detail. Thinking maybe next time I can paint food coloring on for more delicate lines.

Most importantly, they tasted awesome and were still pretty cute.

dia de los muertos cookies

Cookie recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

Icing recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking

Halloween Spirit

This weekend we had our 3rd Annual Halloween Movie Marathon. It wasn’t as crazy as last year, where we went for two weekends in a row, but we still watched movies from Saturday night all the way through to Sunday night.

I made some pb cups & peppermint patties, because you have to have some Halloween candy. Some roasted pumpkin seeds for something salty. And of course, some pumpkin spice & espresso cupcakes, well, because I’m good at it. I didn’t, on the other hand, take photos. Mainly because of our spooky Halloween lighting.

Shawn also made tofurky dogs for everyone to fuel us through the night. And lots of coffee. LOTS of coffee and popcorn.

Anyway…this is just a preface to say that my post today is neither cute nor delicious. In fact, it’s creepy. Shawn and I have spent a good deal of time at the Natural History Museum lately. We are trying to take full advantage of our membership there. Not to mention they have amazingly cool stuff.

I thought this might be the only time of year when I could get away with sharing some of the awesome photos I’ve been able to get there at the museum and at special events. Get ready for a bunch of bones, insects and dead things. So if you’re squeamish, you’ve been warned.

preserved

horns and antlers

Antlers in storage.

walrus skull

A walrus skull. Massive.

shawn and the blue whale skull

Shawn and a blue whale skull at the museum’s marine mammal warehouse. This whale was recovered after it was hit and killed by a commercial freight ship about 30 years ago.

bones

The Natural History Museum is part of the network that collects dead animals that have been washed ashore for research.  They have the second largest collection of sea mammals, right after the Smithsonian.

hippo skull

Hippo skull. I’m pretty sure this is Bubbles, but now I’m not positive.

spider

spider

spider

trantula

horns and taxidermy

We ended our pre-Halloween weekend by going to the museum’s haunted cave party. It was really a family thing, but it was lots of fun wandering around  after hours in costumes. I’m totally obsessed with all the taxidermy they have. I am really just obsessed with everything in the museum.

Oh and in case you were wondering what we watched this weekend…here is the playlist…

  1. Halloween
  2. Ghostbusters
  3. Chopping Mall
  4. An American Werewolf in London
  5. A Nightmare on Elm Street
  6. Scanners
  7. Child’s Play
  8. Carrie
  9. Poltergeist
  10. Simon, King of the Witches
  11. The Prowler
  12. Crawlspace
  13. The Shining
  14. Interview with the Vampire
  15. The Exorcist