Halloween & Day of the Dead Events

Photo by Glen's PicMost of the time, human activity centers on trying to avoid thoughts of mortality and death.  Then once a year, the skeletons come out, and we celebrate it - sort of - albeit through the foggy haze of a sugar buzz.

Below are some events related to Halloween and Dia de los Meutos.  I'm including some non-food events as well because they seemed interesting, like the FREE! lecture on King County's haunted houses on October 27, the FREE! talk on King County's cemetaries on October 31, or the FREE! musical Dia de Los Muertos Celebration with Los Flacos on November 1.

I was especially excited to include the Art of the Table's Dia de los Meurtos dinners from October 29-31.  AOTT is one of my favorite restaurants and I'm sure it will be a delicious menu.  There will also be photographs of Dia de los Meurtos by Laurie O'Donnell.

Image via Essential BakingLocal organic baker Essential Baking Company is featuring a special treat for the holiday.  The "Pan de Muerto is a soft, sweet egg bread that is lightly flavored with anise. The round loaf is decorated with pieces of dough representing a skull and crossed bones." It will be available until November 3 at the Bakery's cafes and in grocery stores that carry Essential.

Photo via Theo ChocolateIf you are looking for some special confections, check out Theo Chocolate's blog for their special edition treats out right now, like a ghost chile bar, full moon white chocolate bar, and chocolate skulls. 

(Aside: if you're not already, please consider becoming a fan of FreshPicked on Facebook.  While I do occassionally post links to these regular posts there too, I am trying to make the content there unique and interesting to make it worth fans' while.  One special feature I'm trying out there are photo essays of recent food field trips. I just posted photos of Seattle TurkFest 2009, where I was assisting Pinar Ozhal in her cooking demo.  I will be posting pictures of my Theo Chocolate factory tour soon, too, so you can see where those special chocolates are born, if you haven't taken the tour yet yourself  Check it out!)

This post is trying out a new format for these themed posts, inserting a special calendar instead of having the events in the text of the posts.  If you are reading this in an RSS, it might not show up.  I'm not as fond of this solution as I am of the way the regular posts looks, and I realize it might not be quite as user-friendly/easy to click, etc.  But it's a LOT quicker to generate, and I think will allow me to do more posts and/or spend time making the site more useful elsewhere. If you have any feedback, please let me know!

Also: Check out your local neighborhood blog! Many are featuring Halloween Round-ups too!