GHOSTMAP

Halloween is known to be a great joyous holiday where we indulge in parties, dressing up and trick ot treating. This year with the bank account floundering for a lot of Americans, many of us will be spending less on costumes, and fewer of us will be going out. So rather than hitting the local Halloween party, spend Halloween as a Ghost Hunter and tune into the Ghost Adventures 7-hour live event October 30th on the Travel Channel.

This October 30th, Halloween, get a blanket and curl up to 7 LIVE hours of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, where Zak Bragan and his gang of Ghost Adventure-ers visit Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. The Ghost Adventures crew are best known as a three-man crew that lock themselves into many of the scariest places in the United States. Wandering around using night vision with various cameras set up. Their main way of ghost hunting and conjuring up activity is through provocation, which is sure to be interesting at the least in a onetime lunatic asylum.

At one time called the Weston State Hospital, this West Virginia facility served as a asylum for the mentally ill in the mid-1800’s. The history of the building holds fascinating accounts of Civil War raids, a gold robbery, the “curative” effects of architecture, and the efforts of determined individuals to help better the lives of the insane. But of all the ghosts to frequent the asylum it’s most famous ghost is Lily.

A little girl born into a life of insanity, having been born and left at Weston State Hospital during the Great Depression, Lilly stays on trapped behind the haunted walls of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. She hums and sings, plays with people’s hair, eats boxes of cracker jacks and walks the halls as a lonely little girl. Tune-in to Travel Channel October 30th starting at 8pm eastern when Zak, Nick and Aaron broadcast live from this abandoned hospital live for 7 hours. You’ll be able to get involved with interactive web casts as well as the live broadcast. The tv audience will be able to text and comment in real time.

Travel Channel’s 7-hour Ghost Adventures on October 30th is sure to scare your pants off, and give you a chance to be a real ghost hunter, or at the very least, a chance to make fun of the camera dude that always gets freaked out too quickly.

Like Linus in the Halloween special for the cartoon Charlie Brown, many of us will soon start looking to find the great pumpkin. However the question is: What do you do when it’s no longer a window decoration? These recipes may offer you some solutions:

For the adventuresome cook, try Rigatoni with Pumpkin and Bacon Sauce adapted from Pasta Cooking with Style (Thunder Bay Press/1994). Sautéed bacon and garlic combine with pureed pumpkin, a little heavy cream or half-and-half and parsley to create this unique dish. Hot drained pasta is tossed with grated Parmesan before plating for added richness.

I prepare fresh pumpkin the same way I do fresh squash. Slice washed pumpkin in half (if very large, in quarters), scrape out seeds (save for roasting, see my easy recipe below, or plant them for growing
pumpkins next year!). Lay pumpkin one piece at a time, cut side down, on a sheet of waxed paper in microwave. Cook on high for 10 minutes until sides feel soft when pinched (add more time if necessary). Let cool. Scrape out pulp and puree in food processor. Puree can be stored portioned in freezer bags for up to one year.

When cooking pumpkin, use a freshly carved pumpkin, not one that has been carved and sitting out for several days. Drawing on your Jack’ O Lantern instead of carving it will also keep it fresh. For the
ultimate shortcut, you have the option of using pure canned, pumpkin, (not canned pumpkin pie mix), for these recipes.

RIGATONI WITH PUMPKIN & BACON SAUCE
3 cups cooked pumpkin
1 lb. rigatoni
6-8 slices bacon, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup heavy cream or half-and-half
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
Fresh ground pepper to taste
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

HOMEMADE PUMPKIN SEEDS
Rinse pumpkin seeds. Use your fingers to remove all the pulp. Drain pumpkin seeds and discard pulp.
Spread out on a cookie sheet to dry overnight.
Preheat oven to 250 F. Line a baking sheet with non-stick foil. Toss pumpkin seeds in olive oil, butter, or spray with cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt or your choice of seasonings. Toss to coat. Bake
about 1 hour, tossing every 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.

PUMPKIN SMOOTHIES
1/2 cup pumpkin
3/4 cup milk or vanilla yogurt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. brown sugar
4 ice cubes
whipped cream (optional)

Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into 2-3 glasses. Serve with a small amount of whipped cream on top. Serves 2-3.

For those of you who keep asking me if there is going to be a Ghost Hunters Live episode this year on SciFy please watch the video below. If your wondering if you should believe this show or not this should answer your questions.

This weeks haunted location is the City Cemetery in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, is frequented by ghastly apparitions of the cities dead and cursed souls of voodoo believers. The past few years, the cemetery has been plundered by grave robbers who sell casket handles, shoes, and anything else they can salvage from the tombs of the departed. The grave robbing has upset the rest of those buried here and as a result many are now roaming about stuck in between this world and the next because of voodoo magic.

When most of us think of “voodoo”, we imagine dark forces and scary dolls, but in reality, voodoo is essentially a religion based upon the foundation that all of Creation is “divine”, and thus infused with divine energy that can be “tapped in to” by its practitioners; this power can be used for good or for evil. However in most cases in Haiti only the evil side is practiced and therefore a virtual army of the dead haunt this cemetery in order to protect it and scare off grave robbers.

As a result of a voodoo ritual the most vocal spirit is bound to this location forever to prevent it from possessing anyone in the future as it had done so in the past. The spirit of Ezili Dantar will try to harm you posses you or do anything possible in an attempt to escape the voodoo binding ceremony performed here in 1798.

I would say this is in my opinion one of the 10 most haunted locations in the world and warn you not to visit this location alone.

I was looking and was thinking this is such a HOT Halloween Costume. What do you think?