The Mummy Halloween

The Mummy

Hamunaptra, City of the Dead

Ancient burial site for the sons of pharaoh’s

Wealth of Egypt

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Thebes, City of the Living

Crown Jewel of Pharaoh Seti the First

Home to Imhotep, Pharaoh’s High Priest

Keeper of the Dead

Birthplace of Anck-su-namun, Pharaoh’s Mistress

But for their love, they were willing to risk life itself.

(Hamunaptra 1290 B.C.)

To resurrect Anck-su-namum,

Imhotep and his priests broke into her crypt and stole her body.

They raced deep into the dessert, taking Anck-su-namun’s corps to Hamunaptra, City of the Dead.

Ancient burial site for the son’s of Pharaoh’s and resting place for the wealth of Egypt.

For his love, Imhotep dared the gods’ anger by going deep into the city where he took the black Book of the Dead from it’s holy resting place.

Anck-su-namun’s soul had been sent to the dark underworld.

Her vital organs removed and placed in five sacred canopic jars.

Anck-su-namum’s soul had come back from the dead.

But Pharaoh’s bodyguards had followed Imhotep and stopped him before the ritual could be completed.

Imhotep’s priests were condemned to be mummified alive.

As for Imhotep, he was condemned to endure the Hom-Dai, the worst of all ancient curses, one so horrible it had never before been bestowed.

He was to remain sealed inside his sarcophagus, the undead for all of eternity.

The Magi would never allow him to be released. For he would arise a walking disease, a plague upon mankind, an unholy flesh eater with the strength of ages, power over the sands and the glory of invincibility.

THE MUMMY

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Welcome to our The Mummy Halloween

Gordon as Rick, and Julie as Evy

Brendan Frasier as Rick, and Rachel Weiss as Evy

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The Mummy has been a favorite movie of mine ever since it first came out in theaters in 1999. I remember taking my children to see it with a few of their friends. Gordon was out to sea while in the Navy at the time, we were living in Hawaii.

I remember loving it! I love these sort of spooky, suspenseful, action-adventure movies that are a bit campy and funny as well.

I am the kind of person that is happiest when the characters are solving the puzzle and thinking. To me the most boring part is the “car chases”, that’s when I’m bored and I start talking to whomever is around me. Usually while most everyone will “shush” me so that they can see the action. (I do realize there is no car chase in this movie. That is probably why I like it so much.)

I especially love the evolution of Evy.

She transforms from this highly intelligent, yet mousy librarian, to this highly intelligent action-adventurer. She does so with her new found love, Rick O’Connell, and her trouble making brother, Johnathon.

I like that she discovers things about herself that were buried deep inside of her, just as The Mummy, Imhotep, is buried deep in Hamunaptra.

So while the rest of the world puts on a “mummy” Halloween and has a scary, ancient mummy wrapped up in rags as their prop, I wanted the beautiful Anck-su-namum as my mummy.

Anck-su-namun, Pharaoh’s Mistress

The Love of Imhotep

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So please join us as we present to you

The Mummy Halloween……..

I wanted the atmosphere to be exotic with lots of fabric and candles. We also used many items from Gordon’s travels throughout the Middle East.

Halloween Candy and Hamunaptra Cupcakes

If you are wondering what the conical thing is on the table, then keep reading.

Gordon carved the pumpkin, of course. The Skull is ceramic and I wrapped bandages around it so look like a mummy’s skull.

Entering the Afterlife

Never Forget the Fog Machine

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Our Delicious MUMMY Meal

Our Menu

The Mummy, Mummification Meatloaf

Imhotep’s Eyballs

Mini-Mummy’s on the Stake

Imhotep’s Priests Fingers

The Mummy’s Sarcophagus Dip with Chips

Anck-su-namun’s Bleeding Heart with Bread

Fresh Scarabs

Mummy Skins

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Blood and Sand Cocktails

In the movie Rick tells Evy,

“My whole damn Garrison believed in this so much that without orders they marched half way across Libya and into Egypt in an attempt to find that city. And when we got there all we found was SAND and BLOOD.”

(Hence the name of our cocktail above)

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Imhotep’s Priests Shots

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And for Dessert

Hamunaptra Cupcakes

(with a treasure inside)

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Mummy Treats of Baklava and Turkish Coffee

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Don’t Forget your Halloween TREAT !

None Other Than……

Mummy Mix Candies, of Course.

Trick or Treat!

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Notice the ‘mummification’ tool by Imhotep’s skull? I found that at a thrift store. I also added some Egyptian jewelry to the top of the baked brie for our ‘bleeding heart’.

In the back are little cocktail sausages wrapped in dough and baked, then stakes are inserted and I placed them into this cribbage board that I found at a thrift store for $2.00.

All of these little treasures Gordon picked up on his travels.

Stuffed Grape Leaves, we bought ready made at our commissary.

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SCARABS!!!!

Scarabs Represent Courage and Protection

The Mummy Skins, Imhotep’s Priests Fingers, and Fresh Scarabs

(The mummy skins are just pork rinds. For all the recipes, see below.)

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The 1999 Trailer for The Mummy

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Creating the Egyptian Atmosphere

Gordon With the Falcon

Candles and Archaeological Finds

Our own Archaeological Treasures and Map

Candles, Fabric Draped All Around, Lots of Pillows

The Black Book of the Dead

Evy Reading from The Book

The Five Sacred Canopic Jars

(They contain Anck-su-namun’s organs.)

They are needed for her resurrection.

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Notice the ‘Mummification’ Tools

The Mummy’s Head Meatloaf

Ingredients:

4 tbsp Olive oil

3/4 Red Bell Pepper 1/2″ dice
3/4 Yellow Bell Pepper 1/2″ dice

(Save a curved section of the bell pepper to make the Mummy’s tongue)
1 Zucchini shredded or 1/2″ dice
1/2 Yellow Onion 1/2″ dice
1/2 cup Black Olives some chopped some cut into rounds
1/3 cup Sun dried tomatoes chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
4 Garlic cloves minced
1 Egg
1 bunch of parsley chopped
1 tsp Oregano dried or fresh
1 tsp Thyme dried or fresh
3 lbs of ground Turkey
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup or so of grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/4 cups Panko bread crumbs
Non-stick cooking spray

3/4 cup ketchup
3/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

Aluminum Foil

1 large 9 x 12 baking pan

To start, place your shredded zucchini into a clean towel and squeeze tightly to get rid of the excess liquid. This will help during the next step.

Place the olive oil into a large saute pan and saute your bell peppers, zucchini, and onion, on med-low heat and cook until just soft. Then add your minced garlic and chopped olives, and sun dried tomatoes and cook for about 5 min. longer. Once completed, set aside to cool to room temperature.

Chopping the Herbs

Grating the Cheese

Adding the Panko Breadcrumbs

Adding the Red Pepper Flakes, the Marsala Wine, and the Ketchup

In a large mixing bowl, whisk your egg and then add the rest of your ingredients as pictured above. Now, add your cooled vegetables and mix until just combined.

To get the shape of the Mummy’s head I formed some sheets of aluminum foil in the baking pan. I took one sheet and rolled it to about the length of the jaw and then did the same for the other side. This will inhibit the foil from pushing out the sides of the jaw area. Then I took another long sheet of foil and formed it into the main part of the skull.

You then pack the meatloaf mixture into the pan and use your thumb to create the eyes and mouth.

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Making the Balsamic Glaze

Ingredients

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes to taste

Mix all your ingredients into a bowl and taste to get your desired flavor. The mixture should be sweet and tangy. Brush mixture over your meatloaf without getting any in the eye sockets and mouth.

Decorate your Mummy’s face with stuffed olives and part of the curved section of a bell pepper.

Be creative and have fun with it!

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Making The Mummy Eyeballs

Imhotep’s Eyes

These were made using the same balsamic glazed turkey meatloaf, as above. Without the balsamic glaze. Only this time, we have mummy eyeballs.

Inserting a green olive with a red pimento into the center of each meatball.

We used black olives as well. These were whole black pearls that we already had that were whole, we just cut them in half and inserted into the meatballs.

These are so good!

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Anck-su-namun’s Bleeding Heart

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The Ingredients for Making the Bleeding Heart

Ingredients

Fillo Dough Sheets

Brie Cheese

2 Tbsp Favorite Fruit Jam (I used sugar free Raspberry)

Olive Oil Cooking Spray

On a large baking sheet, take a single sheet of fillo dough and lay it flat giving it a quick spray of oil all over. Do this for around 10 sheets. This will give your cheese a nice flaky crust.

Place your jam in the center of your fillo slices and then top it with your cheese.

Tightly fold your fillo dough around your cheese tucking in the edges. Flip your package over and add another fillo sheet over the top, spray with olive oil and tuck in the sides.

You may need to flip it over to get a tight seal with the last sheet then back over again to reveal the top.

Spray the last top sheet of fillo dough with more olive oil spray.

Bake your bleeding heart for about 20 to 25 min. in a 350’F oven until lightly brown.

Serve immediately while the cheese is still warm and melted and enjoy with your favorite crackers.

Enjoy!

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Mini-Mummy’s on the Stake

These are just cocktail sausages that we wrapped crescent dough around them in long strips to represent mummy wrappings. Then baked them in a 400F oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

When the sausages were done I placed them onto a bamboo skewer and stood them into a cribbage board.

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Imhotep’s Priests Fingers

These are so delicious!

Meat on Meat

We just took cocktail sausages and wrapped them in proscuitto (Italian ham) and baked them in the oven on a 400F oven for about 20 minutes. The ham starts to unravel and it resembles bandages.

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The Mummy’s Sarcophagus Dip with Chips

The Spinach Artichoke Dip

(This is what is going inside our ‘sarcophagus’. It is a favorite of ours and always a hit with whomever we make it for.) One of Gordon’s Chef teachers liked it so much he is serving it at his Sports themed restaurant.

Recipe

(Turn oven on 350F)

1 Medium to Large Onion, chopped

10 – 12 Garlic Cloves, chopped

1 – 2 Packages of Frozen Spinach in the box, thawed and squeeze out all the water.

3 6 oz. Jars of Marinated Artichoke Hearts, drained and chopped

2 8 oz. Packages of Cream Cheese, softened

1 Pint Sour Cream

4-5 Cups of Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

(Sometimes we also throw in other cheeses that we have in the refrigerator like Parmesan, Asiago, Gruyere, White Cheddar, etc.)

1 teaspoon Black Pepper

1 teaspoon Paprika

1/2 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

1 teaspoon Salt

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You want to sautee your onions and garlic in a saucepan on the stove in some butter or margarine until the onions and garlic are nice and soft in a very large saucepan. Then you want to add your spinach and artichoke, cream cheese and sour cream and about half of your sharp cheddar cheese.

Next add your red pepper flakes, your paprika, and salt and pepper. Blend all together and place into a baking dish. Top off with the remainder of your cheeses and bake in the oven for about 25 – 30 minutes. Check on it during the cooking process to make sure it’s not being overcooked. Although we love it a little done, see photo above, it really needed to be more creamy for the pastry bowl than it was here.

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How to Make a Sarcophagus out of Puff Pastry

Ingredients

5 sheet of puff pastry

1/2 cup egg wash (2 eggs and 1 Tbsp water well mixed)

2 Tbsp flour

Start by using a chilled baking sheet. This will help to keep your dough chilled and easy to work with. Flour the baking sheet to keep the dough from sticking.

Find a proper mold which will give you the shape of a head. I used a common plastic container.

Push the mold down on the dough to give you an imprint to follow.

Cut along the imprint line a move your base to a chilled plate that was sprinkled with a bit of flour.

Repeat this above step twice, but this time cut out the center portion of the shape leaving an inch on the edge.

In between each layer, brush on some egg wash which sticks the dough together. You should also keep your completed section on the plate in the refrig to keep chilled and easy to work with.

Lastly, place you final and fourth full layer on top of the other three, being sure to use your egg wash to stick the sections together. Brush your top with egg wash.

Using a skull cookie cutter cut out some shapes to accentuate and embellish your soon to be puff pastry basket.

Brush the skull cut outs with egg wash and chill in the refrig. for about 10 min. Doing this keeps the butter in the dough chilled which when cooked, will give you a nice flaked crust. Flip over your baking sheet, place your dough in the center and cook in a preheated 425’F oven for about 20 min. to make the dough rise, then turn down your oven to around 200’F to finish the cooking and dry out the dough. Doing this will help the basket keep its shape.

Once fully cooked, set aside on a cookie rack until at room temp, then cut off your top and fill with your favorite dip!

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Green Eyed-Monster

These are actually tea sandwiches that I grew up eating in the south. I thought they would make a great Halloween looking treat, and they do.

You just take some whole wheat or white bread, or any bread that you like as long as it is a loaf bread. Then remove the crusts. Now spread cream cheese onto a slice of bread. I wanted something a bit zesty, so I added some dry Good Season’s Zesty Italian salad dressing mix to my 8 ounces of room temperature cream cheese. Next you want to add your pickle and place to the side of the slice of bread with the cream cheese, then roll it. The cream cheese will hold the sides together. Just make sure you pat dry your pickle before you place in on the bread.

Then just slice with a sharp knife.

These aren’t pictured on our The Mummy table setting because I forgot about them in the refrigerator.

But these so taste better the next day as the flavors will have had time to blend.

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Our Scarab Mound

To me the scarabs are an important part of the movie and I love it when they come up from underground creating this mound in the sand, and then they all spill over it, running down the mound and running after our adventurers in the movie.

I searched around my house for something with a conical shape to represent the mound, all I could find was Gordon’s tagine, I wanted the scarabs to be edible and the closest thing I could find that would resemble them were dried dates. Then all I needed was to apply something thick, smooth and tasty to the outside of the tagine, in order for the “scarabs” to crawl on. But it also had to resemble sand. Hence the peanut butter. However, I was low on peanut butter so I added some coral food coloring to an extra frosting mix and created the look that way. But peanut butter would have been better to use than frosting.

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Egyptian Cupcakes

My very simple ingredients. Sugar free devil’s food cake mix, sugar free vanilla frosting and some coral sandy food coloring to resemble dessert sand.

Make the cupcakes following the package instructions and then ice them with the frosting. Next I crushed some graham crackers into crumbs to resemble sand and then sprinkled on top of each cupcake.

Oh, I did bake a few cherries into each cupcake so that a “treasure” would be discovered when you bit into them. Kind of like an archaeological find.

I found the cupcake toppers online. They were just Egyptian toys that I washed first before placing them into the cupcakes. I also added some Egyptian looking jewelry to a few of them to symbolize the ‘Wealth of Egypt’.

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A very easy dessert idea to go along with our theme here perfectly is Baklava.

Delicious, and one less item you have to cook.

Add some Turkish coffee and you have a great after dinner dessert.

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Blood and Sand Cocktail

There is a story behind this drink. In the movie, The Mummy, Brendan Frasier tells Evy that all she will find in Hamunaptra is “Blood and Sand”, I knew then THAT is the name of our drink! Next, we both set about creating this drink. We knew the drink had to be a red color, so I set about looking up cocktails online that were red. I did find a screwdriver with blood oranges that would have been great, but blood oranges weren’t in season, so we improvised and bought ruby red grapefruit juice instead. We believe the drink is wonderful and we think you will too!

Recipe

First, make your simple syrup by combining equal parts of sugar and water into a small sauce pan. Use about 1/2 cup of each ingredient should be plenty. You can use a touch of Agave syrup to give it extra flavor. Heat the ingredients until the sugar dissolves and the mixture becomes syrupy. Cool this mixture to at least room temperature.

Dip your preferred drinking glass into the simple syrup then dip into some crushed graham crackers to make the sand portion of the drink. To make this drink, use 2 cups ruby red grapefruit juice, 1 1/2 cups Vodka, 1/4 cup Aperol (an Italian orange aperitif) and 4 ice cubes, placing all ingredients into a large shaker. Shake until the shaker is very cold and hard to hold then pour into your previously prepared glasses.

We did add some saffron infused rock candy as a garnish to the drink.

Enjoy!

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The Making of Anck-su-namun, Pharaoh’s Mistress

Patricia Vasquez as Anck-su-namun

Instead of putting together some scary mummy, I wanted to create Anck-su-namun. The beautiful mummy.

I found the head at Michael’s craft store around Halloween. I don’t know if it is something they regularly keep in stock, or if it was just around for the holiday, but it was around $5.00 or $6.00. I used my makeup and eyeliner. I wanted her to look beautiful, but asleep/dead.

The black gauze I bought at the Dollar Tree for $1.00. I did buy about 6 of them so that I could wrap the gauze around her body and head. I also used pins to keep the gauze in place around her head. The necklace I bought on a sale table for just a few dollars as it was all broken. Gordon and I mended it with some old jewelry hoops that we had and now it looks perfect.

Here I am adjusting a dress that I want to sell in my shoppe soon, but I used this small table and this body mannequin to create our pretty mummy.

As you can see the table peeking out from underneath the dress at the bottom, in the photo far left. I have the dress form sitting on top of the table. Then I took one of my black dresses that is very long lengthwise, then I just started wrapping the black gauze all round it. Pinning where I needed to, or tying it out of sight.

The wig we found at Goodwill for just a few dollars along with the coin looking jewelry that I placed in her hair.

The total cost of creating this mummy, other than using the things that we already had, was under $25.00.

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Julie with Anck-su-namun

I was very proud of her and I thought she looked great for Halloween.

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Julie’s Costume

My only real expense here was the veil. I just wore one of my cocktail dresses that I find at my favorite thrift stores for under $10.00.

Rachel Weiss as Evy

This is the look that I was going for. Although she looks better than I do.

I found some pretty sparkly fabric at Joanne’s, and I bought an inexpensive bracelet that I left open, and hand sewed it onto the top of the fabric so that it sat directly under my eyes.

I also bought these different fabrics at Joanne’s as well.

Fabric really does add a mood and texture that rally does enhance the scene.

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Halloween Night

Brodie the Pirate on his way to a Halloween Party

Halloween Night Dinner

Chicken Hogs, Broccoli and Cheese Dip, Corn Chips and Pork Rinds (Skins)

Halloween night dinner for us is always very casual and eaten in front of the t.v., watching our favorite spooky movies, while running to answer the doorbell every time a group of trick-or-treater’s rings the bell. This is after all, their night and we are ready for them.

I hear the Doorbell!!

Trick or Treat

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Halloween Night Recipes

Chicken Hogs

I call these ‘chicken hogs’ because I came across a recipe where they called ‘pigs in a blanket’, ‘hogs in a blanket’ and I wanted to create our own version using our favorite chicken apple sausages and our leftover puff pastry, hence the name, Chicken Hogs.

(These are also the same sausages that we used in our Toad in the Hole post.)

Just roll the sausages in some puff pastry dough, then slice.

Now just bake in a 400F oven for about 18 to 20 minutes.

Nice appetizer. Now just add some spicy mustard.

The Broccoli and Cheese Dip

(This is a favorite of ours for many a holiday and we do eat it quite often. You might even see it crop up on other posts as well. Namely our Christmas Cooking one.)