#17 ES: October Brains!

Brains are food not friends

Howdy friends,

What did you do for halloween? In my fantasy, I have friends over to watch a scary movie on my muji beanbags with homemade popcorn and chocolate-covered raisins. Maybe you hate chocolate-covered raisins, but I swear the homemade ones are different! Also it’s my house. I’m a big fan of thrillers, so maybe could watch one of my recent favorites: Hwaran (Hopeless) by Kim Chang-hoon or The Forest of Love by Sion Sono. They’re both disturbing, gory slow-burns, which are attributes of cream-of-the-crop of thrillers for me. They both have mixed reviews, so maybe you’ll hate them…that’s ok though.

In this fantasy, we can instead watch a zombie movie—a traditional zombie movie where people turn into the living dead and feed off the brains of the living. That’s not scary, disturbing, or gory at all. Then, we could dig into a brain tart, as if we are zombies ourselves!

I hope you were able to pick up a treat this month. The October pick-up treat was BRAINS!, a spooky halloween special. In my head, I narrate it like an 80s horror movie, screaming “BRAINS!!!” in an old-timey white man voice. I thought of this movie I watched in high school for a project, The Blob (trailer below). In some ways, this brain dessert has similar components to the blob: they’re both gelatinous with a retro flair.

I wasn’t thinking of making a retro desert, but it ended up that way. When I decided to add the membrane around the brain, I thought it felt like a 50s jelly salad. I love the look of jelly salads, especially when it has savory components or like a creamy opaque layer. I wouldn’t eat it, but it’s so mysterious. What secrets are you hiding, jelly salad?

image from vintagerecipecards

Anyways, thank you to everyone who picked up a brain. I’m happy to make all these desserts for y’all. My goal is always to make it feel like your $5 subscription to Extra Slice is worth it, especially since it lets me get to do the thing I love, which is to bake and write for people.
I’m trying a new thing of announcing the treat ahead of time and having the pick-up later in the month, but I’m not really ahead of the game right now (it’s already the second week of November ugh). I’ll be sure to announce it on the substack chat/notes first, then instagram! A little preview is that the November treat is chestnut and pecan (+hint is :moose:)

Recipes below!