I had to try ’em out. We’ve done the mummies. Why not the ghosts? They were at least horrifying in the spirit of the holiday.
These were really simple, here’s what I did…
Pre-heat the oven to 375°.
Cut 4 bun-length hot dogs in half, & stand them up on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Roll out a can of Pillsbury croissant dough, pinch the diagonal seams & cut it into 8 squares.
Put some shredded cheese and seasoning on the dough.
Wrap the dough over the dogs cheese & seasoning side in.
Use a metal straw (or whatever) to cut holes for the eyes and mouth.
Pop them in the oven for 13 minutes, because of course.
You can see how they turned out. My wife got a much more flattering picture:
She opted for ketchup. I made “Scary Sauce.”
Maybe 3:1:½ of Ketchup/Yellow Mustard/Miracle Whip, with some onion powder, paprika, and mustard powder. It was nice & orange for the season.
Next time, I may cut up black olive slices & use them for the eyes and mouths. Maybe. I also will use regular sized dogs instead of the bun length, so maybe they don’t half tip over.
What are your favorite or new fun Halloween themed foods?
Of course, I made these while listening to a Halloween playlist. You should too.
So, in the spirit of punk, because punk carries so many different definitions to so many punks… I made a playlist of a bunch of songs that have the word “punk” in the title (or “punks” or punx”). Punks love quantizing and categorizing and awarding punk points, right? This one’s to anger the gatekeepers. It even has a decidedly not punk track or two. Plus, the narrative is silly if you read down through the titles.
Someone somewhere will be big mad that the Casualties and MxPx are on the same playlist, no doubt.
I may have a problem. Let me know if I’m missing some obvious or obscure bangers! A lot of these I will listen to on shuffle/random, because I add stuff in what could be aptly described ss manic bursts of energy. Bold ones are ones I probably hit more often.
I definitely hit a lot of them on random/shuffle too. The main Halloween one is 50+ hours long.
I got it in my head a while ago that I wanted to try some local pizza places back-to-back, and three of my favorites are super close to each other, so… why not? I set out to get 1 slice each from Beto’s, Slice on Broadway(in Beechview), & Badamo’s(in Dormont). They are all less than 2 miles apart, so it was only a few minutes from one to the other.
Instead of a Birthday dinner, we made this my birthday lunch, albeit a few days early. I have a problem with loving alliteration. Should this be dubbed the Carroll Clan Cut Crawl?
I’m not that guy that talks about one-bite rules or pizza flop, so I’ll rate all of these a 13/13. I think there are so many styles and recipes for pizza, they all deserve a spot at the table and some respect.
3 cheese cuts from Beto’s
🍕 Beto’s – $1.92/cheese slice | If you can’t get your head around Ohio Valley Style… I get it. But, it’s worth figuring out. I don’t put it in the same class as these New York Style pies, but there is room for many styles of pizza in this world. Beto’s is an institution. They are always packed. This stuff is a hit with me. It is simple, the crust is thick and square like Sicilian style with a savory sauce. The Provolone is just perfect, and the decision to leave it uncooked is wild but it works. I mean, you can ask them to cook it, but why? I got a small Mug root beer from the fountain. I love it. My son loves it, my wife is on the fence, and my daughter is not a fan (she got the mozzarella sticks). My son said Beto’s is his far & away favorite.
A slice from Slice on Broadway
🍕 Slice on Broadway – $3.50/cheese slice | They claim it’s NYC style pie made by Yinzers. I have never had a slice of pizza in NY, but I hope for New York’s sake it’s as good as this. The sauce is ever so slightly sweet… not overly sweet, but it hits. The crust is crispy and doughy. The cheese is absolutely just right. It was so nice & warm on a cold day… and it hits the spot consistently every time, even across different locations. I paired it with a Boylan’s Birch Beer. I ordinarily like to get it with Ricotta & meatball here. My daughter, son, & wife all loved it as usual. Of course I loved it too. I think Slice was my wife & daughter’s favorite.
A slice from Badamo’s
🍕 Badamo’s – $2.50/cheese slice | So much love and attention to the craft goes into this pie! Anthony & the people that work there are just incredibly cool and super welcoming. I opted for Pepperoni this time, but my son was getting full so I ended up eating his cheese slice too. The sauce is savory and delicious, it’s not sweet but it’s not acidic. The crust has an entirely different feel & taste than anyone else around. It’s delicious and perfectly crispy. I really need to try their Sicilian style too! The pepperoni is small and delicious without taking over. On regular trips, I like the Ricotta & basil. I paired it with a carton of Turner’s iced tea. My wife & daughter really liked this one, my son nope’d out for being full, and I loved it enough to have two slices. (Hey, listen to Black Tie Revue!)
All in all, to me the nearly side-by-side comparison was super fun, and confirmed that they’re all great pizza that can stand on their own, or stand together. It was a cool afternoon activity with the family & everyone was enthusiastic about the mini adventure.
We are lucky to have so many great independent & small chain pizza shops in the area with a wide variety of styles and flavors. I remember the first time trying Beto’s and I took it back to the old apartment in Dormont & the cheese was sort-of half-melted and it was just perfect. I remember when Slice opened and we checked it out and it was absolutely delicious. I remember going to A’Pizza Badamo in Mt. Lebanon before it moved to Dormont and absolutely loving their pie & the great people.
Of course, there are great spots all over in & around the city… but I kept this Crawl tight. If you did a pizza crawl, which spots would you hit? Bonus points for keeping them within say a 5 mile radius! Would you do more than 3? Could you?
I love Thanksgiving. It’s coming soon. This is some Turkey Day attire that you can relax in. Wear it under a nice cozy flannel. It appears to be on sale at both my TeePublic and RedBubble shops currently. You should take advantage of that if you’re so inclined.
You can get this design on an apron, a coffee mug, a tote bag, a hoodie, a blanket, a pillow… or all kinds of stuff really. You can change the clothing color with a bunch of options & styles at each site too. Poke around & see if you can find something you like!
Also, you can print this out & try to solve it for free. Or do it on your phone/tablet/whatever. You can post it on social media & tag me@AiXeLsyD13.
Of course, I have a buch of other Thanksgiving themed mazes too:
Hey, this pumpkin maze works for Halloween and Thanksgiving if you ask me. And, you can get two versions of it on all kinds of stuff too:
You can get the full color orange one on stuff at TeePublic and at RedBubble. You can also get the black & white one on stuff at TeePublic. I thought that might look cool on an orange T-shit.
I’m building a Bass Case playlist on Amazon Music. I’m looking for songs with a killer bass-only or at least bass-heavy intro. Mostly punk, metal, rock, etc. but open to just about anything. Bass guitar or a bass VI, not electronic bass or keys.
This is the start of it (but not all of it) so far:
Metallica – “(Anesthesia)—Pulling Teeth”
Black Sabbath – “N.I.B.”
Misfits – “London Dungeon”
Type O Negative – “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)”
Rancid – “Journey to the End of the East Bay”
Alice In Chains – “Would?”
Beastie Boys – “Gratitude”
Queen – “Under Pressure [feat. David Bowie]”
Green Day – “Longview”
Ozzy Osbourne – “No More Tears”
Motörhead – “Ace of Spades”
AFI – “Miss Murder”
Primus – “My Name Is Mud”
The White Stripes – “Seven Nation Army”
Metallica – “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
Beastie Boys – “Sabotage [Explicit]”
Queen – “Another One Bites The Dust”
The Cure – “Just like Heaven”
Guns N’ Roses – “Rocket Queen”
Megadeth – “Peace Sells”
Anthrax – “Got The Time”
The Cure – “Burn”
Operation Ivy – “Sound System”
Jimi Hendrix – “Born Under a Bad Sign”
Black Flag – “Six Pack”
Primus – “Jerry Was A Race Car Driver”
Fugazi – “Waiting Room”
Faith No More – “We Care a Lot”
Guns N’ Roses – “You Could Be Mine”
TOOL – “Schism”
The Dead Milkmen – “Bitchin’ Camaro”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Higher Ground”
Black Flag – “TV Party”
Violent Femmes – “Blister In The Sun”
Metallica – “Crash Course In Brain Surgery”
NOFX – “The Idiots Are Taking Over”
Faith No More – “Falling to Pieces”
The Breeders – “Cannonball”
Rick James – “Super Freak”
Duran Duran – “Rio”
Jane’s Addiction – “Mountain Song”
The B-52’s – “Rock Lobster”
Rage Against The Machine – “Bombtrack”
A Flock Of Seagulls – “What Am I Supposed To Do”
Weezer – “Only In Dreams”
The Commodores – “Brick House”
Death Cab For Cutie – “I Will Possess Your Heart”
Iron Maiden – “Killers”
Nirvana – “Lounge Act”
Jane’s Addiction – “Three Days”
Van Halen – “Runnin’ with the Devil”
The Cure – “Fascination Street”
The Smithereens – “Blood And Roses”
The Stone Roses – “I Wanna Be Adored”
Metallica – “King Nothing”
The Byrds – “Eight Miles High”
The Stone Roses – “She Bangs the Drums”
The Clash – “The Magnificent Seven”
Lou Reed – “Walk On the Wild Side”
Joe Jackson – “Got The Time”
Stevie Wonder – “I Wish”
War – “Low Rider”
The Jam – “Pretty Green”
The Temptations – “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”
Sonic Youth – “My Friend Goo”
Pennywise – “Ace of Spades”
The Beatles – “Come Together”
AFI – “Death Of Seasons”
NOFX – “Hobophobic (Scared of Bums)”
Thin Lizzy – “Dancing In The Moonlight (It’s Caught Me In It’s Spotlight)”
The Monkees – “You Just May Be The One”
Metallica – “The God That Failed”
Bad Brains – “The Regulator”
Rancid – “Maxwell Murder”
Deee-Lite – “Groove Is in the Heart”
Talking Heads – “Psycho Killer”
Dead Kennedys – “Viva Las Vegas”
Song name/artist would be more helpful than a Spotify link because I can’t copy/paste from there into Amazon Music.
…and this is subject to change pretty quickly & often.
I have a playlist problem. So, I have a lot of Halloween and Halloween-adjacent playlists. Some I have that are just massive & I listen to them on random. Some are a little more compact. What are your favorite Halloween songs? Anything I’m missing, songs or themes?
These go around all the time on social media. Saw one on Bluesky. Thought I’d make a playlist. This, like all of my musical tastes, could change if I were to do it again in 5 minutes. Here we are though. I made a playlist & put it on Amazon Music, Spotify, & YouTube.
It was tough to pick. I could do this list probably 5 deep with entirely different yet valid answers right now. I mean, I have whole playlists for color, numbers, dates, names, & more. I also thought of another ask that I wonder if anyone would participate in?
If you read this, you know I mostly use Amazon Music, but I do copy stuff to Spotify. I should copy these ones over. I refuse to pay to synch them with Tune My Music though, so I try to wait until I’m close to done to copy it. I may have copied some of these a long time ago.
What are your go-to Halloween songs? What am I missing from these lists?
This is another punk-rock leaning short one. “Bloodbath at Burger King” is an absolute gem, as are many others here. This is what I have so far:
Screeching Weasel – “I Saw The Devil At McDonalds (Demo)”
Teenage Bottlerocket – “Blood Bath At Burger King”
The Berlin Project – “Taco Bell World”
Gas Station Boner Pills – “Fist Fight at the Waffle House”
Richies – “Le Big Mac”
Indigo Girls – “Dairy Queen”
The Knuckleheadz – “Fuck McDz”
Teenage Bottlerocket – “Too Much La Collina”
Wesley Willis – “Rock ‘N Roll McDonald’s”
The Smithereens – “White Castle Blues”
Boris the Sprinkler – “Don’t Really Want To Walk To Taco Bell Without You”
Silly Stu – “McDonald’s in the Pentagon”
Motorpsychos – “Fries With That”
The Aquabats! – “Burger Rain!”
Parry Gripp – “Raining Tacos”
What am I missing? Are there punk-leaning songs about Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Raising Cane’s, or Chick-fil-A? Panera? Jersey Mike’s, Jimmy John’s, Subway, Quizno’s, Vocelli Pizza, Papa John’s, or Domino’s? What about Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr., Checker’s, Rally’s, Five Guy’s, In & Out, Krystal, Jack-in-the-Box, Rax, Arby’s, or Auntie Anne’s? I’ll even take Eat’n Park or Denny’s.
Holy cow, reddit’s r/punk and Facebook’s Oddly Specific Playlists stepped up with some killer suggestions! The list is currently at 85 tracks. Some fit more loosely than others… but close enough counts in horse shoes, hand grenades, and punk rock.
Also, I need to figure out the right plugin to let me embed Amazon playlists here.
