I've managed to come down with a cold for the best day of the year, and despite sleeping dangerously late into the day I've got some links. Cough, sniffle.

Salty Pie-Spiced Pumpkin Seeds at Hogwash

The 7 Types of Pet Costumes at Cute Overload

Kids Halloween Candy Code, via Neatorama

Vampire Cookies at Baking Bites

Melon Brains at Instructables

Bones of the Dead Cookies at Craftzine

Fish/Monster Lampshade at Craftzine

And if you're similarly sick and stuck inside, some reading. These are free zombie novels by David Wellington written in blog format. Scott read these as they were released and enjoyed them. Also, the column width is perfect for reading on an iPhone. If you prefer paper all the books have been published. Start here with Monster Island.

Scott had a rare day of working from home yesterday so I used some dough leftover from my earlier leaf shaped pie adventures to make simple crackers to go with our soup at lunch. These are just one layer of basic pie dough, egg wash, sprinkled with salt and poppy or sesame seeds. I made some smaller leaves from the dough scraps to float on top.

Almost better than oyster crackers.

I was craving gingerbread the other night so I made some in cupcake form. I didn't have the light molasses that the recipe called for so I used dark instead and, well, the results were not so good. They were bad, there, just bad. It did make the house smell nice though.

Only slightly related - I'm looking for the best recipe for making the stiff gingerbread you use to make a house. Something that you can roll fairly thin but is very strong after baking, something that won't puff too much while cooking. It doesn't have to taste good, I won't be eating the house, but something nice smelling would be great. Any good recipes you'd recommend?