Pumpkin King Pumpkin Pie

Because making pie crust is freakin’ HARD.

You’ve partied with Oogie Boogie Meringue Cookies. You’ve sipped tea and nibbled Nightmare Before Christmas Sugar Cookies with your pinky out. You guiltily crammed an entire Jack Skellington Whoopie Pie in your mouth (though you might have redeemed your social graces enough with this fandom tea, courtesy of CuppaGeek). You socialized with Sally’s Blueberry Scones.The time has finally come for Pumpkin King Pumpkin Pie.

So it has finally come down to this: Halloween Week. The final Nightmare Before Christmas tea party recipe. Today I present you with the king of all pies: Pumpkin King Pumpkin Pie! Did you think you would make it out of here without encountering pumpkin spice?! This recipe combines the ‘tried and true’ (my grandmother’s spicy pumpkin pie filling recipe) with the ‘fresh and innovative’ (a buttery, flaky pie crust recipe developed by a friend in culinary school). I must confess: This is the best pumpkin pie I have ever tasted. I do not say such things lightly. A couple of talking points before you read about me cursing at baking supplies:

First order of business: Have you voted for November’s Featured Recipe yet? You are eligible to vote once every 7 days and the poll will be running until November 1st at dawn. Make your vote count now.

Second order of business: This pie crust recipe was gifted to me by a good friend of mine, Luna. She’s absolutely fantastic and deserves full credit for getting me through this with minimal issues. She is also thus far the only person who will give me shit for weird culinary stuff I do and gives great feedback. Stay tuned for a quick interview with her. I promise it’s interesting and funny and she totally fits in here.

Ready? Let’s go.

Nightmare Before Christmas: Sally’s Blueberry Scones

What could be more iconic than scones and tea at a tea party? How about my recipe for Sally’s Blueberry Scones? These scones are delicious with bursts of intense blueberry flavor and a sweet-tart lemon glaze that just won’t quit. The best part? Break one of these scones apart and take a look at that drop-dead gorgeous blue crumb. It’s irresistible. I confess, I ate one scone before I even started on the stitching, burning my tongue on the hot blueberry juices in the process. I had two more scones this morning.

Number of regrets: 0

This is your new go-to scone recipe. End of discussion. Hell, I’m making a second batch and destroying my kitchen later this afternoon. They’re seriously the easiest thing in the world and require zero decorating skill. Ready? Let’s go.

Nightmare Before Christmas Sugar Cookies

This *might* be due to patience required for optimal icing.

And we’re back with another installment of the Nightmare Before Christmas Tea Party series! This week we’re featuring a sugar cookie recipe with charmingly ornate royal icing Zero and nightscape designs. If these cookies make you half as happy as they make me, I’ve done my job. But why another Friday update? Allow me to answer you in verse:

What’s this? What’s this?
There’s flour everywhere
What’s this?
Baking smells in the air
What’s this?
A table laid with cookies
There’s so much icing
Get this black goop out of my hair!
What’s this?

Yes, I managed to get icing in my damn hair.

But seriously, these are quite possibly the best homemade sugar cookies you’ll ever make in the history of ever. Your little ones will love you, your demented teenager will come out of their room for five minutes, your Nightmare Before Christmas-loving significant other will make shrill happy sounds before tackling you, your coworkers will hail you as the food-bringing office hero.. it’s a win:win:win:win situation.

Ready? Let’s go.

Oogie Boogie Meringue Cookies

Yes, I see what I did there. October is here and the Halloween season is upon us. While this may make some run for the pumpkin spice (ahem, basic), there are those of us who get to work making devilishly delicious treats. This month Skill Up Skillet will be hosting a Nightmare Before Christmas tea party of sorts with CuppaGeek! Stay tuned for a stellar tea review and pairing later this month. Seriously, though, did you know there was such a thing as geeky teas? No? You’ve gotta get in on that. Give a girl a click.

This week we’re starting off with the villain, Oogie Boogie. This meringue cookie recipe is positively to die for. There’s a little bit of chewiness, a little bit of crunchiness, and a whole lot of flavor. As an added bonus, they’re so light they practically fly off the plate. Simply diabolical!

Boys and girls of every age, are you ready? Let’s go.

September’s Featured Recipe: Powdered Donut Pancake Surprise

You spoke; we listened! September’s Featured Recipe is Mrs. Cartman’s Powdered Donut Pancake Surprise! Recently, Skill Up Skillet received a donation to the Bakeware Fund. Part of this donation went towards purchasing a small deep fryer which was used to make the donuts used in today’s recipe. Thanks for your donation!

Thank you!

DISCLAIMER: This recipe is pure diabetes on a plate. Expect one plate to feed 3-4 adults!

As you may have noticed, there’s no poll for October’s Featured Recipe. “But why, Leisel? Don’t you care about your readers?” You bet your ass I do. That’s why this October Skill Up Skillet will be collaborating with CuppaGeek throughout the month of October to throw a smashing Nightmare Before Christmas Tea Party! Details to come, but it’s sure to be a fun-filled month of “What in Zeus’ name did we get ourselves into?”

I digress. South Park. Powdered Donut Pancake Surprise. Ready? Let’s go.

Omelette du Fromage- A Dexter’s Laboratory Recipe

It’s time to break out your Inner 90’s Kid with this one. Let’s go back to a simpler time: a time when Saturday morning cartoons was your first true religion. For a lot of us, Dexter’s Laboratory  easily made the Top 10 Best Cartoons. If you disagree, you’re lying. But what is ‘Omelette du Fromage’ actually about? One episode, Dexter decided to learn French by playing a language tape as he slept. One problem: The tape got stuck on repeat! Poor guy, the only thing he heard that night was ‘Omelette du Fromage’. Thus one of your favorite childhood memes began:

The only sort-of-French you ever learned as a kid.

Incidentally, ‘Omelette du Fromage’ isn’t actually a thing. The correct saying is actually ‘Omelette AU Fromage’. In any case, with all this talk of breakfast floating about, who wants a strange French cheese omelette? That’s what I thought. Let’s go.

Scooby Snacks – Homemade dog treats!

Saturday May 23rd marked a very special day in our house: Our dog Luna’s second birthday! We wanted to celebrate with a special treat. In typical Skill Up Skillet fashion, this means something geeky. Luna has a handful of nicknames because of her big personality including Luna-toon, Luna Lovegood, Toona-Loon, Fur Kid, Smart-Ass, and Scooby Loon. Scooby Loon, because our entry hall, kitchen, and pool room have wood floors and when she gets wound up she tries running on the floors, leading to much skittering a-la-Scooby.

While these treats are made from human food, they’re not very tasty to humans but are irresistible to dogs. Don’t try to share. Trust me. One of us took one for the team and tried a bite. Yuck.

Happy birthday, Luna! We love you! (Yes, I’m aware dogs can’t read, but I’m not so sure about this one. Too damn smart.)

Ready? Let’s go.

Why Not Zoidberg Meatloaf?

No, it’s really not as hard as it looks.

Coincidentally, the same day we ordered the Futurama boxed set was the same day I decided to make Zoidberg Meatloaf. Because why not Zoidberg? The real question you may be asking is, “Why meatloaf”? For one, over the last week I’ve had so much ‘garbage food’ i.e.: over-processed, preservative laden, empty calorie sugary crap that I just can’t stomach one more forkful. I do enjoy eating other things besides the usually sweet treats I present you every week. For two, Zoidberg is a crustaceous alien being who, being flat broke, essentially survives on other people’s garbage. Three, meatloaf generally looks like a bunch of garbage shaped into an edible mystery loaf. What even goes into meatloaf?

In this case, surprisingly good things. Ground beef, veggies, quality seasonings, and imitation crabmeat. Crabmeat? Yes, crabmeat. It only makes sense in Zoidberg’s case. Ready? Let’s go.

Ring in the New Year with Pokemon! Chocolate dipped Pineapple Pikachu heads and tails. Pika-Pika!

I’ll admit, I’ve been planning this one for a while. Like, pre-Dice Fudge a while. I just wasn’t particularly inclined to buy a pineapple since the only pineapple I’m familiar with has either been prepared or canned. I don’t know what to look for in a pineapple. I just don’t. Pineapple Pikachu went on the back burner for the moment.

This year I received a pineapple for Christmas. No, really. A whole freaking pineapple (along with some grapefruit, mango, and kiwi, but still– pineapple). My family’s a little weird.

I love fresh fruit and adding chocolate makes the dish feel fancy and decadent. With a little planning, this is a fairly simple treat to put together. Admittedly I did not plan very well, having never worked with fresh pineapple before. Expect a few ‘Chef’s Notes of Facepalm’ sprinkled in here and there to help your heads and tails turn out a little better looking than mine did. Here we go.