If we had ever attempted to make our house look nice before now this might have come up earlier

In the course of decorating our house for Halloween it has become apparent than Dan and I have slightly differing styles in terms of holiday aesthetics.

Me: "I think we should paint the entire room black and fill it with pumpkins. And skeletons and cobwebs. And have some goats in the front yard. And they can be wearing devil horn headbands. And we can also paint them black. And probably some glitter...somewhere."

Dan: "I printed out an original score of Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre to set on the organ. It's the solo organ part, and it's tea-dyed to give it some age."

"I also have this tiny leather pouch that's vaguely creepy. And I stood over in that corner and thought really negative thoughts for a few minutes."

To be fair, some hints of excess do peek through Dan's armor of subtlety. He wanted to burn the edges of the music, I guess on the principle that after 50 years all sheets of paper become 500-year-old treasure maps.

Anyway, none of this matters when there is food to be discussed. Last night was my turn to host bunko. As hostess, I can't win prizes, but I can win eating.

Smoked salmon on black pepper chips from Bon Appetit.

More of this unholy bacon-filled caramel corn, also from Bon Appetit.

Sopes! Badly lit, but they looked surprisingly like the recipe picture.

Risotto balls using the leftover sweet potato risotto from last week. Very popular, maybe because it's a fried thing with cheese in the middle of it.

Didn't put a ton of effort into this one.

Anyway, it was a pretty good party from my my stomach's perspective, and everyone seemed to enjoy the nuances of Dan's autumnal stylings. I think they also liked my glittery devil-goats even if it's too tacky to admit it.

What's Anna been doing? Waking up from naps with emo-hair.

"I just have so many...emotions."