We had a seriously fun day of celebrating our dead folks today.

In our family, we are still working to establish meaningful traditions and rituals~~ holiday and otherwise.  It’s more difficult when your family is all spread out over the east coast.  It just isn’t automatic for us.

We, the gnomes, have nary a speck of Latin in us….  We do love us some Day of the Dead though.  I think most folks we know do as well.  For one thing, it is so beautiful, and mysterious, and just a little bit scary & macabre, right?

It was so nice to spend this day with the Foster-Jewell family last year.  Though is isn’t a holiday born of our particular heritage, it is one we really enjoy celebrating.

Honoring our departed friends and loved ones.

I think it keeps on through tomorrow, All Saints and then All Souls.

Beyond all of those pretty sugar skulls and loverly marigolds, it’s a really good opportunity to talk with  kids about their ancestry,  plus do a bit of good “circle-of-life” conversing.  The poppets are pretty sensitive, and it became a bit overwhelming for them to talk about after a bit.

There are oodles of craft opportunities. It’s kind of fun to go through the momentos and photos, to remember and share stories and then to gather them all up in one big gorgeous assemblage of life and death.

We had a Chinese food picnic and sangria /tamarind jarritos. Also some bread o’ the dead and of course, Halloween candy.

For the children there are candies and fruits; for the adults, cigarettes and tequila. For everyone there is the hope of having our loved ones at our table once again, sharing for a brief moment of our time as we know it…

~~Oscar Guzmán

No Tequila.

Frida got baked, however.

and some boney breads.

Here’s the recipe we used.

Pan de Muerto, “Bread of the Dead”

In celebration of Mexico’s Day of the Dead, this bread is often shaped into skulls or round loaves with strips of dough rolled out and attached to resemble bones.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 5 to 5-1/2 cups flour
• 2 packages dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon whole anise seed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 eggs

In a saucepan over medium flame, heat the butter, milk and water until very warm but not boiling.

Meanwhile, measure out 1-1/2 cups flour and set the rest aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the 1-1/2 cups flour, yeast, salt, anise seed and sugar. Beat in the warm liquid until well combined. Add the eggs and beat in another 1 cup of flour. Continue adding more flour until dough is soft but not sticky. Knead on lightly floured board for ten minutes until smooth and elastic.

Lightly grease a bowl and place dough in it, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1-1/2 hours. Punch the dough down and shape into loaves resembling skulls, skeletons or round loaves with “bones” placed ornamentally around the top. Let these loaves rise for 1 hour.

Bake in a preheated 350 F degree oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and paint on glaze.

Glaze

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons grated orange zest

Bring to a boil for 2 minutes, then apply to bread with a pastry brush.

If desired, sprinkle on colored sugar while glaze is still damp.

We also made a batch where we mixed orange juice and zest into the dough as well as the glaze.  Both breads are yumm-oh.