scare the pounds off

Science is focused on the really big-picture problems right now. Male pattern baldness. Dropped calls. The mystery surrounding the success of mediocre sitcoms and the failure of excellent sitcoms. And weight loss, as in, how to do it but not do it simultaneously. It's what you might call a paradox, or whatever. The latest and greatest scientific data dovetails nicely with Halloween totally not on purpose — people can lose a lot of weight if they just sustain significant jolts to the heart, like the jolts one might find, say, in really effective horror movies. That's right — people can lose weight just by sitting by and having the calories scared out of them.

A study of ten people who really need to see more horror movies revealed that the sudden, jolting scares in horror movies are very effective at raising a viewer's heart rate, which, in turn, helps burn calories (that is unless, of course, you've seen tons of horror movies and are hip to the medicine cabinet mirror gag). Researchers at the University of Westminster recorded participants' heart rate, oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output, discovering that the number of calories used increased by on average a third during scary movie screenings.

Obviously, scariness is a matter of taste, so maybe High Tension doesn't quite give you that jolt of adrenaline you'll need to actually burn any calories while you literally do nothing except blink and maybe smoke weed because why else are you watching horror movies all day in your bathrobe, hmm? The study found, though, that, on average, participants responded most intensely (calorie-burning-wise) to the following movies:

The Shining (184 calories)
Jaws (161 calories)
The Exorcist (158 calories)
Alien: 152 calories
Saw: 133 calories
A Nightmare on Elm Street: 118 calories
Paranormal Activity: 111 calories
The Blair Witch Project: 105 calories
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 107 calories
[Rec]: 101 calories

If you're a suggestible, easily startled person who has decided for some reason to lose weight but thinks dieting and exercise are for tools, then these movies will probably (almost definitely) do the trick. If you're not so suggestible, then maybe you should think about strapping a meat vest to your person, walking deep into the woods, and waiting for a friendly bear to scare you. You and the bear can then share a nice laugh over a hard-earned pot of honey.

la vie en cocoa

Halloween chocolates are a tradition you just can't pass up. Sure, you need to be careful of the crazy razor blade people and your own overindulgence, but don't deny yourself some Halloween treats.

You know by now that we are absolute chocolate art addicts, so it's no surprise that I love any legitimate excuse to talk about this.

Halloween fits the bill nicely! I can’t really explain why, but Halloween chocolate art has always appealed to us, and I guess could be considered a small subculture within the Halloween lovers community.

There's plenty of chocolate floating around this time of the year. Everything from bags of innocuous splendor, to true forms of macabre art.

Below are some samples of truly horrifying works that made out heart melt...

 

 

 

 

We are also armature chocolatiers, and like to make our own chocolate art. We had planned to make a chocolate Halloween diorama, but sadly global warming has made this part of California oddly hot this time of year, that everything we made, would start to melt. My coffins, ghosts, ghouls and JOL's started to wilt the second I put them on the display. So sadly I will have to wait until next year:(

Halloween Breakfast

 Super yummy donut I had this morning with coffee...only in October!

Trick “OREO” Treat is Baskin-Robbins’ Flavor of the Month

Sucker for fall foods? Me too — or wait, maybe just for cookies and candies mixed in with ice cream.  Sounds like I’m going to like the October Flavor of the Month at Baskin-Robbins.

 

Ready for a scary good creation? Vanilla ice cream packed with orange créme filled OREO® cookies, Baby Ruth®, and Butterfinger® candy pieces. It’s terrifyingly delicious.

Tipsy Jack

 

Fall is here (even if it’s still reaching over 75 degrees outside, grrr), and you’re probably celebrating the seasonal change with some brews, like you celebrate a change in anything else. Or if nothing changes...or if there’s nothing to celebrate, really. Pumpkins are going to become widely available pretty soon, and instead of just carving that grinning face into it for Halloween, you could do something a little festive and turn it into a keg.

The process isn’t too difficult. You’ll simply need a pumpkin, beer, a pumpkin carving kit, a marker or pencil, and, obviously, a tap.

If you can carve a jack-o-lantern, you're already ahead of the curve!

The fairly easy steps are as follows:

Supplies:

one large pumpkin

marker or pencil

carving kit

Plastic Spigot (aka tap)

lots of Sam Adams Oktoberfest beer, or your fall beer of choice.

Directions:

Step 1: First, draw a ring around the top of your pumpkin. This will be your guide to carve the lid. Try to keep this pretty close to the top of the pumpkin so you optimize the hollowed out space that will hold the beer.

Step 2: Once that's done, carve it! If you're sans carving kit you can use a serrated knife. Whatever your tool of choice, poke it in at an angle and work your way around the ring.

Step 3: Pop the lid off once you've gone all the way around and clean out your pumpkin. Make sure you get all the seeds out and most of the pulp, but don't worry if some of that's left behind since it's responsible for flavoring the beer.

Step 4: Now, find the spot where you want to place your spigot. Using your pencil or marker, trace around the rim once you've decided upon the spot. Cutting the hole here will require a pretty fine serrated knife, so the carving kit proves really worthwhile at this point. Make the hole as clean cut as possible, then pop in your spigot. If your pumpkin is as thick as ours was you'll have to thin out the pumpkin's inner wall to fit the spigot properly. Don't be afraid to dig in - the pumpkin can take it.

Step 5: Once your spigot is secured, you're ready to go! Pour in your Sam Adam's Oktoberfest (because that IS the official beer of fall as far as we're concerned) and pop the lid back on your pumpkin.

Step 6: Celebrate fall and all your hard work with a cold brew from your new pumpkin keg!

Coffin Cookies

krispy kreme halloween