Kielbasa Mummies

BOO!

Aren’t you glad you live in a world where there are Octobers, spooky things, and candy?

Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31 and its popularity is on its way to becoming worldwide and extending all the way to the Middle East, including countries like Iran.

The tradition of wearing costumes and trick-or-treating has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), where at the end of October, and just before the arrival of their new year on November first, people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.

This practice closely resembles the Persian/Iranian pagan heritage of Chaharshanbe Suri چهارشنبه‌سوری‎, or scarlet Wednesday celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday before Norooz, the first official day of spring and Persian New year. Persians/Iranians make one or more bonfires and jump over the flames, singing sorkhi-ye to az man, zardi-ye man az to, with the literal translation of ” give me your redness and my paleness yours”, a purification activity where one burns away their sickness/paleness or bad omen to the fire and draws health and vitality from it.

The fascinating similarities between two historic and ungodly traditions do not end here.

Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became less distinct and the ghosts of the dead returned to Earth. This is why they left their homes, and to avoid recognition by the ghosts, wore masks so the spooky ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.

Fast forward a few hundred years, when Pope Boniface IV established All Saints Day to honor Christian martyrs in Rome, and the following years when Pope Gregory III expanded it to a day of observance and inclusion of all saints and martyrs, called it All Soul’s Day, and moved the ceremony from May 13 to November first, with activities were very similar to Samhain rituals that encompassed big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils- a clear attempt to replace the Celtic festival with a church-sanctioned holiday day.

Fast forward a few hundred years. When Halloween came to America, at first it was just limited to colonial New England, especially Maryland, but in the second half of the 19th century, with the arrival of millions of Irish fleeing the Irish Potato Famine, Halloween became popularized and recognized as a national level. Borrowing from Europe’s ceremony, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treating”.

In the late early 19th century, there was a cultural movement in America that reshaped Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighbors. Instead of ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft, there was more focus on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes that were adopted quickly with the help of media and community leaders to advocate the removal of anything scary and “grotesque” out of Halloween. Essentially this is how Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween became a secular and community-centered holiday directed mainly at the young, and due to the high numbers of baby boomers, parties moved to town civic centers, classrooms, or homes, where they could be more easily accommodated. Thus, a new American tradition was born with activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes, as well as eating treats.

Today’s food is a simple yet fun treat for the kids too cute to spook.

These Kielbasa Mummies bake into a faBOOlous rich, cheesy, and golden brown treat that looks a lot like empanadas. That way while your kids are busy enjoying dinner, you can start thinking of all the different ways you would pair your beer or wine with their candies. Don’t deny it.
Start with Montana’s own kielbasa sausage, follow our cooking instructions, and feel confident that it will all turn out perfectly for your little ghouls and goblins.

As you will soon find out, this recipe’s pastry is fluffy, flaky, and buttery which skews sweet and savory. Add some of Vi’s Dippin’ Mustard so you could maximize all those awesome subtle flavors.

Vi’s Dippin’ Mustard is premium sweet and savory gourmet mustard that is handcrafted all the way in the small town of Dell, population 15. They come in no-drip, mess-free, and shatter-free squeeze bottles, and in three heat levels, with three of the spiciest containing ghost pepper, so apropos for Halloween. This sauce is our kitchen’s staple and soon will become your go-to sauce.

Pioneer Meats’ Sausages are also made with premium Montana beef and pork, minimally processed and packaged in a natural casing. They come in a super wide variety of flavors. Mix & Match them in a pack of 3 or 6 to find your perfect vibe not just on Halloween but on any busy evening that calls for a quick dinner. Believe me, eating out gets old. Make your own dinner in no time

When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam, May luck be yours on Halloween.

Go forth and be fabulous with all that we have to offer.