Now that the weather is turning cool and the leaves are turning, I turn to cooking again and wanting something warm. Let’s make that warm and oozy and… for Octoberfest, with beer?

I’ve also been thinking about Halloween food. I have to admit, I am not much a fan of Halloween, although I am of autumn. I love the colors of the leaves and the crunch sound they make as you walk on them that makes me think of mac and cheese with panko topping, the cooler temperatures that encourage layering of clothing and scarves and layered casserole and a glass of red wine for dinner. I do love autumn and comfort food.

But, sadly, not Halloween. I’m not that big into candy, I’m allergic to latex so the smell is revolting to me. Even when I was young, I was more into the dressing up and collecting candy, but not into eating the candy itself. The most memorable parts were waiting in line for Toys R Us to open with my mom and siblings, and then when we walked in, they had a whole aisle of costumes, with the sample up at the top to show the outfit, and then all these boxes stacked underneath like shoeboxes with the mask on top, peering through hopefully at you through the plastic window at the top of the box. When you opened the box, you could smell that aroma of new new new plastic.

I am the one to the far right, Strawberry Shortcake. Superman and that bizarre blond princess are my younger brother and sister (I have on other sister not yet born). Seriously, those trick or treat containers really set a high expectation of how many treats a child will get in one night no?

It also marked the season when we would start decorating the house- for Halloween, we were just hanging things on the door and window decals which were real 3d posters, not the cling stuff you usually find now. My family didn’t do jack o lanterns, and I carved my first pumpkin in 1st grade with the help of 8th graders who came to assist at school, which then got thrown and destroyed in the street a few days later. Traumatized, I’ve only carved pumpkins one other time (an old boyfriend when I was in my 20s tried to bring the charm of Halloween jack o lanterns to me… it didn’t work.)

Pumpkin gore, and people gore, is not my cup of tea. Some of the gory presentations that I’ve seen on Pinterest for Halloween food are unappealing to me personally- food that looks like bleeding fingers or teeth or eyeballs, I don’t get it. However I saw one photo of using bell peppers to make mini jack o lanterns, and thought it was adorable!

This smoked beer cheese recipe and presentations is inspired by that idea, plus then is my version of the Beeroness’ Roasted Garlic & Parmesan Beer Cheese Dip but I decided to use a Tillamook smoked black pepper white cheddar cheese, and then used a Red Alder smoked salt rather than her suggested smoked gouda, although that also sounds delicious.

Ingredients

• 2 large heads of garlic
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 12 ounces of cream cheese or Neufchatel (1 1/2 packages) or you can use tofu cream cheese
• 14 ounces or 1 3/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
• 6 ounces Tillamook smoked black pepper white cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 cup IPA beer – I picked 10 Barrel Brewing’s ISA, which is mildly hoppy but also has citrusy grapefruit and pine notes because I still have some in the fridge
• 1 teaspoon of Sriracha or other red chili sauce or hot sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste – I decided to kick it up with alder smoked salt from The Meadow
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• Bread or crackers or pretzels or whatever vehicle for the cheese you’d like for serving it to your mouth!
• 6 Bell peppers – red, orange, yellow for serving (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Take your two heads of garlic and carefully cut the top of each head garlic off, just enough to expose all of the cloves. Place each head on a separate piece of tin foil. Drizzle each head with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and seal the foil around the garlic. Place both wrapped garlic head on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. The garlic cloves should be really softened to a point that you cold squeeze the cloves out. Remove both roasted garlic heads from oven and allow to cool. It’s ok if maybe you eat a warm clove or two to test it… I did!
   
2. Meanwhile, while your garlic is roasting, shred your cheeses and take out your cream cheese or Neufchatel out, cut into small pieces, and let warm to room temperature- if you’re using tofu cream cheese it will already be soft, yay! It is better to shred the cheese yourself rather than use preshredded cheese because the preshredded has additives that I think make it taste not quite as good, and it doesn’t melt as well. Besides, you can get better tasting cheese in the block cheese form, and it will last longer, especially when you have odd amounts like what was used in this recipe (unless you get the cheese cut for you by a cheesemonger, you will inevitably be buying 8 ounces). While my garlic was roasting I just grated while watching the Mindy Project. I love Mindy Kaling. Love. I love show she portrays a neurotic woman but unlike many other neurotic female characters often seen in TV or the movies, is only partially clueless about social cues instead of apparently so unaware that she’s clueless about basic social rules, and she is still warm and giving rather than being closed off=independence and bitchy and controlling and unreasonably demanding=smart and a leader. I can always take some more Mindy, just like I can always take more garlic or cheese, thank you.
   
3. In a food processor, add the softened cream cheese/Neufchatel/tofu, 1 1/2 cup parmesan (so save 1/4 cup for later. It makes for a slightly crispy topping!), smoked cheddar, beer, red chili sauce, salt, and corn starch. Squeeze the roasted heads of garlic until the soft cloves comes out and also add these to the food processor. This is why you need really large heads of garlic, as maybe one or two cloves will be a little too soft when squeezing out and you may licking roasted garlic off your fingers. Yum. Oh, back to the recipe. I already had black pepper in my cheese, but if you are using another cheese you may want to add a teaspoon of pepper. Process everything until well combined.
   
4. Place the mixture into a baking dish. At this point, I would recommend letting it chill overnight in the fridge to let the flavors develop more. Meanwhile, drink the rest of your beer bottle- unless you did already while grating your cheese. When you are ready, top your cheese mixture with the remaining 1/4 cup cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees F until melted and the top has started to turn a light golden brown and is bubbly and ooey gooey, about 35-40 minutes.
   
5. Remove from oven, top with green onions, serve warm with chips or bread. For fun, I decided to cut the top portion of two bell peppers for F and I and clean out the inside so they were reminiscent of mini pumpkins, and spooned some beer cheese into them for serving.
   

I thought my lil cute faces on my bell peppers (which I had cleaned out) were adorables!

How does this compare to the other beer cheeses I made before, the ranch cheddar beer dip version and the blue cheese and extra sharp cheddar beer spread version that I made around this time last year?

Well here’s the cheese! It has the thicker consistency like the beer spread shown in the second photo, which makes it great for putting on bread or crackers. After I took my first bite or so I decided to add a little more smoked salt on top to taste. I admit when it comes to it, even though I really like smoked cheese, my favorite beer cheeses include blue cheese in the mixture as I like the complexity of the slight sourness and fuller body it offers, though I understand not everyone loves blue cheese’s saltiness. I definitely like this recipe over the ranch cheddar version as that smokiness in this recipe gives it more oomph for me, and this was more peppery than salty (from the ranch).

And… that is as Halloween as I’m going to get! what do you think of Halloween food? Do you have a favorite costume from your past you still think about fondly?