Egon's Ectoplasm

Egon’s Ectoplasm – after a hard day trapping slimy ghosts, Dr. Egon Spengler can often be found practicing mixology in the lab.

Egon’s Ectoplasm

By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

I ain’t afraid of no drinks!

Happy Halloween! Well, almost. It’s still a couple days away, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the trick or treaters out and about over the weekend. And while much of my Halloween posting can be geared towards kids, this one is not.

But Halloween is not just about kids- adults love to celebrate as well, and although they may not be out trick-or-treating (well, there was the time my new neighbor in Waynesville showed up at my door in costume, then proceeded down the street, little plastic pumpkin in hand…or was that an apparition? Halloween is indeed a time to see crazy things, but so is today’s world…) And here you thought those 6-foot boys showing up on your doorstep were daring. This was a married woman well into her twenties. She had said at the time (when I asked her if she was going to be at home giving out treats) that she locked up shop and taped a sign on the door saying not to knock, because the “baby was sleeping”….(WHAT BABY?) I gotta say, she was the only baby there, and she wasn’t even at home, being out there marching along with the ten year olds. #oyvey

I don’t go to Halloween parties as much as I used to. I am not exceedingly clever about making costumes myself, and I think I fret about that too much. I’d much rather go as myself and bring along an armful of food. I am notorious for wanting to feed people. I just love it.

I also like to do a bit of mixology from time to time, but with my better half running the show over at Potable Pastime, he has been doing most of the mad scientist with a bottle of grain alcohol and a match schtick for quite some time, while I mostly stick to food, since I create more food recipes than I have time to blog anyway.

But this recipe I put together after coming across the little beakers at a craft store first. It’s not the usual way recipe development works (finding the serveware and wrapping a recipe around it) but as with a lot of Halloween decor, as soon as I saw the beakers, I knew I wanted them. They are cute, aren’t they? What a load of beaker booze.

Dr. Raymond Stantz: [astounded] Wow! Talk about telekinetic activity, look at this mess!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Ray, look at this.
Dr. Raymond Stantz: Ectoplasmic residue.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Venkman, get a sample of this.
Dr. Raymond Stantz: It’s the real thing.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Someone blows their nose and you want to keep it?
Dr. Egon Spengler: I’d like to analyze it.

Yep. And as for part of my own personal analysis as to the chemistry, I knew I wanted to use some jello in this and at first thought I might be using the sort-of obvious green. But I rebelled, because I also wanted to use Midori, but didn’t want the lime flavor overcoming the melon. So I opted for pineapple jello instead to give it an Island feel. At the time I thought I might theme it as the Island of Dr. Moreau. But maybe that will just coalesce some other time.

The best part of this is the little surprise. Made straight up and served right away, this comes across as a usual tropical drink. But- if you make this ahead and refrigerate for your party, the gelatin is going to set up ever so slightly, so that it does in fact, have the character of ectoplasm you might get hosed with if you were a Ghostbuster.

I hope you enjoy. Until next time!

~Sue