HALLOWEEN DEVILED EGGS — MERRY TO MACABRE

Who says deviled eggs are just for Easter?  They’re also fun to dress up for Halloween — cute or creepy, your pick!  I’m constantly surprised by the creative ideas folks come up with for these time-honored favorites.  Get inspired by this updated roundup of Halloween deviled eggs, from the merry to the macabre.

Nothing scary about these adorable candy corn deviled eggs from Edible Crafts:

Guests will go batty for these batty deviled eggs from Tastefully Simple:

And these from Edible Crafts:

Wonder who the brain was behind these creepy deviled eggs from Brit & Co.?

Who could resist a cute little pumpkin deviled egg, like these from Tadka Pasta?

Too generic?  How about a grinning Jack O’ Lantern, like these from Ochikeron’s You Tube channel:

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Or these from Happier Than A Pig In Mud:

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Who wouldn’t get a kick out of these owl deviled eggs from Maker, Baker, Glitter Shaker?  Hoo?  Hoo?

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Spider deviled eggs are cute without being too creepy, like these black olive ones from The World According To Eggface:

halloween1And these green olive ones from Momtastic:

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Of course, you can make them creepy, like this albino black widow spider deviled egg found on Hairpin:

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If you’re going to have spiders, you might as well have spider webs, like these from health-actually.com:halloween7

Food Planet kicks spider web eggs up a notch with a bright green filling;

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Devil horns are an easy way to dress up deviled eggs for Halloween, like these from Cookin’ Canuck:

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You can have lots of fun coming up with devilish little faces on your deviled eggs, like these from So Lovely Sweet Tables:

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Or these amusing little devils from Kraft:

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Or these simply devilish ones from She Keeps a Lovely Home:

Skeleton deviled eggs from Thrifty Fun are a scream:

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These guys from Community Chickens will send you crying to mummy:

It wouldn’t be Halloween without some eyeballs, like these from Kath’s Kitchen Sync:

halloween4  Or these zombie eyeballs from Happier Than A Pig In Mud:

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Or next level creepy with piped on capillaries from Mom Foodie:

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Or even these dragon (or cat) eyeballs from Chow Bella Paleo:

And just when I thought eyeball deviled eggs couldn’t get any creepier . . . there’s these super creepy ones from Instructables:

These black and orange eggs from aol.com/food might be too scary for some people:

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These red ones found on Homemade Recipes puts the devil in deviled eggs:

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Deviled eggs make cute ghosts in a graveyard, from Chef Morgan:

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These green goblin eggs from Betty Crocker are pretty scary:

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Baby Yoda do do do do do do — so cute:

Popcorner Reviews

Could anything possibly be creepier (or less likely to be eaten) than these Satan’s Spawn deviled eggs from Kravings.blog?  Nothing.  Ever.

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But why just make Halloween deviled eggs when you can BE Halloween deviled eggs?  Check out these deviled egg costumes on Amazon:

 

Happy Halloween!

P.S.  Do you know why ghosts don’t like it to rain on Halloween?  It dampens their spirits!

MY BIG FAT TEXAS HEARING

This week I traveled to Midland with my boss for a hearing involving a lot of parties, a lot of lawyers, and a lot of money.

Feel the Energy

Midland, population approximately 170,000, is Texas’s 24th most populous city.  It’s located in the Permian Basin in the West Texas plains.  The view from the plane as we neared Midland left no doubt that this is oil and gas country:

The city rises up out of the flat landscape:

Once there, before getting down to the business of preparing for the next day’s hearing, we got a recommendation for lunch and headed to Abuelo’s (there are numerous locations around Texas).

The interior was cheery, with its sunny courtyard:Chips and queso, followed by fajitas, rice, and beans (all very good) provided ample fuel (feel the energy!) for an afternoon of plowing through the reams of paper filed by the parties in preparation for the hearing the next morning:

Our client arranged for us to stay in furnished corporate apartments (we each had our own — whew!), which were very comfortable and provided a perfect workspace:

There were a few surprises waiting for us:

My client must think I am more fun than I actually am

And a well-stocked fridge:

So thoughtful, and much appreciated 

There was a pumpjack right outside the complex — the first time I’d ever been that close to one:

We worked all afternoon and into the early evening preparing for the hearing.  After researching and writing about the key legal issue for almost a year, it was exciting/nerve-wracking to think about actually having the judge decide it.

We headed out bright and early the next morning for the hearing.

The hearing was held in Stanton, the county seat of Martin County.

Fortunately, the judge is not one of the “old sore heads.”

The Martin County Courthouse is not a grand old Texas courthouse, although there were two previous courthouses that would have qualified.  The present courthouse was built in 1975, and is a modern, concrete building, with colonnades:

On the front lawn is a pergola made from elements of the 1908 courthouse, the first of the three courthouses:

The Old Martin County Jail is next to the courthouse:

Outside the courthouse was a water tower, where buzzards had gathered — not sure if it was a gesture of solidarity with the many lawyers inside, or if they sensed something was about to go down.

The modest interior of the courthouse had a midcentury vibe (at least that’s what they call it at the estate sales I go to):

The circular courtroom reminded me a lot of the Nueces County Courthouse courtroom we had a trial in, with its vaguely “Close Encounters” ceiling:That’s my boss, sitting there by himself, waiting for the hearing to start.  On the one side of this lawsuit is my client, represented by my firm, and on the other side is approximately 140 defendants represented by a platoon of law firms.  We were seriously outnumbered — I joked that I was afraid the courtroom might tip over with all those lawyers on the other side.  In fact, at the start of the hearing, as the defendants’ side filled up, this is what our side looked like:

Eventually, though, our side filled up with representatives from our client’s company, interested parties, and onlookers. Honestly, it felt a lot like a wedding as everyone drifted in and milled about before the hearing — all dressed up, making polite chit chat, taking their seat on the bride’s side or the groom’s side.  Except there were no passed hors d’oeuvres,  no buffet, no dancing.  Well, maybe a little dancing, as the lawyers for each side kinda dipped and swayed as they passionately argued.

My boss did great, as usual, and I was glad he was the one arguing against all those lawyers on the other side instead of me.  The judge was attentive, but didn’t show his hand — I think if you asked any of the lawyers on either side they’d say it went well.  He promised he’d read everything and rule soon.  Until then, the proverbial jury is still out . . . .

UPDATE:  The judge ruled in our favor.  🙂

Everyone at the courthouse was nice.  The court clerk came by and introduced herself, telling us to let her know if we need anything.  The judge took off his robe (I was going to say disrobed, but it sounded inappropriate) and came down from the bench to mingle with the attorneys after the hearing.  And this really warmed my heart — I went to take a drink from the water fountain during a break (what was I thinking — everyone knows you can get Covid from drinking fountains, right?), and the stream of water arced up about two feet and landed on the floor about two feet away from the fountain.  Oops, clean up on aisle two.  I stood there pouting, and a woman next to me, one of the onlookers — I don’t know who she was or which side she was aligned with — said it was probably for the best, because really, we shouldn’t be drinking from public fountains.  I told her what I really wanted was a soda from the vending machine, but it only took coins, and the smallest thing I had was a $20 bill (first world problem, I know).  A few minutes later she tapped me on the shoulder and handed me 3 quarters.  I was stunned/touched by her thoughtfulness — and so happy to have a Diet Dr. Pepper.  If by chance you read this, thank you kind stranger.  🙂