Week of October 25th 2010: Pumpkin Punch & Koko Cocktails

As I sit in the airport ridiculously early for my flight (rumors about crazy body scanners, groping, tantrums, and protests prove to be decidedly untrue if you fly the day before the day before the holiday), I figure that it may be time for another post. Since Thanksgiving is almost upon us, it is only fitting that I write about the week of Halloween. I really need to catch up on these posts...

So this blog was always about doing new things and although many of my early posts centered around going to new places, a new thing can be as simple as something you can make at home. To get excited for Halloween, I had a crazy urge to watch the Nightmare Before Christmas. In order to coax some of my friends to join me, I promised them some sort of festive fall punch. I did a little bit of snooping around and ended up finding a great recipe for a pumpkin punch (I tried finding the link again and couldn't find the same exact site but if you search for "pumpkin punch" on Google, there are a several versions).

I thought it qualified as a new thing since the drink was served in a pumpkin rather than a punch bowl (which is very convenient for people who may not own punch bowls). You start out by hollowing out the pumpkin like you would if you were to carve it. I made the top a bit bigger though so it would be easier to scoop the drink out of it. Once it was mostly cleaned out, I began scraping the inside of the pumpkin so that I could get some nice raw pumpkin chunks that would be used later in the drink.

The drink was pretty simple and consisted of 1 part spiced rum, 1 part apple cider, and 2 parts ginger ale. I then added back the pumpkin chunks, some cinnamon sticks and a couple dashes of cinnamon for flavor. It was really tasty but mostly it was just fun to drink out of a pumpkin. Things got interesting near the bottom when we had to take turns "tipping the pumpkin" to get the drink out. Needless to say, we had way too much fun with this.

A few days later it was the Saturday before Halloween and time to wander the streets in costumes and such. My friends and I figured it would be fun to just go bar hopping on Polk St. For those not in SF, Polk St. in well known for being littered with small, casual little bars and it's great if you want to go out to a fun place and not spend too much money. It's also almost guaranteed you'll fun into friends.

I'd been to many of the bars on Polk St. but I had never made it to Koko Cocktails. My friend Shannon recommended we start there and I have to admit I was a little skeptical when I heard the name. However, it was a really cool bar inside. They were showing The Shining in the background and had a drink special called Red Rum which was basically rum and cranberry. It was a really fun little place and they had a lot of nice "Shining" themed touches. Example: in the bathroom, RedRum was also written on the walls - across from the mirror. I had a lot of fun there and I'm excited to go back for New Years!

Well Readers, if you don't hear from me in the next couple of days then Happy Thanksgiving! I am going to try to get to next weeks posts soon though. I want to dedicate them to my Dodger fan of a brother. In fact, I care so much about my brother, I'm wearing my Giant's shirt. Hopefully, he's still up when I get to Phoenix. I also hope that it's warm there because he may not let me sleep in his house... I guess sleeping outside in the dessert would be a new thing for me, although I was hopefully that it would have been a new Phoenix bar or restaurant. Suggestions?