Late posting this- but I hope you enjoy it anyway!
Hi there old friend! Come grab a cup of the hot cider I just made and sit right here- I saved you a prime
seat in front of the roaring fire. Once you get settled in, I’ll tell you the true and scary “Tale of Mistaken
Identity”.
It was a crisp late afternoon in the fall of 2005, and there was an escaped convict on the loose in
Lancaster, SC. All the news channels were warning residents to be on the lookout and lock their doors;
this person was considered armed and dangerous. I had just got home from work when I heard the
news. At the time, we were living with my father-in-law and building our house next door and I was six
months pregnant with my second child.
Since we lived in the country, my father-in-law didn’t bother locking his doors much, but hopefully he’d
lock them tonight. My father-in-law’s house was a four bedroom, 2 bath split level built in the seventies.
While we lived there, he graciously gave us the master bedroom upstairs and took the downstairs
bedroom for himself. The downstairs bedroom had a door to the den, and a door to the side yard-
facing our new house. This was the door I was worried about, since I could lock the others before I went
to bed, but not this one.
When I saw my father-in-law Tom in the kitchen, I told him about the escaped convict and that he
needed to lock the bedroom side door until the dangerous murderer was caught. He thanked me for
telling him and assured me it was not a problem.
Next, I waddled over to our new house construction site to tell my husband, Tommie. He’d work until
10 or 11 every night on our house when he came home from work to keep things moving, but it was
probably a good way to avoid my hormones too if you want to know the truth. I gave him the same
warning about the armed and dangerous convict on the loose. I was also worried since the new house
did not have doors that locked yet and anyone could just walk in while he worked late at night and catch
him off guard. He also thanked me for letting him know and assured me it would be ok.
Well, by now it was getting late, so I locked up what I could and went to bed. A few hours later I heard a
loud BANG as the downstairs side door was slammed open. It was followed with my father-in-law
hollering “I’ll kill you!!!” and my husband yelling back “I’ll kill you!!!”. Within seconds, I realized my
husband had finished working and walked in through the side door- like he always did (which was NOT
locked by the way), startling my asleep father-in-law who assumed it was the escaped inmate busting in.
My husband on the other hand, tired from working so late, walked into the dark bedroom from the side
door and assumed the escaped convict had somehow gotten inside and was attacking him. I think my
hysterical howling laughter from upstairs tipped them off and things calmed down pretty quickly after
that. Never a dull moment in Camp Creek!
Dia de Los Muertos Skull Charcuterie Board by Melanie Knight
These boards can be filled with so many tasty treats! I try to load them up with fruits and veggies so
they stay healthy-ish, but gorgeous too.
Ingredients
Skull
1 pkg cream cheese- room temperature
2 tbl butter- room temperature
1 pkg dip mix (Ranch or your choice)
Black and green sliced olives (for eyes)
Strawberry slice- heart shaped (for nose)
Gouda sliced cheese (for teeth)
Mix cream cheese, butter and seasoning with a fork until blended. Scoop onto syran wrap and shape
into a flat skull. Place in the middle of your cutting board, but leave syran wrap on as you arrange the
rest of the board. Once the board is arranged to your liking, remove syran wrap and decorate the eyes
with olive slices, the strawberry slice for nose, and cut 8 little squares of gouda for the nose.
Pepperoni & Salami Roses
10-15 slices of each per rose
Using a shot glass, fold each meat slice on the rim of the glass, overlapping as you go. Press each fold
firmly and turn glass over on to board to place each rose where you want it.
Fruit and snacks to fill your board
Grapes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Kiwi- cut in zig zag
Gouda cheese- cut in slices
Goat cheese roll-cut in slices (Roth Chevre brand)
Snyder’s of Hanover Butter Snaps
Celery sticks
Cherry tomatoes
Place the skull in the middle of the board. Place the peperoni & salami “roses” and kiwi flowers on skull
as a crown of edible flowers. Fill in the rest of the board with the fruits and snacks. Finally- remove the
syran wrap from the cheese dip skull. Decorate the skull face and enjoy!
