1. Turn on the oven and bake
ANN CHRISTENSON, SENIOR DINING EDITOR
I could give you any reason to bake. Treats are always welcome, in my book. I just fired up the range for a holiday I’d never heard of – Boss’s Day (Sunday, Oct. 16). Craving all the fall flavors (well, not PSLs…), I went searching for a good ginger cookie recipe. Smitten Kitchen is one of my go-to blogs for baking recipes – Deb Perelman rarely shoots and misses – and I love the flavor profile of her ginger cookies, though I wish these were chewy-crisp and not as cakey. But don’t get me wrong, they’re still going to get eaten…
2. Drive the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive
CHRIS DROSNER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR
The brilliant splashes or yellow, orange and red you encounter make driving around Wisconsin this time of year a delight. You must take the long route, no matter where you’re going, but if you’re looking for a great drive just because, this 115-mile zig-zag of back roads through southeastern Wisconsin is the ticket. The DNR offers detailed, turn-by-turn directions, but the best plan is to just to connect to it near you (it crosses I-94 at Highway C near Delafield and I-41 near Slinger) and follow the numerous and hard- to-miss signs. And scenic is no overstep here – the rolling patchwork of farm fields and forest is the Wisconsin of postcards, and there are many stretches where the fall foliage takes over the road, enveloping you in a canopy of yellow or orange glow that you’ve been waiting for since last October. My trek through the northern half or so of the route had the best payoffs along Scenic Drive (a bit on the nose) near Dundee and around the Greenbush area. We’ll see how this blustery Monday affects the foliage, but as of Monday morning Travel Wisconsin’s Fall Color Report still had the area’s peak colors coming this week or later.
Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive; Photo by Chris Drosner
3. Read some Ray Russell Before Halloween
ARCHER PARQUETTE, MANAGING EDITOR
Ray Russell is a largely, and unfortunately, forgotten writer. He was the fiction editor at Playboy in the 1950s. (In other news, Playboy used to have a fiction editor.) When he wasn’t editing such greats as Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Matheson, he was writing his own short stories – composed in the long-neglected Gothic style of Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker. His tales of mysterious castles, ghouls and strange hauntings combine that 1800s sensibility with the Freud-tinged psychological insights of the ’50s and ’60s. Each story is perfectly unsettling, such as his most famous, “Sardonicus,” about a man whose face is cursed with a constant, twisted smile. His best fiction is collected in the Penguin Classics volume Haunted Castles (with a forward by Guillermo del Toro). These tales of terror, with their twist endings and macabre characters are an ideal pre-Halloween read.
4. Last Weekend to Check Out The Hollow at Phantom Lake
ALLI WATTERS, DIGITAL & CULTURE EDITOR
Every year I journey to this Mukwonago pumpkin walk with my family, and every year I am still amazed by how intricate it is. Thousands of hand-carved pumpkins are on display along the lakeside of a summer camp. This year, I marveled at pumpkins carved to look like jellyfish, dragons and even pieced together to create a massive ship. Some floated on the water, others hung from trees. All of them were lit up for the night. This weekend is the last opportunity to check it out – and get your tickets in advance because the do sell out.
The Hollow at Phantom Lake; Photo by Evan Watters
5. Relax and Socialize With MKE Yoga Social
BRIANNA SCHUBERT, ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR
If you’re looking for more relaxation in your life and maybe a boost in your social life, let me recommend to you MKE Yoga Social. This local yoga business goes out into parks, distilleries, businesses and other venues around Milwaukee to host yoga classes, encourage participants to be social and build community. I wrote last week in my editors’ pick that I went to STUMP for some plants, but I was also there for yoga with MKE Yoga Social. It was a relaxing, refreshing class in a peaceful and fun venue, and I got to take home a free plant, which was included in the yoga class fee. (It was an adorable string of pearls, in case you were curious.) Coming up, they have classes at Dead Bird Brewery, Central Standard, Canni MKE and their studio, so be sure to check it out.
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