Saturday’s bright, sunny blue sky and blustery, cool(ish) air made it an ideal fall day here in the desert. October is over, but as far as I’m concerned, spooky season continues with our gradual dip in temperatures.

(Speaking of which, I will have a Geronimo report for you soon, probably a week from today. I haven’t forgotten!)

In keeping with the continuation of spooky season, I’m here to share my October Favorite “little things” with you, my usual smattering of entertainment, food, and products. Scroll down to see the little things that I enjoyed in October!

 

1). Still/Born (Shudder Original movie)

 

 

This film spooked Nenette, who then spooked me when I was myself already a little bit spooked. We basically freaked each other out in the middle of the movie, and I ended up on the phone with Caroline, my partner-in-horror with whom I was watching the movie, and I think I had to finish watching it the next day, as I was preoccupied with Nenette and with being spooked by the entire situation. There was a specific event in the movie that did it. I’ll just say that Still/Born was an effective work of horror, and I do recommend it.

 

2). The Mortuary Collection (Shudder Original movie)

 

 

Like Still/Born, The Mortuary Collection is a Shudder Original. It wasn’t the best movie ever, but I found it to be good fun for Halloween season! It fueled the mood, and I loved it for that.

 

3). Evil (Netflix)

 

 

Evil is an excellent slow burn of a paranormal investigative series that’s available to stream on Netflix. It’s one of those that gradually tucks itself under your skin, almost while you aren’t aware of it, and leaves you with an eerie feeling at the end. That was my experience, anyway. I’m looking forward to Season 2.

 

4). The Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix Original Miniseries)

 

 

What I can say about the excellent Netflix miniseries The Haunting of Bly Manor is that it’s a gorgeous, gothic work of horror, skillfully wrought and, in my opinion, deserving of awards nominations. Really beautiful work!

 

5). To the Lake (Netflix Original series)

 

 

In this Russian series (it’s unclear whether it’s a series or a miniseries), we have a virus in a pandemic scenario from which the characters frantically try to escape. It’s not our virus, mind you. It’s a bit on the zombie-ish side. It has a vibe that’s more post-apocalyptic/dystopian, which I adore… and I love that the lead character is played by Kirill Käro, a Russian actor whose work I’d admired in Sniffer and Better Than Us.

 

6). Roasted, salted pumpkin seeds.

 

 

I snacked on roasted, salted pumpkin seeds throughout the month. I’m more of a salt person than a sweets person, so roasted, salted pumpkin seeds taste more like October to me than pumpkin spice anything.

 

7). Food Should Taste Good Blue Corn Tortilla Chips.

 

 

Ingredients: Organic blue corn, high oleic sunflower oil and/or safflower oil and/or canola oil, brown rice flour, flax seed, sesame seed, sunflower seeds, sea salt, quinoa

I found my new favorite brand of blue corn tortilla chip in October. These chips from the brand Food Should Taste Good are thick and crunchy and delicious with sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and quinoa. They’re fabulous for nachos! They’re sturdy enough to hold a whole lot in the way of toppings, and they’re perfectly salted for my tastes.

 

8). Siete Cashew Queso (Mild Nacho).

 

 

Ingredients: Water, Cashews, Tomatoes, Carrots, Green Bell Peppers, Nutritional Yeast, Sea Salt, Distilled White Vinegar, Flax Seed, Fermented Extract (Oregano, Flax Seed, and Plum), Coconut Milk Powder, Lactic Acid, Onion Powder, Tomato Powder, Garlic Powder

The texture of this cashew queso may not be quite what you’re used to in a dairy queso, but its flavor is outstanding. This queso with the blue corn tortilla chips above make a wonderful plate of movie theater/convenience store/sports arena-style nachos, even more so when I pile them up with jalapeño peppers, as I always do.

 

9). Sweet Earth Spicy Kung Pao Plant-Based Jerky.

 

 

Ingredients: VITAL WHEAT GLUTEN, WATER, SOY SAUCE (WATER, SOYBEANS, WHEAT, SALT, ALCOHOL), SESAME OIL, GARLIC, GINGER PUREE (GINGER, WATER, CITRIC ACID), SUGAR, NATURAL FLAVORS, 2% OR LESS OF TOASTED SESAME SEEDS, VINEGAR, SZECHUAN PEPPERCORNS, YEAST EXTRACT, SPICES, SALT, CALCIUM LACTATE, LACTIC ACID, SUCCINIC ACID

(All in caps because I copied/pasted the text from the company’s website.)

This is an amazing vegan jerky! I swear to you that if you were to eat this jerky blind, you wouldn’t even suspect that it’s not animal meat. It’s faintly spicy, with the subtle heat developing in the aftertaste.

 

10). Pacifica Natural Origins High Vibration and Cosmosis Perfumes. (Vegan and cruelty-free)

 

 

I mentioned these fragrances earlier in October, and I’ve been enjoying them ever since… the sandalwood (High Vibrations) and vanilla (Cosmosis) ones, that is. A co-worker’s assessment is that I now smell like sugary cinnamon, as I’m still using the vanilla-scented hairspray that everyone says makes me smell like sugar cookies. It’s the sandalwood scent that they’re catching on top of the vanilla. I love it, too.

 

11). JASON Softening Cocoa Butter Hand & Body Lotion.

 

 

I had a Shea Moisture body lotion on a “favorites” list not long ago, and it turned out to be one of those favorite little things that ultimately didn’t work out. It was wonderful at first! It was fabulous until the lotion became separated and required shaking to reintegrate… and after that, it was so thick that it wasn’t coming out of the bottle. At the same time, its scent turned bad. It was weird how it became unusable all of a sudden.

All of this to say that I had to go looking for a replacement, and I’m super digging this JASON product that I picked up from the beauty aisle at the grocery store. I love its scent as much as I did the Shea Moisture one’s before it went bad, and I prefer its consistency over the Shea Moisture’s.

 

This brings us to the end, my friends. I’m sitting here in the wee hours of Sunday morning, falling asleep. I have a feeling that I’ll be offline most of the day when I wake up, because I’ve got the new Jack Reacher novel sitting here on my desk. Priorities!