Halloween Cookies

So easy, even a husband, two boys, and a crying baby can make them! As I sit here icing my back (the cold kind, not the yummy kind), my dear husband is making these cookies with the boys. They love putting the candy on. So much for blogging about food in order to inspire myself to cook it.

We never did much trick or treating growing up. For one thing, we lived on a dead end dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Our Halloween tradition primarily consisted of carving a jack o lantern and celebrating the day after with deeply discounted candy. But, in later years, my mom found this recipe, and we had it every year.

I will admit, I just love how candy corn looks... and just hate how it tastes. I pick the candy corns off my cookies to eat the cookie alone, but usually there are others around who would just assume have more candy corn, so, everyone ends up happy. We didn't this year, but some years we buy those candycorn pumpkins and cut the tops off and put them in the middle. The candy lovers like the remains.

Maybe these are a little late for making on Halloween, but they could just as easily be "harvest cookies" for Thanksgiving.

And tomorrow...all the candy corn will be on sale.


Halloween Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar (I use evaporated cane juice)
1 cup brown sugar (I use sucanat)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups oats***
2 cups flour (I use white whole wheat)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1.4 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup rice cereal
Candy Corn

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

***Take 1/2 of the oats and put in a blender about half a cup at a time and blend until it is like flour. Combine oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add cocoa, vanilla and eggs--beat well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in cereal.

Drop by rounded tablespoon (we use about two, typically) onto prepared cookie sheet (we like to use parchment). Bake 12-15 minutes (we switch and turn the pans halfway through). Immediately after removing from the oven, press 3-4 pieces of candy corn onto the tops of cookies (one if you made smaller ones). Let stand for a minute on cookie sheet before removing to racks to cool. Store in an airtight container. Makes 5 dozen small cookies or 2 1/2 dozen larger ones.

My mother suggested doubling the recipe and freezing half the dough for another day. We cooked a doubled recipe because they are for a party.

I've never made it this way, but the recipe also says you can choose not to add cocoa and add 1 cup candy coated chocolate pieces or chopped pecans to the dough before stirring in the cereal.

Shiny Food

Do you know what it is? The three year old requested it for dinner since we had it for lunch.


We've also had pizza this week, and my kitchen has been a disaster. Just trying to utilize this whole accountability thing I mentioned.

In my defense, I fell down the basement stairs this week, and today back my has finally succumbed to the spasms and stress and is no longer simply "aching." I also spent a lot of time on saints costumes.

I managed to serve a roast chicken with rice AND roasted acorn squash. The roasted squash is a culinary step up from the frozen peas I usually serve as a side, and it was nice having the easy leftovers to make the soup.

Ironically, my injuries mean I cannot prepare food, but I am stuck and might as well blog about it. So, perhaps I will have a chance to formalize some seasonal plans and type up some favorite recipes to share.

It is hard to hear the pot boil when its raining...

Yesterday, I made this profound observation to my husband as I was making beef stew while it poured buckets outside. I suggested it would make a fun title for my food blog. My husband didn't really think it was funny, but fortunately I had a three year old willing to chime in with, "you're funny, Mom" so my self-esteem remained intact.

Still, it got me thinking. Hmmm...a food blog. Not just to make a lame joke my husband won't laugh at, but it might help me think about and plan for our meals as well as share a bit of my inherited wisdom with others. I've struggled lately with cooking. My mother was well known for her cooking and baking, and for most of my life I have carried this skill and love with me. Lately, though, I've struggled with meal preparation as more of a chore than the expression of creativity and loving nurture I've known it to be. I'm not ready to succumb to accepting cooking as mere drudgery--not yet anyway!

I lost my mother unexpectedly 3 1/2 years ago while I was expecting my second son. The times I miss her most but also have some of my most vivid memories are in the kitchen. Perhaps this is both why my passion for cooking has fizzled a bit and why I am determined to relight the fire.

The first step to starting a blog, of course, is the title. My husband nixed my first idea, but I've often chuckled over the Chesterton quote:

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Admittedly, cheese is not very poetic, and yet, it is so very good. How can such a such a perfect food be unsuitable for verse? One theory I have is it's because it is just too good for words, and they simply cannot express its sublimity. Whatever the reason, I am reminded that the poets are mysteriously silent about much of what might constitute my own culinary experiences as a mother of little ones. And yet, the spirit of what is communicated in a meal through the loving preparation, the pleasure of taste, and its communal nature is truly beautiful.

Creating this beautiful thing for my family (and nurturing my own soul in the process) must involve many prosaic things like spills and stains, peels and pith, gristle and grease, burns and backaches, cuts and crumbs, meat raw or rancid, dirty dishes, and of course, cheese. I must become ever more efficient and diligent so that the irksome and ordinary might bring forth the things that will comfort and inspire my family. This is true of many things as a homemaker, but this is especially true regarding food and the sharing of meals.

My hope is that having a place to muse over menus, recipes, and share my experiences and insights from my life in my kitchen will be a source of joy as well as accountability that can help me hold onto my love of cooking and perhaps encourage others in the process.