Friday, November 03, 2006

Is it Kooky or Cookie?

I'm going to share something with you all. Don't worry. It's not a secret or anything. Everyone else already knows. I don't like Halloween. I'm sorry. It's the truth. I used to like it when I was young and on the receiving end of the loot. I liked going to all of the neighbors for hours and hours and at each house they would try to guess who we were under the masks. One of the neighbors always had home made candy and caramel apples for everyone. My mom used to dress up and go just to that house with us because they wouldn't ever just send one home with us for her. It was fun and we dressed up as hobo's, gift boxes, clowns, old people...You get the idea. Not very scary. Like I said in my Stuff You Don't Care About Meme, I don't like to be scared because it's scary.

I feel like there are a lot more scary and bloody and gross costumes now. Maybe not. Maybe I'm just getting old.

So, we went uptown on Monday night. They were having trick or treating at the stores. I know. It wasn't Halloween yet. Don't ask me why they chose Monday but the kids dressed up and we went. I took no pictures. Ryan was spider man and Maggie was the Little Mermaid.

Yes, I bought the costumes this year. With buying the store and Rhinebeck and laundry and homeschool there was no time for homemade costumes. Thank goodness for Target.

So on Tuesday, to save me from answering the door and seeing scary people there, we went to Dana's house for dinner and baking. She lives in the woods. Nobody came to collect candy.


Here she is rolling out the dough for the cookies. Can you see the little dowels on each side of the dough? That's to keep the dough the same thickness for cutting. Kirstynn - the daughter and new mom - saw that on the Food Network. Ingenious. Dana is very beautiful in real life. I'm going to get killed for this picture, I know.

Here is our work area. Cookies are baked in 3 different sizes and then iced. The cookies are then stacked and glued together with more icing. Three big ones. Three medium sized ones. Two tiny ones. A little spritz with water and some clear decorating sugar is sprinkled on for sparkle.

Here are some of the finished product. Voila. Mini Wedding Cakes. There is a shower this Saturday for her soon to be daughter-in-law. Every guest gets one of these - 50 all together - in a clear box tied with beautiful polka dot ribbon. 50 guests. That's 400 cookies to bake if you're counting. We did about half on Tuesday night and Dana and Kirstynn finished them on Wednesday. Last night was boxing night. Not to be confused with Canada's Boxing DAY.


Here's the glamour shot. The pillow says "If it's not one thing, It's your mother" Maggie likes to make sure that Penny is warm.
I'm sick by the way. Congestion, headache, sore throat. It needs to go away. I have to be in the store tomorrow. It's our first Saturday in a long time and the first Saturday of new ownership.
I'll get some pictures up of the shop shortly because I need some direction with organizing. You've seen my sewing room, remember?

3 comments:

hesira said...

That's a great idea for keeping the cookies the same thickness. I'm going to use it!

Sorry you're sick, I hope you get better. Good luck on Saturday. If I lived anywhere near you, I'd drop in.

Kate A. said...

I've been feeling the same way about Halloween since the last time I trick-or-treated myself - when my friends and I were set upon by a gang of much older boys with BB guns! Luckily, we ran straight to the nearest neighbor, who took us in and gave us hot choc. until our parents picked us up. It would probably have been my last year of it anyway, but it left me with a bad feeling about how things had changed since I had first gone out, with my mom when I was 5 or so, and felt completely free and safe in my own neighborhood. Those first scandals about people giving out drugged apples and so on happened around my middle years of trick-or-treating and it really did feel like a sea change in the whole holiday...everybody became suspicious of everyone else, and then the crazies came out of the woodwork. Where's FDR when you need him???

I've generally been feeling very grumpy (and OLD) by thinking that life really was better - or at least a lot simpler - when I was a kid. That probably explains my last post. Or maybe I'm just disgruntled because the one trick or treater we got this year (first one in NYC) was more of a trick on us - it was some older kids who tried their best to knock the door down and generally scare the shit out of us. Not my idea of a holiday.

Sigh. Those cookies are amazing as little wedding cakes - ingenius! And good luck with that cold! I'm fighting mine, too. I don't think it's hit full-blown yet, but I can feel it hovering....

Anonymous said...

I don't like Halloween either. To me it is one of those non entity Holidays. Maybe because here in the UK it is relativly new and used by the older children to create Mischief like throwing eggs and such. It is a shame it could be so much fun.
Those cake/cookies are amazing and I bet they taste fantastic.
Sorry your not feeling well..It's the time of year i guess