Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween! For me, this holiday has a routine all its own. I clean the house, decorate with orange and black, strategically place pumpkins around the house, move the "Sit a Spell" chair to the front porch, put the treats in a bowl, and turn on all the lights so people know we welcome trick or treaters. And I wait. And wait. And wait. Until I finally realize that we're probably not going to have trick or treaters. Fast forward one year and repeat. However, this year I did have a break in the routine. One little lion came to visit right before the sun went down. Piper, in her "tricks for treats" shirt, was quite excited to see the little lion and gave him a big lick (which resulted in her being sent back into the house, even though she was being very nice about it) to go with the goldfish crackers.

Fully knowing the Halloween routine, I made some special treats so I wouldn't be tempted to eat goldfish crackers and butterfingers all evening while I wait. Fortunately, there was a new post on Orangette this week for Chewy Cocoa Cookies, which Orangette's author, Molly, describes as "kind of low-fat." Perfect.

And perfect they are. The Orangette version look a little nicer than mine, so I decided some powdered sugar would help. I also made a few adaptations to the recipe (I used vanilla yogurt and kosher salt . . . this recipe isn't the best candidate for kosher salt, unless you really like salt).

Yesterday, I got a little pre-Halloween treat from Ken's Aunt Marie. She gave me three plates that belonged to Ken's grandma . . . just in time to use them to show off my cookies. And my mom made me a little care package, which included the ghost towels in the picture. When you are blessed with great family and you have a plate full of perfect chocolate cookies, who needs trick or treaters anyway?