Dolphin’s Dock

Speaking of the party, we had a smaller than normal crowd this year (I think because we held it on a Friday since a bust October schedule prevented us from having a free Saturday night), but it was still a good time. This year I decided I was going to bake pretty much all the food for the party myself. Bad idea. It’s not that the food wasn’t good, but I took the day off to prepare for it and still didn’t have time to get everything done. After baking and cleaning, I managed to not get much more decorating done than the food table, placing a skull on the mantle, exchanging the white tea lights in the tea light holder with orange and black ones, and hanging a skeleton on the door. And I didn’t even have time to go get changed until the first two guests had already arrived!

The baked good I was most proud of and the was certainly most popular (both in terms of the amount eaten and the talk generated) were these “Witch’s Fingers” cookies. They looked so great coming out of the oven that I told TheBoyfriend™ that I sure hoped they tasted good because they looked so good that I plan on making them every Halloween from now on regardless. They actually ended up tasting good too (they are like an almond/butter/shortbread cookie), though some guests couldn’t bring themselves to try one. When you Halloween food looks gross enough to prevent people from trying it, it’s good stuff!

The next evening we attended a costume party hosted by our Jiu-Jitsu instructor. For this I carved our the patch on our school’s Jiu-Jitsu gis into a pumpkin. That was really well-received by fellow Jiu-Jitsu students and (surprisingly to me) non-Jiu-Jitsu students alike. I was surprised at just how much attention that jack-o-lantern actually drew. Our costumes which we’re really thrown together at the last minutes were also the talk of the evening it seems. Last year we attended as “Peace and Quiet” (a hippie and a mime), which everybody thought was great. This year, despite racking our brains, we couldn’t figure out a way to top it. TheBoyfriend™ found a unique costume at Kroger (of all places) for what he thought was only $4.99 (it was in the wrong spot, it was actually $12.99), so he bought it. It was an Elvis costume, but the catch was (if I can possibly describe it clearly) that it fit over the top of your head like a mask (stopping just before your nose) then the entire body wrapped around your neck and clasped in the front. The effect, wearing all black so that your body seemingly disappeared, was an Elvis with a tiny body and a full size head. I’m not much a fan of unaltered store-bought costumes and was hoping to still figure something out. But when it came time to leave and i still didn’t have anything fully created, an executive decision was made; I too would be attending as some small-bodied, big headed character. When we got to Kroger, the creativity kicked in. His Elvis was dressed in all white. They had a devilish character in all red. Slicing off the Elvis mask’s rubber sideburns and making a quick trip to Michael’s Arts and Crafts for a small set of wings and a halo turned Elvis into quite the convincing angel. Hence, as a floating miniature Angel and a floating miniature devil, we set off to the party as a great representation of a conscience (the little angel on one should and devil on the other). I don’t know how many pictures we posed for that night with one of us on either side of another party-goer’s head. Even people we didn’t know were asking to take a picture with us. I’d post one, but for all the pictures that were taken that night, we don’t have one.

I’ll post tonight’s Jack-o-Lantern once it’s carved. Have a happy, spooky, and safe Halloween!

It’s a strawberry pie. The crust is a combination of almonds and dates ripped apart and mushed together in a juicer. On top of that, a layer of sliced bananas, followed by the filling of the pie. The filling is a combination of banana, kiwi and strawberry blended together. The recipe also called for currant (which I had to google) to thicken the filling up, but I couldn’t find any so my pie is runny but good. I did forget to squeeze some lemon juice in there though and I think that’s a shame because the sourness of the lemon would have made a good contrast to the sweetness of the strawberry and kiwi. One the filling was down it was another layer of sliced bananas, a layer of sliced strawberries and finally a layer of sliced kiwi. It admittedly felt very strange to lay the last slice of kiwi on the top and be “done.” I’m too used to putting something in the oven after it’s been prepared so it felt alot like I wasn’t really done with it yet. But it was good!