So Much to Celebrate!

Yikes -- so its been a few weeks, huh? My bad, I know. My excuse for the lack of posting, while lame, is still legit. At first, I was super busy planning and executing a Halloween bash where I actually cooked food!! And then, after taking many photos of my culinary triumphs for blog-posting . . . I discovered that my camera battery charger has gone missing. So for now, you are going to get all the fun of my party updating without the awesome visuals. I apologize!

So those who know me know that Halloween is one of my top 3 favorite holidays. Seriously, what's not to love about dressing up, shoveling in free candy and scaring the shit out of your friends? These are favorite pastimes of mine any day of the year -- so the fact that there's an official holiday involving all 3 is amazing. This year, I decided to invite the posse over for some nibbles and drinks before heading up the street to our favorite dive / karaoke hangout for costumed karaoke insanity! My menu was pretty ambitious for a girl who never cooks, but I figured if it turned out disastrously I could simply pretend that I was trying to frighten them with terrible food on purpose.

Halloween Menu!

A variety of dips, chips and veggies, including a white bean dip recipe I pilfered from the girls at We Are Not Martha

Bruschetta made with fresh bread from the Copley Farmers Market

"Mummified Coconut Shrimp" . . . I cheated with this one and bought pre-made frozen coconut shrimp . . . I haven't quite worked my way up to frying seafood . . . yet.

Hellishly Hot Buffalo Chicken Fingers . . . Again, I bought frozen chicken fingers and some buffalo hot sauce -- nothing like some fried poultry to balance out an insane sugar high!

Sweet Potato Casserole! This was the dish I was most proud of -- made entirely from scratch for the first time ever -- and I had no leftovers!! A good sign!

Cornbread . . . made from a Trader Joe's mix, but it was yuuuummy nonetheless!

Salad with walnuts, cranberries and fresh farmer's market goat cheese . . . I forgot to put this out! So if anyone needs a log of fresh goat cheese, let me know.


Amy Sedaris' Original CUPCAKES!! . . . I have made these before, and I have to say this probably wasn't my best batch. That might be because I ran out of vanilla extract Thursday night at around midnight, so I had to put the batter in the fridge and leave it for the next day. Also, my $15 hand mixer from Target doesn't always do the best job of getting batter completely smooth . . . but even still, I loooove this cupcake recipe almost as much as I love Amy Sedaris (who inspired my Halloween costume!)

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies . . . these were also a homage to the girls over at We Are Not Martha . . . Chelsee brought me one a few weeks ago and I decided to attempt them myself! They didn't come out quite as fudgy as Chelsee's . . but for a first attempt, they weren't too bad.


This exercise in cooking for more than one person also showed just how miserably ill-equipped my kitchen is. Mama G, who I recruited to come be my emotional support during the party prep, was horrified by my lack of mixing bowls, counter space, etc. I also apparently only have one oven mitt, which makes taking a giant tray of brownies out of the oven really hard!! Hopefully I will get some kitchen tools for Christmas . . . and in the meantime, I need to get myself a new camera charger so I can share my photos with the world!

So the Season of Celebration is almost upon us! Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's -- oh my!! I will be working hard to strike a balance between maintaining my healthy lifestyle and improving my mad culinary skillz!

And finally, one more thing we should all be celebrating:



Hail to the Chief, people!!