I think this holiday is just getting longer. My babysitter said there is talk, though I haven't read too much of it in the NYTimes, of Halloween saving our economy. Well, I think I've spent $25, total, on candy, a costume, and some food colorings for cookies.
Yep, we just made Halloween cookies--pumpkins, cats, bats, and moons. We made the cookies yesterday, always the hardest part for us. The kiddos are impatient as the dough firms up in the fridge for half an hour. And then, they don't really understand the art of cutting cookies, which means the cookie cutter goes down plonk! in the dough with no room for others, so we do a lot of rolling out, which means the dough gets warm, which means it goes back in the fridge (even though we work in quarter batches). But this is supposed to be fun so I try not to be too concerned about how we cut out cookies.
Or decorate, which was today's operation. We hadn't made buttercream frosting before and it is such fun to cream butter and sugar, especially if we add my special Penzey's vanilla. Then I broke out the new colors! Wow. Orange, brown, green, yellow. Sure. But then requests for pink and blue. Why not? Even if I couldn't fathom what Halloween decorations are traditionally pink. Bud took on the moon, Sis did the cats. I did the pumpkins. And how different we all were. I got out my decorating set and practiced piping faces on regular orange pumpkins, some with a little orange-colored sugar. Then we all had a hand at piping. Sis was very meticulous in her icing and one-by-one addition of sprinkles. She piped faces on her cats. Bud, well, took what Pop would call the shotgun approach. Pile it on, it's bound to hit something. By the end of it, I was looking at his plate . . . for the cookie! I touched some of the sprinkles and jimmies and non-pareils and colored sugars, and Bud said, distinctly, "Don't dig for the cookie!" He has three huge plates of decorations. And only that much because we ran out. Sis exclaimed over everyone's cookies, "They're beautiful. They're so decorated. How fancy!"
And when I bit into a leftover moon and tried to share so they could actually taste what we were making, Bud was hysterical, "Those. Aren't. For. Eating! They're. For. Decorating!" He was inconsolable, even though I scraped off one of my moons and handed it to him to decorate. Luckily, I found a bottle of sprinkles lurking in the cupboard so he actually has something to dump on it.
All's well that ends well. They are playing trick-or-treat with their new candy bags. I took plain canvas bags from the craft store, stencilled on their names, and then drew representations of what they had been for their first four holidays, with space to add more until they are too embarrassed to carry these homemade bags. Sis was a cat, a gnome, Baby Jaguar, and now a vet. Bud was a pumpkin, a gnome, Mama Jaguar, and now a Yankees baseball player. We've been looking at pictures from their first Halloween since Gommie brought one and they are amazed at how small they were, especially when we pulled out the original one-piece jumpers and little hat (at which point, no surprise, I went to boo-hooing.)
And as they started to play with the food and candy they'd stacked around the house for trick-or-treat stops, Bud asked me what Halloween was. And I realized there isn't an easy answer to that, because it's not just about candy. But I have three days to come up with a good answer.
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Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs
½ cup oleo or butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon vanilla
Cream together oleo/butter, sugar, and egg. Add salt, baking powder, flour, and vanilla.
**My additions: divide dough into 2 balls, flatten, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Roll out ½ of 1 ball at a time, approximately ¼” thick. Tania suggests refrigerate the baking sheet or silpat as well. Cut cookies.
Bake at 400F for 8-10 minutes on greased cookie sheet. (let cool 4-5 minutes)
Miss Tobi
Buttercream Frosting
1/3 cup butter/oleo
4 ½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat butter. Add 2 cups sugar. Beat in milk and vanilla. Add the rest of the sugar. Chill up to 1 week.
*For colors, separate into as many bowls as colors needed. Add color by toothpick and stir.
adapted from Church Miss L's mom
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