sugar rush

oh halloween.

favorite holiday? maybe. but i say a lot of things are my favorite so that word doesn't hold very much weight.

most memorable holiday? most definitely.

in elementary school it was all about the costumes {made by mom, of course}: snow white, rocker barbie {not her real name and it's killing me because she was my favorite}, wilma flintstone, catwoman.

middle school came with more specific memories attached to the costumes: a mod lady, britney spears {"what's a britney spear?"} & a she-devil {and the fire ants that got stuck in my fishnets}.

dressing up continued into high school and made the usual sexy turn in college {where i was a pirate, dorothy, and a gangster}.

one halloween tradition that escaped was the unadulterated consumption of candy. {i was rationing from an early age. my stash was going to last longer than anyone else's.}

don't get me wrong, i did the candy swap and indulged a little, just never full overload.

this year i told myself all bets are off.

i laid down some ground rules {who am i without rules, really?}. i can eat as much as i want. {i don't have to be healthy today, it's halloween. plus, if i really want to, i can work in the healthy around the candy.} i have to stick to what you get trick-or-treating. no fancy trader joe's peanut butter cups. no chocolate covered espresso beans. snickers, heath bars, almond joys, reese's peanut butter cups. one of my favorites was always the caramel apple lollipop, and, fortunately, i have had one on hand.

{the one exception to the trick-or-treat candy rule: gummy candy corn from williams-sonoma. i don't like the original and it's so connected to halloween, it must be included}

the candy plan was going fine...until my body realized something wasn't quite normal. my tummy didn't feel so hot. i really hadn't had much candy. just more than i ever eat. still, not much.

i guess that's how kids feel if they're the type to plow through their candy bags in one go. i guess i'll take that into consideration for next year.

and now i'm just left with a huge stash...well, truth be told i had an unconsumed candy stockpile. so really i'm not far from where i started.

{please note: i am in no way saying that i'm done with candy for the day}

in addition to costumes and candy, i love the pumpkin tradition.

nothing quite says halloween like carving a pumpkin and roasting the seeds.

hubby-to-be and i planned on picking one up from the grocer last weekend {not from a patch, though that would be my childlike preference}. unfortunately, we were out in the pre-noreaster raininess and the only pumpkins out were cold and wet and so was i so my desire wavered.

instead i made seasonal baked goods to represent the missing pumpkin.

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (from the knead for speed).

and pumpkin pecan scones.

the cookies were one of the weirdest recipes i've worked from. and good grief were they labor intensive. reducing pumpkin puree was quite a feat. and i don't know if i can quite say that i was doing it right.

my cookies also didn't turn out nearly as beautifully as the did on knead for speed.

what i can say is: they were delicious.

pumpkin-y. chocolate chipp-y. pie spice-y. delicious.

though not a carved pumpkin, they're perfect warm up for halloween.