Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Unfortunately, I am not spending the holiday at home, waiting for trick or treaters.  I guess I will have to check with the boys to see if any kids show up.  I have been stuck in DC for the last few days due to Hurricane Sandy.  At least I got plenty of use out of my Pumpkin Shirt while I have been here!

At least a few days inside led to some super tasty treats.  I made homemade ice cream sandwiches Sandy-wiches for my friends who let me stay with them while I waited until I could get a flight.  I used the regular old Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, but halfway through baking I took the tray out of the oven and banged it on the open oven door to flatten the cookies out and make them extra crispy.  It's my mom's college roommate's trick and the key to her amazing cookies. (Although mine never come out quite as good as hers).

My friends don't have a standing or hand mixer, so I actually made the dough totally by hand (don't worry, we didn't lose power from Sandy, but I would have been prepared!).  In a bit of kitchen trickery, I used a lemon juicer (like this) to cream the butter and sugar.  It actually worked amazingly well!  While the cookies were still a little bit warm, I put blackberry ice cream between 2 cookies and wrapped them in Saran then threw them in the freezer for an hour or two.  They came out perfectly!



We finally escaped the storm on Tuesday night and made it to the restaurant where the Monkey Scientist and I had our first restaurant date - Nam Viet - for some delicious Pho.  It hit the spot on a cool, rainy evening.

It's been great being back in DC - I had missed it (and my camp friend) a lot - but I'm ready to head back to Chicago.  Cross your fingers that I make it back tomorrow!

Have a great Halloween!