SPOOOOOOKIEST COOKIES.

It was a dark and chocolate night....

Cleo and I needed a treat last night. This year we're spending halloween all on our lonesome since R is away on band tour and my dress-up friends are visiting New York, boo hoo for us. Lucky these cookies help soothe a couple lonely girls while also containing the requisite orange and black of the season. Essentially just chocolate chip cookies with the addition of sweet/sour, chewy dried apricots, these babies have quickly become my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe of all.

First start with some good chocolate. I like to use super dark, bitter bars but regular chocolate chips work fine and I've even used chopped-up leftover chocolate truffles at christmas which made for some truly amazing cookies.

Next some apricots. The best kind to use are the brown, wrinkly organic ones which have not been treated with sulpher dioxide, but my little local grocery only had the plump sunmaid variety. Oh well, the colour's right.

Chop up 1 1/2 - 2 cups of chocolate and 1/2 cup dried apricots.

Measure out 2 cups of flour and add 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt. Meanwhile melt 3/4 cup butter (you could certainly use margerine but I use butter because butteriness is next to godliness) and let it cool slightly. To the melted butter add 1 cup packed brown sugar. Beat an egg and add to the sugar/butter mixture (+ an extra yolk if you have one, if not don't worry about it). Also add 1TB of vanilla (and PLEASE, if anyone is going to Mexico in the near future, I am almost out of vanilla and in desperate need of more. Bring home vanilla!). Beat lightly.

Add dry ingredients to the wet until just combined and gently mix in chocolate and apricots. Oh, and you should've pre-heated your oven to 325 and lined some cookie sheets with parchment. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets, spaced at least 1 1/2" apart and cook for 12 minutes. You should end up with about 16-18 cookies.

And if you're like me, you'll eat them for breakfast the next morning. Be like me, do the breakfast cookie thing, it's fantastic. On the other hand, DO NOT be like me if you feel the urge to watch Paranormal Activity right before bed the day before halloween. Watching a film about a demonic presence literally making things go bump in the night when you're home alone for two weeks in a relatively new apartment? And it's 100 years old? And the plumbing's not great? And you've just turned the furnace on for the first time? Yeah, great idea dummy.

A DISH BEST SERVED BLOODY

There is a certain sort of film I like more than most any other. Perhaps it stems from my fierce sagittarian pursuit of justice, or maybe it has to do with vicariously avenging petty wrongs committed me in my bullied youth. Could be I'm just really insecure, good at remembering every negative in life and equipped with an ever-present thirst for power, POWER!

Whatever the case, my favorite story in film is often that of pure, unflinching revenge.

I adore She-devil, The Witches of Eastwick is like candy to me. The scene in Braveheart where William Wallace slits the English lord's throat delights. I've seen the Bourne trilogy a million times and Once Upon a Time in the West is a personal favorite (the soundtrack is on constant rotation in my studio.) Taken was fantastic, who doesn't love a good middle-aged ass-kicking, and Oldboy? genius insanity. Phantom of the Pardise pairs high camp tragedy with complementary brutal retaliation and Straws Dogs is a violent fantasy of vengeance. The list goes on and on.

However in my book the world's best revenge film remains Brian de Palma's 1976 classic Carrie, aka: the greatest revenge story ever told. Every element is there: teenage angst, religious fanaticism, maudlin emotional highs and painful pubertal lows, oh, did I mention telekinesis?
In honor of Halloween, and just cause it makes me happy, here's the entire climatic finale via our friends at youtube, enjoy:

HALIFAX MINI-BREAK

R and I enjoyed a mini-break in Halifax last weekend while his band, The Famines, participated in the Halifax Pop Explosion. 28 hours of driving for 35 hours of visiting time, retarded right? Anyway, it was really nice to go back to Halifax, however short the stay. I hadn't been there since 1999 when I visited a friend attending NSCAD......and whoosh, seems 11 years of my life flew by just like that.

We stayed with friends of Garrett's, Zane and Alexis, who have a fantastic condo in a 100 year old schoolhouse just across the water on the Dalhousie side. Zane owns a really special cafe called 'Two If By Sea' a few blocks away from their house and we were treated to amazing homemade croissants and perfect americanos both mornings of our stay.

As with most port cities, my favorite time was spent with my honey, wandering along the wharf, smelling the sea, watching the boats sail by.

Gulls.

Gull snacks.

Mmmmm. Breakfast Seafood.

And, of course, shenanigans.

Necessary Evils

Ever since we moved out to Montreal people have been telling me what to expect in the winter. It's cold, wet, dark, grey, sleety, icy, bone-chilling, evil. They'll tell me this over and over till I'm like, OK, I get it, it's gonna be hell. Their response is always 'no, you don't even get it'.

Now, I know that I'm spoiled coming from Alberta with it's dry, sunny, snowy winters, and I know that Montreal winter is gonna be a shock and I'll probably just stay inside for four months straight, but dudes, I'm queen of the pessimistic imagination, I GET it.

So anyway, I bought new boots in preparation, I needed to in fact as I gave all my winter boots away before I left Edmonton. I actually ordered them online from LL Bean which kindof makes me feel like a super-nerd, but they just seemed like the perfect thing to make a wet and freezing winter palatable. And hey, did you know that LL Beans come in AA widths? Well now you do! So now I'm basically just waiting for a chance to wear them, though I'm told that the real snow doesn't start here till Christmas. In the meantime they've become my new work slippers as I refuse to turn on the heat till November.

I feel like Martha Stewart and I should be trekking through the back 40 or something.

A NEW ADDITION

The bf and I got a new kitten yesterday. We are in love. Our adult cat Ruby is not, but she'll get there.

JOYRIDE

So as Mary mentioned, the two of us, as well as the hubby and the bro, enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with the Shanks and Galway families just east of Kingston this past Saturday. The food was delish and it was lovely to spend time with a side of the family we rarely get to see, even if they are merciless teasers. The best part of the visit though? Golf cart joyride, of course! RB, Patrick, Mary and I borrowed two golf carts and rode them all over the family golf course, so much fun!

The golf course and clubhouse themselves are very beautiful - rustic and rolling and green.

We started out with Mary and Patrick in one cart, and RB and myself in the other.

And then we switched.

And then, wait for it, Mary took the wheel. This is the first time Mary has driven.... EVER! Look how much fun she's having.

Afterward we walked across the street to Ruth and Keith's farm where we explored the barn and met a friendly sheepdog. It was just a beautiful day.

MONTREAL + FAMILY

This year's Thanksgiving holiday I was lucky enough to get to spend time at Elizabeth and RB's new apartment in Montreal. It was my first time in Montreal and was made extra special because our brother was also able to make it down. Our thanksgiving dinner was spent at our second (?) cousin's Golf course near Kingston, Ontario and we will have some fun photos of that to share with you soon. Elizabeth and RB were great hosts, taking us on fun walking and driving tours of Montreal's highlights. (Thank-you!)

These photos are from us walking around the old Expo '67 grounds.

(Elizabeth showing us all how she can fit between the bars)

LITTLE GEMS

Mary's visiting Montreal from Vancouver right now and we took advantage of the grey, rainy weather yesterday to have a little sunshine party at home. First we trekked north to Jean Talon market in search of strawberries and peaches, then home again for lazy afternoon jam making and scary movie viewing. I use the term 'jam' loosely as our end product is much more a strawberry preserve, still, sweet, sunshiney and delicious. Ain't we domestic?