Mission accomplished!!!
Okay, let me back up a bit. Â This weekend, I discussed my Halloween mission with my dear husband, who pointed out that homemade cookies would turn into homemade cookie dust in a trick-or-treat bag. Â So, I decided to give away homemade cookies to kids who wanted to eat one immediately, and give away candy for their goody bag.
This afternoon, I whipped out my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and a bag of Toll House chocolate chips. Â Following the recipe on the bag, I made a double batch of cookie dough. Â After the first batch of cookies expanded too much, I changed the baking method to create cookie bars.
Then, I waited. Â Usually, we have a small horde of preschoolers show up between 4:00pm and 5:00pm, dressed up as ladybugs and firefighters and accompanied by their moms. Â Today, no one showed. Â Not one single kid knocked on our door between 4:00pm and 6:00pm. Â If fact, it was almost 7:00pm before we got the very first trick-or-treaters for the night.
However, once we had trick-or-treaters, everything went smoothly. Â We gave out homemade chocolate chip cookies to the trick-or-treaters to eat now (with permission from the parents for the wee ones), as well as giving out candy to take home for later. Â Not only did we run out of cookies, but a friend of my son who was not going trick-or-treating called us, asking if we still had cookies left. Â He was going out to trick-or-treat at our house, just to get a cookie!
No one called the cops. Â No one accused us of attempting to poison their children. Â And all the children enjoyed the cookies. Â In fact, given the feedback we've gotten so far, I think we may make this a new Halloween tradition.
- Kathryn Patterson