When I think of Halloween, I think hot dogs. People tend to find this
association odd, some are even angered by it, but to me it feels
perfectly natural. When I was younger, my mother used to grill hot
dogs in our driveway for the trick or treaters and dole out beer in red
plastic cups to the adults, providing a bit of a respite for parents
whose kids were running around the neighborhood injected with copious
amounts of sugar.
I was never much of a walker and I never got off on
travelling in packs (why I live in New York I don't know), but
even more importantly, I loved and still adore a good hot dog.
Essentially, this ritual made my Halloween quite perfect.
The ritual ended, sadly, when I moved to New York to go to
college. There are very few driveways in Manhattan, and there is a bar
or a Gray's Papaya on every street corner, so if people need a beer or
a frank, they are basically set year round. Nobody shared my passion
for hot dogs at Halloween, unless they were terribly after drunk taking
too many orange jello shots at some themed downtown party, in which
case that little beef wonder became something of a valuable commodity,
a bonafide savior in fact.
There are some cookies that are destined to become a holiday tradition. In my family's case, the traditional cookies were those that had become favorites -- my dad loved the thumbprints that his mom made each year and then they became my favorite. My brother loved the Chocolate Shot Cookies.
Last week while visiting with our banker (yes, there are some things you just have to actually go inside a bank branch, apparently) we got on the topic of food. Naturally. We were trading names of favorite restaurants, talking about the holidays, when our banker mentioned how he couldn’t wait to enjoy his family’s Christmas coquito.
Like the perfume of freshly squeezed orange juice or the whisps of flavor that float on the air when chicken soup is simmering, the smell of melting chocolate and almonds softens my resolve not to eat just one of what I am planning to make: chocolate rocks.
These have to be one of the quintessential Christmas cookies. They are known by many names but Mexican Wedding Cookie seems to be the most common.