IF—and the big question is IF—you have any Halloween candy left, here’s a fun idea for cookies. My husband made these at my request, trying everything from candy corn to Snickers bars. The chocolate based candies work MUCH better. Who knew candy corn melts so easily?

INGREDIENTS

1 cup salted butter, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon salt

½ cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 ½ cups chopped leftover Halloween candy (preferably chocolate based like Milky Ways and Snickers)

¼ black and orange sprinkles for decoration

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment or silpat) two baking sheets

Melt butter. Add sugars, vanilla and let cool. Add eggs and mix together.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Chop the Halloween candy into small pieces. Add to the flour mixture along with the chocolate chips. Mix until well combined.

Add the melted butter/sugar mixture into the flour mixture and combine well.

Roll cookies into 1” balls. Leave at least 1 ½” between cookies because they spread. Chill in fridge for 10 minutes.

Decorate with sprinkles, pressing into the dough if necessary to stick. (You can also roll ball of dough onto a plate of sprinkles.)

Bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they’re very lightly browned. Remove them from the oven, and cool.

Every November 1st, I start the day with a good old-fashioned bellyache. Since I was a kid, I’ve been overdosing on Halloween candy, trading anything with peanuts for Milky Ways, Sugar Daddies, Tootsie Pops, or the occasional Milk Duds. But in recent years, I’ve been noticing some very questionable choices in my neighborhood. People are handing out gluten free sunflower buttercups, organic gummies (the non-CBD kind), and even trail mix. What is up with all of that? Don’t they realize that Halloween is the time to eat all the things you never would eat the rest of the year? Why take all the fun out of it?

If you want to be health conscious, do what I do—freeze your Milky Ways, Snickers Bars and Three Musketeers. Since calories are a function of heat, then frozen candy has no calories. It’s only logical and is obviously a much healthier option. This also works with Sara Lee cakes and Fig Newtons, just in case you were wondering.

I had the great good fortune to meet a dear friend of Emeril’s back during my Emeril Live years. Chef Ines de Costa was like a second mother to him. For years I’ve been trying to recapture her magical Caldo Verde. So much of what she made had the intangible element of love on her ingredient list. Whenever I make it, I always think of her and hope that some of that love lives through my cooking too.
I’ve taken some liberties with this recipe, like garnishing it with Parmesan, so I hope the Portuguese community forgives me. Serve this with some nice crusty bread and it’s a meal in itself.

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive oil

1½ cups finely chopped Spanish onions

1 tablespoon minced garlic

2 pounds yukon potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2 pound sliced cooked kielbasa or chorizo sausage

7 cups turkey bone broth or canned, low-sodium chicken broth

3 cups chopped fresh kale

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

Toasted crusty baguette slices

Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Grated Parmesan for garnish

PREPARATION

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large Dutch oven. Sauté the onions until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute. Add the potatoes and sausage and sauté until just beginning to brown. Season with salt and pepper, and add the crushed red pepper.

Add the broth, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Stir in the kale and simmer for another 15 minutes. Re-season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Ladle soup into large bowls and garnish with baguette slice, fresh parley and Parmesan.

I have returned to Mexico for the second time, welcomed back as an old friend, or distant family member. Almost everywhere I go, I am greeted by a smile or a friendly buenos dias, the warmth of the people as soothing as the hot chocolate I crave. As I go from city to town to village, I am mostly struck by the women I encounter. Whether behind a hot stove cooking chilaquiles, or firing hand-made clay pots, or simply selling wares at a market, these women work long hours to support themselves and their families. And they do so with pride and with grace. I can feel their estrogen levels permeating their spaces, men only seeming to have minor roles in their magical enterprises, useful only if stuff needs to get fixed. They are in charge, whether by choice or by happenstance.

In Tlacolula, Macrina Mateo Martinez carries on her family’s tradition of creating utilitarian burnished terracotta pottery using pre-Columbian techniques. I watch her shape a 10” bowl with her bare hands, slapping it as if it just told her something she didn’t want to hear. Not looking up from her work, she explains how she and her sisters dig the clay out from the nearby El Picacho mountain, then carry it home on their backs. The work seems arduous and exacting, but her pieces have traveled the world. As a teenager, wanting to rebel against the constraints of her family, she traveled outside of her village to learn how to find new markets. For a while, those home ostracized her, until it was clear that she could help the village thrive. Since then, she has founded a women-led cooperative known as the Mujeres del Barro Rojo (women of the red clay) and her work has even found a spot at MOMA in New York. Except for a spiffy new kiln, she keeps the same generations-old traditions and techniques alive today.

Just outside of Guadalajara, in a small village, Fabiola is having her way with a pot of salsa verde. Cooking for a local family for the past fifteen years, she can whip up a meal for ten in less than a half-hour. And it’s always good, really good. Her sopa de nopales, chalupas, quesadillas, and my favorite, chilaquiles never disappoint. I had the good fortune to come here on a writers’ retreat a few years back and had my first exposure to her food. Knowing I was returning this year, I spent a few months slaving over Duolingo so I could at least tell her in Spanish how much I enjoyed her food, with hopes of getting a recipe or two. As I started to speak, she nodded, too busy to try to understand what the hell I was saying. Nonetheless, I watched and did get her chilaquiles recipe.

Down in Oaxaca at the Mercado de Abastos, I was enchanted by an old woman selling herbs. She sat quietly on her stool, surrounded by huge bunches of basil, mint, and laurel. Her eyes crinkled beneath her mask as she smiled towards me. I wondered how many hours she has sat here, how many days, how many months, how many years? She motioned for me to smell the herbs, to inhale the land and fields she must have toiled in to bring them here. Each was pungent and intense, like the food they will one day season.

I feel connected to these women, as if we have a universal sisterhood without needing words. As we look into each other’s eyes, we can feel our stories of love, work, family, heartbreak and joy. We know. We just know.

While on a writer’s retreat in a small town not far from Guadalajara, gorging myself on chilaquiles, tequila, and rising emotions, I was lucky enough to get this recipe from their wonderful cook, Fabiola. She’s a lovely young woman who puts all of her talent and heart into each and every dish. One of my favorites is her morning chilaquiles. She makes everything fresh, from scratch, and it’s worth the effort. One of her secrets is using powdered bouillon instead of salt. It adds an additional depth of flavor to her salsa verde.

INGREDIENTS

SALSA VERDE

1 onion, cut into thin slices

2 cloves garlic

1-pound tomatillos

Small bunch cilantro

3 Serrano chilies, seeds removed

1 T powdered bouillon

1 cup water

2 T vegetable oil

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TORTILLA STRIPS

6 tortillas, cut into ¼ strips, and then cut again ¼ strips (16 pieces each)

½ cup Vegetable Oil

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HUEVOS MEXICANA

2 diced tomatoes

1 diced onions

1 diced Serrano

6 eggs

4 T vegetable oil

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GARNISH

Sour cream

Hot chili oil

Crumbled cotija cheese

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PREPARATION

FOR THE SALSA VERDE

In a large pot, add two tablespoons of oil, ½ onion of thin slices. Sauté until translucent.

Separately, add the other ½ raw onion slices, cilantro, garlic, tomatillos, and chilies, into a blender. Add one cup water and blend.

Add blended mixture to sautéed onions. Add one tablespoon of chicken bouillon powder. Bring to boil, and then simmer for 5 – 10 minutes until color changes to a lighter green.

FOR TORTILLA STRIPS

Heat ½ cup of vegetable oil. Add in tortilla strips in batches, don’t overcrowd. When light brown, drain and set aside. Add more oil if necessary.

FOR HUEVOS MEXICANA

Sauté diced tomatoes, onions, Serrano for ten minutes in 4 T vegetable oil. Add eggs and scramble.

TO SERVE

Place tortilla strips on the bottom of a plate, smother with salsa, top with eggs, then add a little more salsa. Garnish with sour cream, crumbled cheese, and hot chili oil.