A good day for a spooky mauve and brown cupcake

So we had a Halloween party and I think overall, it was un exito. This means it was “a success” in Spanish. Which reminds me of a story from long ago in New York City when Alex and I first started dating. We went to a Colombian restaurant in Queens and when I heard a salsa song playing that I liked, I ran over to the jukebox to see what it was. Then I went back to the Colombians I was eating with and told them the song was by this great group called “Los Exitos.” Now imagine yourself dining out with your favorite clueless foreigner in some roadside diner, and the foreigner looks at the jukebox and says “Gee guys, I really love this group The Greatest Hits! Are they pretty famous in your country?”

Anyway, back to Halloween. I made hot spiced wine, rice krispie skull pops, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. As usual, my Catalan/Spanish guests were a bit perplexed by the food but I’m used to that by now. There was a slight frosting mishap. I was going for orange but due to some miscalculations involving food coloring (too much red plus not enough yellow plus blue does not have a pleasant visual result), but nobody mentioned it and now there just might be a large group of people in Spain who believe that the official colors of Halloween are mauve and brown.

In the end, all I have to say is that you know you’re in Spain when you leave out a big bowl of candy corn and a big bowl of olives stuffed with sardines and at the end of the night, it’s the bowl of candy corn that’s still full.

Since Halloween is over, Nico and I have decided to get a head start on our Christmas lists. So far he has the Playmobil Secret Agent Headquarters, six Smurfs and white chocolate. I have Photoshop plug-ins, an electric toothbrush, colored pencils and earplugs. When I read Nico my list, he just looked at me in horror and said “You’re asking Santa for ear plugs??” It made me realize that getting old was even worse than I’d thought it would be when I was 7 and wondered if being a grownup would mean not only asking for, but actually wanting things such as dish towels for Christmas.

Happy Halloween!