happy halloween

had a great halloween weekend. went over to holly's on friday night for pumpkin carving... (me? carve a pumpkin? no way. i just watched and made the seeds):


becca's party on saturday night went off! there were a ton of people there and everyone was dedicated to fabulous costumes. there was some guy dressed as Mr. Miyagi but i thought he looked more like Dr. Jang. and my favorite costume? check it out:

who am i?

the barefoot contessa of course!

so i spent a good part of friday cruising the 'net searching for creative halloween app ideas and when i saw this recipe from epicurious i obsessed over the need to try it out:

i didn't take a picture of mine... but they turned out almost identical to this picture

so i got to work saturday morning and had no idea they would turn out as well as they did! if you are looking for something fairly easy and very impressive to do for halloween... make these. here is the recipe taken straight from epicurious. enjoy!

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TEA-MARBLED EGGS WITH SOY BALSAMIC MAYONNAISE

**these take a lot of unattended time so get started early or even the night before. i cooked a dozen like the recipe called for and ended up with 2 that were unusable (1 peeled poorly and 1 had cracks that were too large) - which i thought was a great success rate. cracking the eggs before they went into the soy/tea bath was nerve-racking only because i hadn't done it before. tap lightly with the spoon and you won't think the cracks are there - but they are and if you look super close in good light you can kind of see them. if you tap too hard the cracks get too big and the mixture leaks into the air pocket end of the egg making it dark and tough. however, even if you think your cracks accidentally got to big, don't discard them quite yet... i had a few that i thought for sure were goners but turned out okay. they didn't have lapsang souchong at mollie stones so i just used a random black tea blend and used 5 bags instead of 4. finally, i skipped the dipping sauce and mixed the yolks with the mayo mixture to go straight to a deviled egg presentation.**

12 large eggs
3/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3 cups water
4 Lapsang souchong tea bags*
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Cover eggs with cold water by 1 inch in a 2- to 3-quart saucepan and bring to a rolling boil, partially covered. Remove from heat and let eggs stand, covered, 10 minutes. Transfer eggs with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice and cold water and let stand 5 minutes (to cool). Gently tap shell all over with back of a spoon to lightly crack (do not peel). Do not tap too hard or tea liquid will seep into shell instead of just staining cracks.

Bring soy sauce, sugar, and water to a boil in saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then add tea bags. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Add eggs (and more water if eggs are not completely covered by liquid) and simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat and let eggs stand in liquid, uncovered, until cool, then chill at least 2 hours. Lift eggs from liquid and peel. Reserve 2 tablespoons cooking liquid and discard remainder.

Whisk vinegar and reserved cooking liquid into mayonnaise and serve with eggs. Present eggs whole, then quarter for dipping. (Yolks may have a dark ring.)

Cooks' notes: • Unpeeled eggs can be chilled in cooking liquid up to 2 days. • Soy balsamic mayonnaise can be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered.

*Available at specialty foods shops and some supermarkets.

Makes 12 hors d'oeuvres.