The NeverEnding Story

Instructions

Add ice to a cockatil shaker and follow that up with bourbon, orange juice, lemon juice, simple syrup, and egg white. Cover and shake vigorously, about 20 seconds. Strain cocktail into a glass filled with ice. Garnish with a slice of orange.

You just know Barney Bux was a lush...

Instructions

Slice apple through the center into 1/4 inch rounds (you'll end up with about 8 rounds). Soak in ice water with lemon slices, which will prevent apples from turning brown.

Using a sharp knife (and a stencil if you need) cut out the core of four rounds into the shape of an open book.

Spread peanut butter and jelly on the whole slices then cover with the remaining "booked" halves. At this point, you can sprinkle a bit of flaky salt if you like (helps to cut the sweetness a bit). Serve immediately, preferably while surrounded by spooky melty candles.

Instructions

I would've gone with traditional pastina pasta, but in Socal it's suprisingly difficult to find. Estrella pasta is a nice substitute, and can be found in most international aisles.

Cook in salted boiling water according to package instructions (should be more than 5 minutes). Note-- cooking this separately outside of the soup broth prevents the pasta from getting all gummy.

Preheat oven to 400. Season your chicken wings with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Heat a heavy bottom stock pot on medium high, and add canola oil. Place wings skin side down into the pot and sear for 1-2 minutes until golden brown. Flip and continue to sear for another 2 minutes.

Place onto a foil lined cookie sheet and finish in the oven-- another 25 minutes.

While you wait, gather the base ingredients of your soup!

Add butter to your stock pot over medium heat, scraping up any chicken bits as the butter melts, Add leeks, celery, and carrots, followed by remaining salt and pepper. Cook until slightly caramelized, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and bay leaves and saute another 2 minutes. Finally, add chicken broth and parmesan rind and bring to a soft boil. Cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes until vegetables are softened to desired texture (Urgl and I still like a bit of bite in mine).

Just before serving, remove bay leaves and toss in pasta, spinach and dill, stirring until the spinach is wilted. Serve in shallow soup bowls topped with a chicken wing per bowl, grated parmesan, a healthy squeeze of lemon juice, and a few more sprigs of dill for looks.

Instructions

Get them rocky ingredients together.

Melt chocolate in a microwave proof bowl (shouldn't take more than 45 seconds-- if a few solids remain, you can stir the chocolate and they will melt as you stir). Mix chocolate, sugar, oil and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Quickly whisk your egg and add that to your chocolate mix, stirring until incorporated. Finally, stir in flour, baking powder and salt. The texture should be a pretty firm batter.

Mix in your marshmallow bits and nuts and refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 mins. While you wait, preheat your oven to 350.

Using a half tablespoon measure, scoop out 18 equal rounds of cookie dough and roll them in your powdered sugar. you want a pretty thick coating of the sugar to create a nice contrast/crackle effect.

Set one and a half inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet (you can do three rolls of 6) and bake for 13-ish minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

After a bit, you can dig in with your BIG GOOD STRONG HANDS.