I Go on the Pill

Our mom is a real second-wave feminist. She was in the first class of women at Yale, and attended Harvard Business School when it was only ten percent women. Plus, she's bad at cooking, which is the sure sign of a feminist, amiright? So when it came to picking this year's Halloween costume, I was inspired by her and her cohort. My first choice for a costume was Slutty Ruth Bader Ginsburg (the bun, the glasses, the dicky, and a dramatically shortened judge's robe), but believe it or not, they don't make judge's costumes in women's sizes. Take from that what you will. So in honor of the sexism of modern Halloween costumes, I went as the Feminine Mystique. And no, as not one, not two, but three friends asked me, that is not a character from X Men. God, weren't any of your moms second-wave feminists?! My costume entailed a 1950s dress, an apron, heels, pearls, a bottle of wine, and a plate of pill-shaped cookies. Like any good housewife, I spent the afternoon before the Halloween party making the cookies, but my time was somewhat limited, so the challenge was to find a sugar cookie recipe that did not involve freezing time, and also did not involve the cookies spreading. I used this recipe and it worked beautifully. Plus, it tasted great. I used lemon extract, and everyone at the party exclaimed in delight over the lemony taste of the cookies, which balanced out of the sweetness of the icing nicely. The other challenge was using flood icing, which I've never done before, but once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy. You just add water to the icing, and you don't even have to pipe it on; if you outline your shapes first and then spoon a bit of flood icing on, it spreads beautifully, thereby saving you the annoyance of having to fill your piping bag. The cookies were a big hit, not least because the party was a hipster party in Asscrack, Brooklyn, where food is apparently not a thing that people provide. So everyone was very happy to see the cookies, and as the perfect housewife, I was very happy to hand them out while guzzling wine. Happy Halloween!