Halloween Party #1

Last night we had our first Halloween party of this year. My friend, Megan, and her husband have been having an annual party for the past few years. So we went to Buffalo for the weekend and went to the party last night. It was a good time! Gabe and I aren't really all that great of thinking of costume ideas and we hate to spend the money on something you'll wear once. So our costumes were courtesy of my work:

Gabe was Dr. Seymour Butz-Proctologist and I was Dr. Mel Practice-Plastic Surgeon. The party was fun-they had karaoke, lots of food, and the Sabres game on.

I brought a new dish to pass, which I got from my friend's blog, Heather Drive. It's a dip and turned out pretty good!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/3 cup brown sugar-

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar-

3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:1. In a small sauce pan, melt butter and brown sugar over medium heat. Stir continuously until the brown sugar dissolves.

2. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla extract. Set aside to cool.

3. Beat the softened cream cheese and confectioner's sugar for 1 minute.

4. Slowly beat in the cooled butter/brown sugar mixture. Beat for an additional minute.

5. Stir in the chocolate chips.

6. Pour mixture into serving bowl and refrigerate. (Note: The mixture will be very liquid-like at first. Refrigeration is necessary to make it a better consistency. If you are running short on time, you can also throw the mixture into the freezer for a little bit.)

7. Garnish with additional chips (optional). (I used a spoon to scoop and position extra chips on the top of the dip. This is what my aunt did and I think it makes for better presentation.)Serve with vanilla wafers or graham crackers.(Another note: After refrigeration for an extended period of time, your dip will be very solid and un-dippable--your wafers or graham crackers will break! To achieve the best consistency, remove from the refrigerator 15-30 minutes prior to serving.)

Everyone enjoyed the dip-I used vanilla wafer cookies and chocolate Pirouline cookies (the rolled up wafer ones with filling in the middle). The only thing I didn't care for was I could taste the cream cheese-which I'm not a huge fan of, so for myself I might tweak that a bit.

We have another Halloween party coming up Friday!