This year, my husband had to work until 7pm on Halloween, so I was getting set for the kids by myself this year. It was really fun, although there were a few obstacles, and everything worked out great. I had already decorated a few days before hand, I just had to add the finishing touches... some strobe lights and some creepy music, and some candles... and let's not forget the pumpkins!
It had been a long time since I had carved a pumpkin by myself, I usually pick out what I want and my husband carves it. This year, we hadn't had time to carve them early, so it was up to me to carve at least one!
I carefully selected a pattern, but I didn't want anything too easy or too boring, and I though to myself, I know exactly the perfect thing.... Jack Skellington. The Nightmare Before Christmas has been a favourite movie of mine for so long and when else can you carve the Pumpkin King's visage on an actual pumpkin? So I set out to carve him up! It was definitely tricky, especially the mouth, and my hand was so tired afterwards, but it was worth it!
I snapped this picture and sent it to my husband at work to show him what I had carved! I left the second pumpkin for him to do when he got home. I put my pumpkin outside and waited for kids to start coming and there were way more than last year!
When my husband got home, he started on his pumpkin while I made dinner. When he was done, we brought his outside to join mine and took some pictures:
I had picked out a Jack Skellington pattern for him too, but a different looking one. It was neat. They looked great all lit up. One had a light in it that changed colours and the other blinked on and off.
They looked awesome on our step, and we got lots of compliments on them.
We brought them in at the end of the night, and I took one last photo... and then I moved on to use what I had harvested from them... PUMPKIN SEEDS!
It had been a long time since my parents had cooked up some pumpkin seeds after I had carved a pumpkin as a child, but while I was carving our pumpkins, I was impressed with how great these seeds looked and I wanted to use them. I looked up some tips online and I set them out on a baking sheet to dry overnight.
The next evening, I tossed them in some olive oil and some salt, pepper, and roasted red pepper and garlic spice, and spread them out on a sheet and put them in the oven at about 250 for a bit over an hour, checkin on them periodically.
They turned out delicious! Crispy and flavourful! The spices even seemed to have caramelized a bit in the oven, they had such a wonderful taste to them. I was glad that I decided to roast them!
What did you carve in your pumpkin this year? Did you roast your pumpkin seeds?
I hope you had a Happy Halloween! I know I did!
Until next time, Happy Munching!
