Halloweening, Pumpkin Edition!

Hello Ghouls & Goblins!

It's the weekend before Halloween, how exciting! Have you carved your pumpkins yet? Hung your bats? Taken your mummys out of the closet? Picnicked at your local cemetery? Drank your apple cider? If not, then you better jump to before the spooks come out for you!

Anyways, this weekend is also the weekend that my cousin is getting married, so Gabe & I decided to come up a few days earlier & do some festive activities prior. That being said, we started it by heading to the Farmers Market/Pumpkin Patch & picking out some pumpkins. (Sorry, no pictures of that but it was very cute & so were we).

We carved our pumpkins while watching Scary Godmother, which, as you know, is a Halloween Classic. If you're itching to watch it both the first & the second movie are available for streaming for free on Youtube. While we are here, let me share some Pumpkin Carving tips & tricks!

1. Always, when laying out the design on the pumpkin, draw it smaller than you would like it to be. Just like cutting hair, you can always take more off but you can't add more on, ya know?

2. Due to tip/trick 1, draw the design further apart than you actually want it to be. That way you can always make the details larger to fit the scale you want or add more if inspiration hits!

3. After you've carved your design in & you're happy with it, go back in with the smallest blade that you have & smooth out the edges. By that I mean smoothing out the inside of your design so that the carved portion itself looks thinner, if that makes sense. Thinning out the pumpkin wall so that when you light the candle inside, it will shine brighter!

That all being said.... Here is Gabe with our pumpkins!!

Fangtastic Fun Fact: Did you know that in the olden days, people would carve more than just pumpkins? They'd carve anything in the gourd family! It was more common to carve squash than it was the carve a pumpkin in the beginning of the celebrate, b/c they were able to hang them from trees & their house. These carved gourds were used to scary away the dead that would cross over during this time of the year. So the scarier the design, the safer you & your family would be!

Halloween is such a fun & creative time of the year but, almost more importantly, it's a delicious times of the year too! So, speaking of pumpkins & carving them, do you guys roast your seeds? B/c it's one of my favorite traditions of the year! That being said, here is my Oven-Roasted Pumpkin Seed Recipe that my mom passed down to me:

1. Preheat the oven to 450.

2. Separate & clean the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin guts with warm water. Avoid using soap.

3. Lay the seeds out flat (as flat as you can) on a baking dish. Preferable using a metal baking dish, but glass works too.

4. In the baking pan, mix the seeds with oil (whatever oil you have, I normally use olive oil), salt, pepper, & garlic powder (all to taste!).

5. Bake the seeds for 10 minutes, once 10 minutes is up, take them out & mix them up a bit.

6. Bake an addition 10 minutes or until they look lightly toasted, a soft golden color.

7. Allow to cool for a whole 2 seconds before eating them all!

There will be lots for posts this upcoming week as I prepare for the Halloween party, there is a lot that I have already prepared that I'll be sharing soon. It deserves it's own post! Anyways, be spooky, be festive, & be safe!

Until Next Time,

Haunted Lore