Thanksgiving and Christmas and Winter and New Years are coming, and I cannot wait. But before all that jazz I'd like to recap yesterday, the 31st of October, Halloween.
My Saturday morning was pretty lazy and chill. By the afternoon I was busy finishing up components of my costume, carving pumpkins with my family, roasting seeds, and experimenting more with my Canon, especially in lower lighting.
You know what is downright cool?
Carving pumpkins. I don't understand why everyone doesn't carve a jack-o-lantern or 2.
I mean, you get to buy a gourd, cut it open, pull all it's squishy guts out, scrape in the insides clean, cut in up into a cool shape, and then throw some flames in there via a tea light. That's just cool.
We started with large, clean pumpkins. We collect our pumpkin seeds to roast them and make our own pumpkin seeds. They're wonderful. That's why we need a colander. Also, pro tip- cut the opening of your pumpkin in a square so it will be easier to line up. Also, cut at an angle so the lid won't fall back into the pumpkin.
Once we has them all clean and smooth on the inside mom and I began to sketch out our designs. I chose to try for a more open, geometrical feel, kind of a stained glass vibe. Mom chose to brighten up our porch with a quintessential smiling jack-o-lantern. I used a small pairing knife to carve mine, dad used a larger, almost steak knife to carve out the design mom sketched. Pro tip- use an alcohol prep pad (they sell them at the drug store and Target) to get the extra sharpie off your pumpkin. Getting those extra pen marks off makes your pumpkin looks 10 times classier.
Now, if you are going to go to the effort to carve a pumpkin (as your should), you really should take the extra moment to save and roast the pumpkin seeds. Simply separate them from all the other gourd guts, wash them off nice and well. Place them on a cookie sheet, fill the sheet with enough water to make the seeds float, and season to taste. Dad kept it simple and put salt on ours, but suggests getting frisky with your spice cabinet and trying some different flavors.
Put them in a 200 degree oven and stir them in the over every so often until all the water has evaporated and the seems begin to look a teeny bit cream in color and matte. This whole process should take about 2 hours, give or take.
During the evening we headed over to our friends neighborhood. I dressed up with their family's Alice in wonderland theme. Max and I went as Tweedle dum and Tweedle dee. I made our bow ties and our collars out of felt. My mom and dad went as Anna and John Bates from Downton Abbey, and they nailed it. We are working on getting them to go viral. No joke.
We trick or treated around our friend's neighborhood and it was great fun. Everyone loved our group costume, and the older folks recognized Max and I right away.
At the end of the night there was much candy sorting to be done.
Here's what my haul looked like.
Our pumpkins looked quite nice, and the stained glass look I was going for with my pumpkin was achieved quite well.
It was such a fun evening! Gotta love a holiday that allows us to expect candy from random strangers in exchange for looking slightly ridiculous.
PS
This was my face when I discovered the empty candy wrappers that I was given.
Well then.
I assume it was probably the husband that ate the candy and threw the wrapper back in the basket against his wife's wishes, but go figure.
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