Monday, October 27, 2008

Slashing Pumpkins

It's that time of year again! This weekend we carved up a new batch of pumpkins. I think we put last year to shame. A gratuitous action shot.

Our friend Scott picked out and carved pumpkins with us. I like how straight I made all of my cuts, but his turned out scariest. "And Darcy took home the "Too cool for school" prize with the sunglasses and cigarette.

Then we put the pumpkins out on the steps to guard our front door during the Halloween week. You can see Darcy's pumpkin better in this one too.

We also coerced Candice to carve a pumpkin later that night. She put us all to shame by completely finishing in 15 minutes, while we each spent about 40 minutes on ours.

And finally it got dark enough to light the candles and let the pumpkins shine. They look awesome. We also used Martha Stewart's tip about carving out the bottom of the pumpkin rather than the top. It works way better, plus, the top is the coolest part of the jack-o-lantern, so why hack it up just to pull the guts out?

I didn't even try to cook the seeds this year. I should have, but neglected my culinary duties. Last year I didn't come close to finishing my batch. I think it will only make me that much more dedicated to cooking them next year.

2 comments:

whc03grady said...

How do you keep the candle from burning the top of the pumpkin up?

Also: from the looks of your remote control, you have the same DVD player that we do.

Alright,
Mitch.

Ben Miller said...

In the case of a small pumpkin, you don't. But on Darcy's and my pumpkins the tops are fairing just fine. We also use little tea lights, so its not quite as hot.

And the DVD player is the best 20 bucks we spent at Wal-Mart, maybe...

I'll have to think about that.