Meandering Missive: Happy Halloween!!

Monday, October 31, 2005

Happy Halloween!!

I hope the good folks at Google don't mind me using their image to decorate my blog this hallowed eve. I'm not doing it for any for-profit purpose, and I'm giving full credit for it to Google (my fave search engine). I just thought the motif was very creative (all their holiday-themed "decorations" are!), and I also kept being drawn to the scary, evil hand of the vampire reaching over the second "o". *shudder*

Anyway, I hope everyone had a fun and SAFE Halloween. :) In past years on Oct. 31, I've gone to people's parties, gone to venue parties (like Cheers or the Saddle Rack), gone to the Haunted Forest in Los Gatos, or actually volunteered at the Haunted Forest. This year, however, I stayed home and handed out Hershey's Miniatures to the 24 or 25 kids who knocked on the door (mostly in groups). You'd think in a townhouse complex of 315 homes, there'd be a lot more trick-or-treaters, since it's so fast and easy going door-to-door. Maybe they were all at the mall! *chuckle*

Earlier in the day, I carved my WHITE pumpkin. Since almost everyone uses standard pumps with orange skin, I like to be different and use white. Plus, I think the color contrast between the pale outside and orange inside is beautiful. And then there's the interesting smell. Instead of the standard "pumpkiny" aroma (which I do like), the white ones smell mildly of cantaloupe and cucumber. Very nice. It's not all that surprising, since pumpkins (and other squashes), melons and cucumbers are all in the same family -- Cucurbitaceae! (Gourds are too). I sometimes call this the "coo-coo family," not only because the Latin name starts out that way, but also because it brings to mind the frantic melon on the 9th floor. *smirk* (Don't ask!)

I also did something a little different with the carving. Normally I make some type of jack o'lanterny face, but this time I wanted to be creative, so I bought a pumpkin-carving kit that included a book of templates (stencils?) The tools got a real workout, but instead of using one of the templates, I instead went through my library of oak leaf and acorn theme images and printed out one to carve. Here's what it was....

And here are two views of how my pumpkin turned out. Not as well as I expected, but definitely not as bad as it could have been! :) I decided to forego the sticking-up twig part. In the second photo, the middle-pointing oak leaves almost make it look like a mask.

And, of course, here's what the pumpkin looked like at night, when illumined from within....

Last but not least, I get to use a word that I love, yet hardly ever have occasion to use: PEPITA! It sounds so cute and diminutive, it almost makes me think of what I'd name a pet rodent. (Most folks know I used to have rats and love all rodents). The pepitas in question, however, were none other than the seeds of my aforementioned pumpkin! :D I tossed them in some butter and a tiny pinch of seasoned salt, spread them on a cookie sheet and baked them for about 30 minutes at about 325 degrees F.

Ovens vary widely, especially ones with old dials like mine, so if you want to roast your own raw pumpkin seeds, please don't take my time duration or temperature setting as gospel. The best way is to keep a careful eye (and nose) on them, and stir them around at least once during the baking process, otherwise you may have too many burned ones. After they cool, crack and eat as you would sunflower seeds. Mine were toasty, nutty and yummy! :) As Emeril would say: "this ain't rocket science!" And now here is the exciting photo...

Today I am feeling festive.

posted by ScaryShari @ 11:00 PM

3 Comments:

At 9:47 PM, ScaryShari said…

Me gusta pepitas tambien, pero no me gusta cocinar, porque no estoy buena en cocina. :(

Then again, the only way to get better at cooking is to do it more! ;) I have so many cookbooks and recipe collections - I just need to use them more often. And that includes my awesome birthday baking book!
At 9:39 PM, Unknown said…

Hey, there was an article in the Merc a while back about the guy who designs all of those great special occasion Google logos. I wish I saved it.

That's a gorgeous jack-o-lantern. I am nowhere near that artistic.

And pepitas -- yay!!! We had five pumpkins this year and I roasted all of the seeds. I made garlic, regular salted, seasoned salt, and lemon pepper varieties. Yummy.
At 2:15 PM, ScaryShari said…

Milgwimper -
Your Spanish wasn't too bad. :) The biggest boo-boo was you called me "usted" instead of "tu"! Usted is the formal use of the "you" pronoun, whereas tu is the familiar. Somehow I can't see best friends ever using the formal! LOL

Then again, once upon a time I WAS "Sgt. Scary Shari of the Eye Candy Patrol" (remember that immature craziness?), so perhaps I am your superior after all! *giggle* Although you are definitely MY superior when it comes to cooking skills!

Becky -
Thanks for the kind words about my "oaky" jack-o-lantern design. *blush* I didn't really think I was being all that artistic, because I messed up in several places. But it was fun. I think your roasted pepitas sound delicious! My little white pumpkin didn't have enough seeds to try all the cool flavour variations you made. Maybe I'll do that next year. :)

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