pumpkin madness

The week of Halloween has finally arrived, and my children can talk of nothing else. Yesterday we had a pumpkin extravaganza. We always carve one pumpkin for each of us. I've collected a wide assortment of child-friendly tools and we let them design and carve on their own as much as possible. Several years back my son begged for a fancy carving kit that came with a wide assortment of templates. Each year we take them out and admire them, and then agree that they look too tricky. It's satisfying to design your own, but this year. My big ten year old was totally ready to give it a try. He carved for two hours! I only helped a little itty bit. The front of the pumpkin has two rats...the back is carved, as well, so that it will project a shadow of a cat face onto the wall... spooky. This is the pattern book it came from here.


He was so proud of himself, and rightly so!

I kept trying to take a picture of our three inside pumpkins (the biggest is on the porch), but someone kept trying to make off with my props. Fresh baked pumpkin-cranberry-chocolate chip muffin/cookies. Can't blame them, they're addicting. By this morning, they were almost gone!

I got the recipe from a friend, who got the recipe from a friend, who got it here. We make them every year and so far, everyone who's ever tasted them wants the recipe immediately. Our version has a few variations and less sugar(organic).. .sometimes mixed with maple syrup , grain sweetened chocolate chips and cranberries. It seems like the kind of recipe that you can modify to your liking and ingredients on hand.

We always roast the seeds after carving and nibble on them throughout the day. After rinsing them, we toss them in olive oil, garlic, salt and a dash of maple syrup. Then we spread on a cookie sheet and roast until golden... mmm! I took a moment to sit in the fading sun and look around at the rapidly changing scenery.


Winter is right around the corner here in the Northeast. Tree skeletons are everywhere...

Cows graze in a cut cornfield....


Take a look up at my banner. Here's the same view a couple of weeks later!


I've been squeezing in a bit of sewing and am having so much fun coming up with new designs. Some are still in the prototype phase, but if you stop by tomorrow I'll give you a sneak peek.
Happy Monday!