So this is the year I didn’t carve a pumpkin. I bought two at the Wednesday farmers market. This morning I noticed that one of them – the $2.25 one that leaned back a little too much – had a few spots on it. I took it over to the other house for Halloween lunch decorations and left it on the front steps afterward.
At about 4:00 I got ready to carve the other one. I set it up on newspaper, and stuck a knife in. The stem came off when I pulled on it, and when I lifted the lid, it was all soup inside. Rotten. I assume because of global climate change – the pumpkin must’ve ripened in September – my CSA had their Pumpkin U-Pick & Gleaning Party way back on Sunday Sept. 26. So my pumpkins must’ve been picked weeks ago – plenty of time to spoil. I took it directly to the compost and came back in and made a paper bag luminaria instead, with cat litter and a candle. Good thing I made lots of Halloween-themed food to make up.
The eyeball cupcakes are a nice plain cake with white frosting and gummy lifesavers for iris and pupil. The punch had hand-shaped ices. The spiders are a King Arthur mix – I’d like to try them with mint chocolate filling. I got a blister on my index finger from splitting licorice Twizzlers into spider legs – I couldn’t find any plain licorice strings. I wish I had photographed the tart before I cut it. I made a vampire blood soup – tomato fennel, pureed smooth for drinking, and a pan of those popcorn and pretzel bars, too, but I didn’t photograph those. I let the caramel get a little darker for the bars, and I think they were better than last time.
