After last year’s Guatacular Halloween Marathon of events, which ended in exhaustion and Advil, I decided to spread the love for festive spookiness into a couple of days. Holidays that encourage gifts of chocolate to random people should really be a two-parter. And so Part I began … with food and Jack-O-Lanterns.
During this artistic endeavor, tips from Martha Stewart and The Food Network proved to be extremely helpful. But it also brought memories of my Uncle Erick: The pumpkin-seed-toaster extraordinaire. Before him I thought seeds were just for planting or spitting out, however we learned that nothing gets thrown out. The magic of salt, pepper, olive oil and 400 degrees is awesome. This was part of our Halloween ritual, along with The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and a few episodes of the Twilight Zone, the pig face one really seemed to freak me out a bit.
And so with all this Halloween ambience from my past, I’ve tried to re-create these traditions with my kids, minus Rod Serling and his dimensions of sight, sound, and freaking-me-out scenarios. This Halloween Eve with the Guats consisted of snacks, carving out pumpkins, and taste-testing.
In the beginning it’s best to outline the situation so you don’t get three eyes.
Once we cut open the bottom, the slimy investigation begins.
My daughter happened to enjoy the slimy part and made it her mission to remove all the seeds.
My son was interested in the carving aspect and so our finished product contained all kinds of shapes.
He was also interested in roasting the seeds.
They happened to turn out perfectly as I sat in front of the television and ate half of them.
But the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie was of number one interest to everyone. I ate five of them in half an hour.
The Wish Factor 