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Who says Halloween is just for kids…
Or for people who want to wear exceedingly expensive (and often revealing) Halloween costumes?
October 25, 2009
When I was younger, I would spend weeks savoring everything Halloween. I would dive into any arts and crafts activity involving orange or black construction paper and glue, sprinkled liberally, with orange glitter. On Halloween day, I could never focus on anything other than waiting for some semblance of darkness to fall so that my brothers and I could roam the streets, pillowcases in hand, collecting as much candy as we could possibly drag home.
As I grew up, Halloween became more about parties, costumes and that weird purple punch that shows up at every 20 something’s party. Gone were the construction paper and glue, in was the hunt for the best Halloween costume and drink story. As I reached 30, the Halloween parties of my 20’s began to lose their luster…I missed the feeling of celebrating Halloween for more than 1 night.
To solve my yearning, a friend and I decided to host a grown up pumpkin carving party. No costumes and very little candy involved. For over 5 years now, we have left behind the purple mystery juice and have replaced it with wine, beer and a decadently spiked Caramel Apple Spiced Cider. We roast the pumpkin seeds we harvest from the pumpkins and eat them as we carve. And after everyone has finished carving their pumpkin, we proudly line them up outside my front porch and take our annual photo. It’s amazing how many more friends join us each year for this ritual (and even more amazing that my male friends are more excited about this than anyone).
Part of this ritual is having one food item made from pumpkin … canned pumpkin (who has the time to roast and puree a pumpkin!). This year, I decided to make an Orange-Spiced Pumpkin Cupcake with an Orange Cream Cheese frosting. This is the kind of dessert that you would make for adults, lots of spice and flavor – just enough sugar. To add color, I topped it off with candy corn.
The Pumpkin carving party has become a tradition for my friends and me. It, in one event, lets us celebrate our youthful zest for the holiday but with better food and awesome pumpkins to place out on our porches as the next generations come by with their pillowcases to collect their Halloween delights.
TIP: For great Halloween Carving Patterns like the Elmo pumpkin you see above, check out: Zombie Pumpkins
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