A Pumpkin Carving Party

Wow.  Five months since a post.  Oh well, I was a little busy…but I’ll get into that later.  Now, a pumpkin carving party!

Someone in my work group decided that we (our studio) should get together and carve pumpkins.  As I’m newly moved to Richmond, and have an excellent space to do it, I volunteered to host a little party!  It was great fun, and it was wonderful to see all the creations people made.

Carved Pumpkins

I know this is NOT a good picture, but it’s the best I could get with my phone.  Some people used stencils from those carving kits, others went free-hand.  Mine is in the very back and is more surface carving than an actual jack-o-lantern.  I thought everyone did a really good job.  For our tools, we actually found the carving kits to be easiest and best to use.  We also had a surface carving kit, and I had some wire clay working tools (from a ceramics class I took years ago) that worked really well for details.  We also discovered that with the pumpkins that are mostly surface carved, you want to make sure you have an air hole or two for the candles (if you are using a real flame), and two candles give you a really good glow.  Otherwise, it can be hard to see the design.

I also set up a spread of food for our revelers.

Pumpkin Carving Party Food Spread

I made deviled monster eye eggs, pumpkin bread, chili (with all the fixings), mummy dogs, and had candy and a veggie platter.  Drinks included blood orange soda, Ed Hardy Sangria, Black Cat Reisling, and Sparkling Apple Cider.  Everything was really yummy, especially the mummy dogs.

Mummy Hot Dogs

They are so easy to make!  Take two cans of crescent rolls, and two packages of hot dogs (14 dogs in total), and cut the cresent rolls into thin strips and wrap them around the hot dogs.  You can leave a little opening for the “eyes”, but I didn’t bother.  Wrap about 4 strips around each dog, and bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees in the oven.

I was proud of how my eyeball eggs turned out too, except I wish I had a little more white showing.

Deviled Egg Monster Eyeballs

A little food coloring goes a long way. I made the eggs as I normally would make deviled eggs, except I addded two drops of green food coloring to the yolks when mixing them up.  To complete the look, a toothpick with some red food coloring to draw on the veins, and a sliced olive for the center.

They are pretty simple recipes, and you can find them all (and lots of variations) online.

And one last picture- this years Halloween Hearth

Halloween Hearth 2013

I took some cuttings from some plants in my garden, and used my old Halloween decorations.  I know this picture is not very good, or show much detail, but it’s all I got for right now.  Soon I will share more pictures of my new house and garden… mwhahahaha!

This little party was so fun, maybe it will become a yearly tradition!