Since it’s my first Halloween in the US, I wanted to do a “jack-o-lantern”, this carved pumpkin with a monster face. I’m supposed to leave it by a window or in front of my building so kids can came and “trick or treat” me, but I don’t know if kids are coming and I selfishly want to keep it inside my place. So here it is: my first attempt of carving a pumpkin and my own DIY…
First step: buy a pumpkin. Very easy: there are in every supermarkets. Since we recently spent a weekend in Vermont, we bought a big one and two cutties for a cheap price. We bought them on a farm, we had to drop money on a jar, there wasn’t any seller. Who would steal Halloween pumpkins? I’m sure you would be followed by some haunted spirits in case you tried.
Second step: find a pattern. I’m pretty clumsy with long knives (I would say in French that I have two left hands…) so I decided to keep it simple: two triangles for the eyes, and a teeth-less mouth, that should be enough for a first shot. I had a look a other patterns (all that I’ve found about Halloween is on Pinterest): some pumpkins were not done by amateurs. I’m sure that competitions should exist.
Third step: curve the pumpkin. Well, honestly, it’s not easy. Guess what? Pumpkin shell is hard to cut. First, I curved a “hat” to the pumpkin like if I wanted to do tomate farcie (stuffed tomatoes), then I emptied it, using spoon, knives and my own hands. I drew the face monstrer on the pumpkin, but my pen wasn’t working on it. And then it was on the beginning of the butchery-so-called-artistic-carving of the pumpkin. After a first sketch, I looked at it ant tried to do better with a smaller knife. Eventually I put two candles inside, but not real ones to avoid any useless fire at my apartment.
Fourth step: do a cute not too creepy Halloween still-life. My place is small, so the choice of “where I put my jack-o-lantern” isn’t really an issue. For smelly issues, I didn’t put it close to my bed, even if the light is pretty nice. I simply let my Jacky in front of the fake chimney. Thanks to this Vermont weekend, we had fall leaves and even tree bark – they were awfully rotting in a bag. And now they found a new life in my “Jack-o-lantern still-life”. That’s the magic of Halloween!
Fifth step: cook the pumpkin. You can do mashed pumpkin, soup, etc. But what I learnt is that you can cook the pumpkin seeds! I boiled them and then roasted them with olive oil and tons of salt. Well, it wasn’t the best recipe of the year but I liked the salty crunch.
Who did some decoration for Halloween?
