Bring on Halloween and pumpkin carving!

Hey...long time no blog! Life has been incredibly hectic the last couple of months, my husband has had some international photo gigs so we've been travelling a lot, which I love of course! It has been a while since I last blogged, so what a great way to get back into things than by blogging about the wonderful holidays coming up!

October is one of my favourite months, the fall colours start to surface, there are pumpkins in all the stores, and Halloween is coming up as well as Thanksgiving in one month :) This year I will, for the first time, be carving a pumpkin (very excited) so I have been looking around for design ideas for my big orange vegetable, and as usual, Martha has some great templates available on her website, check them out here.

Some of my favourite Halloween decorations on Martha's website include these cool Halloween eggs, check them out!

I may just have to make these as I definitely know how to decorate eggs, pumpkins on the other had I'll need to take step by step. Ok, so first you need to cut out the base of the pumpkin, they suggest using a saw:

The next step is the hollowing out of the pumpkin's interior, this part you can do with a spoon I'm told. I guess there is a fine line between making the walls thin enough to carve easily and too thin where the pumpkin walls break, I'll have to get advice from my American friends on this one :)

I personally would keep the pumpkin seeds as my dad used to dry them and roast them when my mum would cook pumpkin, yummy!

Finally, draw the design onto the pumpkin and begin carving!

I will post pictures of my pumpkin when it's done, I am thinking of what I would like to do, something with bats is coming to mind!

Halloween is not really popular in Australia, so i did not grow up with these traditions, which is a shame I say, Americans sure do know how to celebrate their holidays! I am trying to think of pumpkin-related recipes also, I tried once to make pumpkin pie from scratch, never again, bring on Publix Pumpkin Pie! One Aussie recipe does come to mind when I think of pumpkins however, "Pumpkin Scones", just because these are very Australian. Here's a recipe for pumpkin scones, which in Australia you would serve with jam and whipped cream...yummy!

INGREDIENTS

60g butter
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup cooked (440g) mashed pumpkin
2½ cups (375g) self-raising flour
pinch of salt
pinch bi-carb soda
milk, for glazing

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 220°C fan-forced and line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Beat butter, sugar and egg yolk together in a small bowl with an electric beater until combined; transfer to a larger bowl and stir in mashed pumpkin.
• Add self-raising flour, salt and bi-carb soda; mix until just combined.
• Place dough onto a floured surface and knead lightly.
• Roll or pat dough out to about 2cm thick.
• Cut scones out using a 5cm cookie cutter and place onto tray.
• Brush tops of scones lightly with a little milk.
• Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Enjoy your carving :) My next posts will be about Halloween parties and the upcoming "Movember", stay tuned :)