We are not huge Halloween fans and are not much for the scariness or gore of it all, but we do love dressing up in fun costumes, carving pumpkins and making some delicious food! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to dress like a pioneer (my favorite!), but my girls opted for something more fun like a gypsy and a medieval queen and of course our precious puppy was a sushi!!
We kept our festivities quite simple — we carved pumpkins from jack-o-lantern pumpkins since they are larger making them perfect for pumpkin carving! You can also bake the seeds to munch on later – just toss the washed seeds in a drizzle of oil and seasonings of choice and bake until golden brown, stirring every 15 minutes. Check out our post here on pumpkins when we visited our local pumpkin patch: https://www.ourcityhomestead.com/at-the-pumpkin-patch/
We carved our pumpkins the other day so we could enjoy them a bit and Halloween evening, they will be placed outside with a candle inside (the old fashioned way of lighting pumpkins!) while we set up our goodie station to hand out treats to the trick-or-treaters that come by!
Caramel Apples. No Halloween is complete without delicious caramel apples! And we make it the no-fuss, easy way! Unwrap a bunch of caramels and place in a pot with a few spoons of cream. Place on medium-low heat and stir often until melted. The caramel will set fast, so you have to work quickly! We wash the apples and place sticks in ahead of time, so once the caramel is ready, we can dip quickly, dip in fun sprinkles or almonds and then place on parchment paper to set. These are so yummy and hard to eat just one!
Carving. We usually attach a pattern to the pumpkin, poke holes to outline the design, remove the paper and then carve. Sometimes we do complicated designs and sometimes we do more simplistic designs. No matter what is carved, carving pumpkins are a lot of fun! Remove the guts, wash the pumpkin seeds for later, carve and light up – no Halloween is complete without a fun jack-o-lantern!
Jack-o-lanterns actually date back to the 1600’s and refers to a night watchman who would carry a lantern and those watchmen in Britain whose names were unknown were then simply called Jack — “Jack of the lantern.” There is also Irish folklore about Jack, wandering the earth in purgatory with a lit turnip to guide his way — Jack of the lantern. Celtic pagans celebrating the end of summer, stemming from times of long ago (prior to 1000 AD), would carve vegetables like turnips with scary faces and place them out which were illuminated by coal, candles or wood embers to ward off evil spirits. It was not until the 1800’s when those traditions came to America by Irish and Scottish immigrants settling here. Later with the scarcity of turnips, pumpkin carving began to gain popularity and by the 1920’s we embraced pumpkin carving at Halloween as a fun family activity. We carve pumpkins every Halloween for no other reason than simply put, it is fun!
Veggie Skeleton. We enjoy making some healthy food with a festive edge! After all those sweet treats, something a little healthy is needed! Assemble skeleton with your favorite veggies — you can make it as large or small as you like, depending upon the size of your plate or platter! In the bowl of dip, you can add olives for eyes! We always make our own dip using yogurt, a bit of mayo and our favorite seasonings like dill or Italian seasoning or even homemade taco seasoning.
Monster Bites. These sweet treats are delicious and taste similar to a peanut butter ball! These are a perfect alternative to a nut allergy and can easily be made gluten free by using gluten free crispy rice cereal! Making these into monsters make them easy to decorate and simple to prepare!
1 tbsp butter
1 cup sunflower seed butter or nut butter of choice
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp water
1 cup Crispy Rice cereal
Melt butter and seed/nut butter together in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add icing sugar, water and crispy rice cereal. Mix well. If mixture seems to crumbly, add a bit more water. Roll into balls and set in fridge to cool. Meanwhile, melt colored chocolate of choice. Remove treats from fridge and place on parchment paper. Spoon melted chocolate over top and decorate with candy eyes, Halloween sprinkles, chocolate chips, bone candies and so on. Let set before enjoying.
I sometimes dip fruit like strawberries in orange chocolate for pumpkins or banana halves in white chocolate for ghosts and then draw on faces with melted dark chocolate, or use mini chocolate coated candies or candy eyes. There’s so much you can create and so many goodies to enjoy and fun to be had!
What is your favorite thing to do or eat on Halloween?
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours