Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

Saturday was pumpkin carving day in the Stani-house! The weekend before we went up to Greenbluff with Nana and Papa and picked out our pumpkins. On Saturday - we began the process!!! This year Em was much more involved with the cleaning process and she was a trooper! She discovered that she really doesn't like the smell and the 'innards' of the pumpkin. More importantly she didn't give up and get discouraged - she just kept plugging away and cleaning out her pumpkin!

We decided this year for the first time to bake the pumpkin seeds and Em was great at picking out seeds. Her imagination eventually took over and before we knew it, we were part of Iron Chef and our secret ingredient was pumpkin! We had a time line and we had to make as many 'dishes' with pumpkin innards and scraps as possible. Alton Brown played an important role in the afternoon's activities and before I knew it, our three dishes were done. I of course, had to play the role of the the losing challenger and I served up slab-o-pumpkin, pumpkin innards and pumpkin taco. The judge didn't like my plating (or lack there of), but did like the creativity of my pumpkin taco. Iron Chef Emily was up...she presented the judge three plated dishes; pumpkin slab cheese and crackers, pumpkin innards spaghetti with 'shaved pumpkin' cheese, and a two layer pumpkin innards cake. Needless to say - the Iron Chef won! Some would say that I didn't stand a chance as she has the judge wrapped around her little finger!

Later that evening our friends Damian and Mariah came over and we spent the night carving out the pumpkins that we had cleaned! We had a great time and Em picked her design, punched it out and carved it with minimal help from Dad!! What an independent stink!!!

Damian and Mike had a great time carving while Mariah and I kept the conversation going! Mariah and I agreed that while pumpkin carving is fun...it can be way too tedious for late night fun!!! At the end of the evening (midnight for the big kids) we had many pumpkins to be proud of and we had a ton of fun in the process!