Don’t like pumpkins? Make jack-o-lanterns from oranges!
Well huh. I happen to love real jack-o-lanterns, but there’s no denying that it’s a time-consuming task that can feel more like work than fun by the end.
Unless you’re super crafty and can spend tons of time making elaborate designs, then the thrill of carving pumpkins tends to die after a few years of making more or less the same face every year.
These oranges are on a much smaller scale, though, and would be perfect for wanting to decorate and celebrate, but without as much effort and time. I imagine they’ll still be messy and the stickiness of oranges would rival pumpkins’ sliminess for which is worse.
After a few times of lighting the candles inside, these would dry out and be ready to be tossed into the trash (or garbage disposal for an easy refresher!). Realistically, they’d probably sit on my own counter for far longer than that, but I can guarantee you that they’d still make it to the trash before the melting, molding pumpkins on my porch would.
Oh, and at least with these, when you scoop out the middles, you can simply eat the insides immediately. I’ve had my fair share of throwing hacking up pumpkins for puree and roasted pumpkin seeds, but there’s something appealing about not having to put in nearly as much work for instant satisfaction with these.
How to teach kids table manners
This is not how you do it.
“No! I don’t want that!” Wow, somebody’s a little cranky when they don’t get their pizza…
Also, no, I have no idea what you just watched either…. let me know if you have a clue. :P
Giant Halloween pumpkin burger – Trick or treat?
It’s both a Halloween trick and a treat, no?
The girls love burgers, so I thought it’d be a blast to make an extra large one. It was Fall of 2009 and it was probably one of the first times I went on a true pumpkin kick. I was loving “look alikes” at the time, too, so it just fit, don’t you think?
Anyway, I’ll leave you with the pictures. Details of how I made it are at the bottom.
“Bun” – Carve the pumpkin in half. By “carve,” what I really mean is that I had to fight with it and a butcher knife until I finally won. It was close, though. This isn’t the same as being able to slice off the top for a jack-o-lantern or throwing a pumpkin to bust it into chunks. Trying to get it perfectly even down the middle was a pain in the butt. Ugh. Worth every minute, though. The pumpkin seeds were turned into fake sesame seeds by gluing them on top to look like a real burger bun.
Meat – A mix of beef and turkey so that it wasn’t as greasy as pure beef would’ve been. That meant I could get a full patty to hold together instead of it breaking apart. I cooked it on a large round cookie sheet and let it cool just slightly before sliding it onto the ‘bun.’
Toppings – Tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, cheese…. nothing special here. The cheese was left in small slices and not spread across the entire thing so that it made it easy to serve individual burgers after we deconstructed it.
Serving – I cut it into jagged squares-ish, based loosely around the cheese and tomato slices fell and let each person reconstruct their own burger on a regular bun. Then they could add their own condiments and trade toppings they don’t like to other people before eating. You could easily toss them in a toaster oven to melt the cheese more or add the cheese to the whole patty before putting the burger together in the first place. I wasn’t sure how well it would hold my first time, though.
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