Jack-o-Lanterns:
You can never have too many pumpkins. For one memorable party I carved 25,
all shapes and sizes. We had them
leading the way up the driveway, like luminaries. But the coolest thing was when we wedged lit
pumpkins into our trees.
We even had them on the roof of the house! Wayyyy cool.
The
Moonlit Road - Southern Ghost stories and strange
folktales. Some excellent yarns and a visual delight!
Pesky's Punkin Seeds Carve your pumpkin, and try to remove all the guts from the seeds. Place the
seeds on a baking sheet and bake in a 250 degree oven for 45 minutes. Mix a 1/4 teaspoon
of butter or margarine into the seeds. (You don't want too much, just try to spread
it amongst the seeds.) Sprinkle with salt and bake another 15 minutes, or until dried and
warm. Store in a tightly sealed container.
Pesky's Dinner in a Pumpkin
1 small to medium pie pumpkin
1 can mushrooms (my fave are Chinese
straw mushrooms), drained
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1 10-oz can Campbell's
Golden Mushroom soup (or if all else
fails, regular Mushroom)
2 TBS vegetable oil
1 8-oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork sausage
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
2 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS brown sugar
Cut off top of pumpkin; clean out seeds and pulp. salt inside walls
generously.
In a large skillet, saute' onion in oil
until tender; add meat and brown. Drain excess grease from meat. Add soy sauce, brown
sugar, mushrooms and soup; simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cooked rice and
water chestnuts. Spoon mixture into pumpkin shell. Replace pumpkin top and
place entire pumpkin, with filling, in a baking pan. Add 1/4 inch water
to baking dish. Bake for 1 hour to 1- 1/2 hour in 350 degree oven, or
until inside meat of pumpkin is tender. Put pumpkin on a serving plate; remove top
to serve, scoop out cooked pumpkin along with the meat and rice stuffing. Serves 6 people
Samhain
Eve the full scoop from Wikipedia.com Samhain
is a harvest fest, it is a time of celebration!
It's a time to get in touch with our own spirit, and to
celebrate the spirit everlasting. Death is a major symbol
of Samhain, but not the finality of death, it is rebirth,
the triumph of life spirit over death. It is also a
segment in time whenit is said the thin veil between the world of the dead
and the world of the living is almost transmutable. We can
touch spirits with our loved dead. Invite deceased
ancestors and loved ones to join with you., to bless you with
insight and support. Burn a bonfire to light the way for
them, and to keep them warm. Play their favorite music,
serve their favorite foods, celebrate their spirit joyfully and
see if you can feel their presence with you!
With
the veil between our world and the spirit world stretched thin,
it is also a traditional time for scrying, fortune telling, or
Tarot work.
Let me do a reading for you!
