Spotlight of the Squash

I have something of a love-hate dislike relationship with the tradition of pumpkin carving.  It's fun to go to the pumpkin patch, and pick out a seriously perfect, 'Great Pumpkin'. 

But then you have to open it and deal with the messiness.

 

My sentiments echo Natalie's.

Gross and cool at the same time....not many things get that distinction.

The real 'dislike' part of this relationship is new for me this year.  Now that the kids are older, I tried to purchase some pumpkin carving kits, so that they can help a little more with the carving.  Here enlies the problem.  Who decided to put those extremely complicated patterns with the kid-friendly kit?  Were they not thinking of the parents?  This backfired a bit and actually left me with more work.  I digress and sound incredibly negative, my apologies. It's just that I still love that easy traditional smiling, triangle eyed jack-o-lantern.

Each child got to pick out a pattern (although I admit I did try to encourage some of the easier patterns).  For Natalie's she picked out a kitty - I'm glad she stays so true to herself.  And Linnea's was supposed to be a web and spider...after the kids were finished and had left me with the real work, I decided to turn that webbed pumpkin around and give it the SMILE treatment.

In the end I think everyone was happy with the result - although I can say, I am not a good pumpkin carver, and perhaps next year is Joe's turn to spearhead this event.  In truth, this is my favorite kind of pumpkin....

The pumpkin isn't the only squash that gets some attention this time of year in our household.  Tonight was also our first batch of butternut squash soup....mmmmm.

Complete with pumpkin seed oil and jalapenos

Happy carving!!