Okay Jack, time for your lobotomy!- Calvin and Hobbes

  (by Bill Watterson because I obviously didn't write Calvin and Hobbes)

     

     While we don't celebrate Halloween, (instead we celebrate Reformation Day on October 31ist and usually try to help out at our church's fall festival for the kiddies. You can read more about it here) I had to post the picture for you to get my reference.

     While we were in Fresh Market on Saturday, I passed so many cool varieties of pumpkins. I saw a basket of the smallish, organic variety and picked the cutest one. And yes, cute does matter.  I've never actually cooked a regular orange pumpkin before. So I thought "Why not?" since it's fall and how often do I get an excuse to cook these things? The last time I cut this type of pumpkin open was probably the last jack-o-lantern I made probably when I was seven. I take that back, more than likely my mom or dad did all the work, and I picked the design. But it seemed pretty easy, right? Nope. Even with my gigantic, super sharp meat cleaver, it seriously took some elbow grease and patience. 

     After finally cutting the top off of Mr. Pumpkin, (I had to pick an ambiguous name for it otherwise I wouldn't have been able to cut it open) scraping and separating the seeds from the pulp, I sliced a small piece off to make pumpkin syrup for spiced pumpkin soy lattes. It turned out okay. I made a small batch so I could  make small adjustments to perfect it. Then I rinsed off the seeds, added a little butter, and now they're roasting in the oven. I hope they turn out well, because I've never actually eaten pumpkin seeds before....

     The boy came home to hang out a bit during lunch and gifted me a sandwich and some chocolate. I really do have a thoughtful guy. :)