This is where I left Steve in the kids; all set up to make jack ‘o lanterns, while I went down to the other house to wash up.

And this:
is the kind of ridiculousness that I came back up to.

Right.

But jack ‘o lanterns were made. I find that there is a year or two where kids r-e-a-l-l-y want to do some carving, but aren’t yet ready to wield a knife (or well, their parents aren’t yet ready for them to). For those in between years, when painting is no longer satisfying, we’ve taken to using an apple corer. It works great! Mom or Dad can get it started and the kiddo in question can push it the rest of the way through. The experience of poking those perfectly shaped holes is deeply gratifying to little people and it creates a really funky and unique pumpkin. All lit up it’s kind of reminiscent of a disco ball! Even the big kids wanted to borrow the apple corer to embellish their lanterns.

With these gigantic pumpkins all scooped out there were lots and lots of seeds for roasting:

I tend to do something different with these every year. This year we did them up in olive oil, curry, and sea salt with a touch of cinnamon. My kids all love curry, so it seemed the way to go.

And from the flesh we had…pie!

I can’t give you a recipe for the filling, unfortunately. It was very, very good though, made with coconut milk and maple syrup and just the right combination of spices. I promise that in the event that I ever have running water again, I will have loads of recipes to share, but for now… the prospect of having addition dishes to wash, just to have exact measurements, well, let’s just say it’s too much. When I can just eye-ball it and get everyone here fed, I do.

I can, however, give you a recipe for the crust I used (because my vitamix has the measurements already marked out, right there on the side).

Almond Crust

2 Cups ground almonds
4 T coconut oil
2 T agave nectar
pinch of salt

Grind up all the ingredients together in a food processor until well combined, but still coarse. Press into the bottom of a pie pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. This makes two crusts.

This was really good in a different, hearty and harvest-y kind of way. I do think that I’m still going to do a more traditional pumpkin pie crust for Thanksgiving though. I’m feeling like, as enjoyable as this was, it didn’t quite fulfill my need for that once a year fix.