Pumpkins, Punkins, and The Root Beer House

Definitions:

Pumpkins--a member of the squash family; carved into Jack-O-Lanterns during Halloween, and baked into pies at Thanksgiving.  May be made into other delicious dishes, as below…

Punkins--term of endearment, usually reserved for my kids, or anyone else’s kids, and sometimes people’s dogs.  Babies may be called punkin seeds, naturally.

Dressing up in costumes was always fun, and even though I am forty something, I still do it every year.  And God bless my husband, who not only tolerates this, but who dresses up with me.   We tend toward historical figures, or favorite characters from the previous year’s popular movies. And always, always, homemade costumes.  Like showing up at prom in the same dress as someone else, you don’t want to run into another Pink Cotton Candy Fairy on the same sidewalk, whilst trick or treating.

Octomom!

And every year, it’s a new theme–because Heaven forbid we get caught wearing the same thing twice!!

Greg as "Elf"--this was the best costume EVER! He handed out candy canes to the trick-or-treaters

Max always has a half dozen of his friends at the house, and Halloween is no different.  They have had some pretty awesome costumes over the years…

Mad Max, the Rodeo Clown

last year, these three football players were, well, not football players for Halloween

Max and Tuff were Smurftastic this year

We always give out plenty of candy.  We live in the last real neighborhood in the incorporated part of our town, so all the families from the farms and ranches up the road come to our neighborhood to do their trick or treating.  In 2002, it was a particularly warm and muggy Halloween, and I thought it would be nice to serve something cold to drink to the trick-or-treaters and their families.  We bought about 15-3 liter bottles of root beer and poured it over dry ice in a witch’s cauldron.  The dry ice super-cools the drink, and turns into a very cold, slushy version of itself.  For the worry warts out there–have no fear–as long as no dry ice makes it into anyone’s cups and mouths, it is perfectly safe.  Anyway, it was very popular.  Very popular.  We had half the high school sitting in our front yard drinking iced root beer and having a blast.  The next year, we did it again.  And you know, after something happens twice, it’s a tradition.  A few years later we started handing out hot dogs too.  And now, groups of kids come running up our driveway yelling, “it’s the Root Beer House”, or “it’s the Hot Dog House”…

Charlie Sheen and his Goddess (Reagan and Ashtyn)

It would be easy to think that what we are doing doesn’t mean anything–that it is just something we do on Halloween night, but we have had some really great experiences over the years.  We have seen the little Ladybug grown into a high school senior, and the Buzz Lightyear is now a Marine.  One lady told us that she looks forward to our Halloween festivities all year, and she recanted in perfect order every costume that Greg and I have worn for 9 years.  Are you kidding?  I couldn’t remember costume I wore 2 years ago without looking at pictures.

Anyway, we have learned that what are doing really means something to our neighbors, and that really means a lot to us. I think it illustrates what we aren’t just giving out hot dogs, and iced root beer.  We are keeping alive in small town America some things that have all but disappeared in most cities. In fact, in most cities, one should neither accept nor eat hot dogs and soda from people he or she does not know…We are perpetuating the front porch attitude once so pervasive across the South, but sometimes hard to find these days.  We are celebrating with friends we may not know by name, but with whom we share a town and a shared spirit of community. This year, we served up 200 hot dogs and 21 3-liter bottles of root beer.  That’s a bunch of community!

Speaking of pumpkins (yes, I know I wasn’t), I hate carving them.  The sticky stringy mess just grosses me out.  We haven’t carved one for at least 4 years, opting instead for one of those foams ones that plug in.  How sick is that?  This year, I got a wild hair, and decided we should carve a real one this year.  I am sure this had something to do with the fact that it had been way too long since I had made fresh roasted pumpkin seeds, and was jonesing for hot, sweet, salty ones…Well, we wound up doing three of them. Greg broke out the power tools this year–the jig saw, dremmel tool, and drill, and we wound up turning out three carved pumpkins, as seen below:

Before, During, and After the Party

These yielded about three cups of seeds, so of course, I had to roast them.  My recipe follows ( sweet and hot, my favorite combination), but you can easily substitute any spice blend you like.  They are good both sweet and savory, so just make them what you want them to be!

Sweet Hot Pumpkin Seeds

3 cups fresh pumpkin seeds

6 T melted butter

2 T sugar

1 t salt

1 t cayenne pepper

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t allspice

1/2 t nutmeg

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Line a large jelly roll pan with foil.  Rinse seeds in a colander and remove all of the pulp and strings.  Dry briefly on paper towels.  Mix with remaining ingredients, and spread on baking pan.  Bake for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes before munching!