How I carved my first pumpkin for Halloween

Halloween is fast becoming a popular in these parts of Asia.  I myself was not really ready to jump into the band wagon, if not for my kids who were already at the age to appreciate the costumes, treats, candies, and the joy's of trick or treating.  We never even planned to put up any decorations for Halloween.  Unfortunately, during one of our trips to buy plants and seeds for our garden, We came upon some pumpkins for sale at The Garden Center in Mother Ignacia Quezon City.   This can be found right beside St. Mary's QC just in front of Baluarte Resto Bar and Grill in Timog Ave. QC.  Pumpkins are very rare and aren't freely sold in super markets so it was refreshing to see lots of them here.  The pumpkins just looked to good that We couldn't resist to take one home.  We chose a medium sized and not yet ripe pumpkin, for easy storage and could last us through Halloween.

We decided to carve the pumpkin and turn the pumpkin meat into soup.  Here are some of the steps I did to carve our very first pumpkin:

1. Wipe the pumpkin dry with a paper towel and cut of the top of the pumpkin.

2. Using a spoon scoop out the seeds and the meat of your pumpkin.  Don't throw away the pumpkin meat, you can still make them into a soup or dessert.  There are a lot of recipes that can be found in the Internet.

3.  A not too ripe pumpkin seems best for carving as the skin is still hard enough to last and won't crumble easily.  However, the pumpkin meat may still be too hard for a spoon as you may need a hand held coconut grater to remove the pumpkin meat.













4. From this point you can either make your own Jack'O Lantern patter or you could download Lot's of free patterns from the Internet.  Since  this was the first time I was going to carve a pumpkin, I decided to download a free pattern from the Internet to be safe.  I got the pattern from www.dtk-holidays.com.

5. Print the pattern and cut-out the pattern using your NT cutter. Be extra careful that you don't cut your hands.




6. Lay-out the pattern on the face of your pumpkin and secure it in place using tape.

7.  Trace the pattern using a push pin by poking the pumpkin and making dotted lines along the pattern. Remember that you're tracing the pattern on a curved surface, so you may need to hold the pattern in place along the pumpkin's face.

8. Using a carving or pointed serrated knife, you can now trace the pattern and start carving you pumpkin. Please take extra precaution not to cut your hands.



9. Smoothen-out the edges with your knife to remove any excess.

10. You can now place a lighted candle inside your Jack'O Lantern and put back the top.

11.  Congratulations, your done...