What Do You Do After Halloween’s Over?
October 18, 2008 by Noel
Filed under Green Living
Oh all the excitement for Halloween! You know. That holiday when everybody gets ghoulish and scary and not so pretty unlike most of the year. And it is the time to scare everyone and get really ghastly with all the fake eyeballs and the weird food. And don’t forget the pumpkins as well!Those pumpkins really make good Jack O’ Lanterns. But what do you do with them once Halloween is over? Surely you wouldn’t want them hanging around until Christmas. Oh just imagine what those pumpkins would look like by then!
Well, in case you don’t know what to do with your Jack O’ Lanterns, then you can actually use what’s left to create some pumpkin pies or whatever pumpkin dish you want. That would be really good. Or you can also use the seeds and bake them and you get a snack that you know does not contain any preservatives.
What other ideas do you have with what to do with these pumpkins?
Source: GlamSpirit
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
One of my favorite recipes that I have used for a chili cook off or two is pumpkin and black bean chili.
Prepare the pumpkin by chopping into large chunks and applying butter, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Then wrap in foil and bake for 1 hour at about 200 or 250 degrees until the pumpkin is soft.
While this is going on, add some (1 cup or so) dry black beans (I also use pinto and kidney beans) to a crock pot with enough water to cover them and set the crock pot on high.
Check the pumpkin after about 45 minutes, and leave for 15 minutes longer each time if it isn’t soft enough. When done, take off the peel of the pumpkin and put the rest in your crock pot with the beans, and add each of the following:
1 diced red onion
1 diced jalapeño pepper
1 diced Serrano pepper
1 diced green bell pepper
Then add your favorite spices – I added liquid hickory smoke, season salt, garlic powder, onion powder, bacon salt, cayenne pepper, chili powder, and paprika.
Let simmer in the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours and you’re all set!