Living in France has pretty much alleviated that stress - no one really actually cares about Halloween here, and a when they do, even the least creative American can whip up a costume on a whim for the Frenchie version of a Halloween party.
So imagine my happiness when my expat friend L and her new Frenchie husband G, invited a group of us over for a Halloween night of pumpkin carving and tasty seasonal eats! She even specified that we didn't have to dress up - I love her. "Just bring wine, a bag of candy and a pumpkin to carve," she said - easy enough right?
Copain and I went to the marché on Sunday to buy our weekly weight in veggies and to try and find a pumpkin...it was not as easy as we thought it would be. We found butternut squash, cut up slices of gigantic pumpkin and potimarron, but no normal pumpkins for carving (insert sad face here). Then suddenly I felt bad buying a pumpkin that would only serve for carving - usually I make pies and muffins and other delicious goodness. This poor (for the moment non-existant) pumpkin!
We decided on a small potimarron - it was all I could muster...and once I arrived at L and G's, I saw that we were in good company! (Not sure how L found the actual carving pumpkins, but somehow she did). After an amazing dinner of sweet potatoes, marinated pork, vegetable terrine and freshly juiced and spiced apple cider, it was time for pumpkin carving!
Copain was inspired by some crazy carving designs that he found on the web, but I talked some sense into him, reminding him that our potimarron was 1/3 the size of a normal pumpkin...
Ours is the little, smiley guy on the right
This is the kind of Halloween I can get behind - I only wish that we'd had little trick-or-treaters knocking at the door!
