Halloween Hijinks

We love Halloween and every year something happens to make us love it a little bit more.

In 1993 I spotted a hand lettered sign in the window of an old isolated farmhouse. "Homemade costumes." Ignoring every last chapter of every Stephen King novel I've ever read, I poked my head in the front door. Inside, for the price of a cheap grocery store costume, I found gorgeous, handmade heirloom costumes. My children, previously little waifs whose mother could not thread a needle, held their heads high during the nursery school costume parade and I returned to that farmhouse annually until its owner moved away.
Our neighbors love Halloween as much as we do. We live on an active trick-or-treat street and most years the fall leaves still cling to the trees that canopy it and lit jack o-lanterns dot the stoops alongside. When it doesn't snow or sleet, it makes a pretty picture.
Our house usually sports a scarecrow or two, several carved pumpkins…and whatever Molly is carving that year. She began with a white pumpkin, followed the next year by a watermelon, an apple, a green and red pepper, a duck-shaped gourd and, this year, a pineapple.
We'd like to hear about your traditions. Meanwhile, we hope you all enjoy a festive and safe evening. Happy Halloween from Molly and me.

2008 was the year of the Green and Red Pepper.

In 2009 the pumpkin crop in our backyard failed miserably and
the farmer's market pumpkins were especially gutsy. Molly carved
an apple that year. (It was very popular...with the ants).

This year she gutted a pineapple.

Dude. Happy Halloween.

She made a pineapple/coconut pie with the guts. Yummy.

Ingredients

1 (9 inch) pie shell, baked

2 cups pineapple guts (do not drain)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 cup coconut flakes

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1.       Mix up the pineapple guts, flour, sugar, and egg. Blend until smooth.

2.       Pour into a sauce pan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick. Remove from heat. Stir in coconut, butter and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into baked pie shell. Cool until set. I cooled mine overnight. Next time I would use less sugar.