Knowing what I know now, next year's pumpkin event will be done quite differently...


First, I will buy my pumpkin at a pumpkin patch rather than at Albertson's 'pumpkin patch' aka grocery store. Hehe. As the bottom picture shows, my pumpkin is a lot smaller than Kevin's. Also, maybe it didn't help that I had a very small selection to choose from since I bought the pumpkin on Halloween Eve. However, should I buy my pumpkin so many days in advance? That leads to number two.


When I went to my kitchen, a very wet floor and sunken pumpkin awaited me. Thankfully my pumpkin was wrapped in two plastic bags, but I still had a large clean-up job. I walked over to inspect the smushed pumpkin only to realize that it was dripping pumpkin juice. So I had to wipe the counter and the floor, over and over again. Ugh.. I think it left a smell. Lesson learned: Next year I will leave my carved pumpkin at someone else's house.


As for number three, we're going to talk about pumpkin seeds. I saved up my pumpkin seeds so I could try and bake them. I heard baked pumpkin seeds tasted yummy so I wanted to try it. I finally had time to bake the seeds yesterday, only to discover that there was a web of mold covering it. Oops.. I didn't put it in the fridge. Next year, the seeds go in the fridge.


This year: Pumpkin bought on 10/30 --> carved on 10/30 --> discovered moldy pumpkin seeds 11/3 --> pumpkin collapsed and juice all over floor on 11/4.


Next year, two options: 1) don't carve a pumpkin, 2) buy pumpkin earlier, leave pumpkin at someone else's house or dispose day after Halloween, and put pumpkin seeds in fridge.


Ugh.. right now I don't even want to think about pumpkins. The juice smell was so horrible. I think I will need a year to get over this. =P