Halloween-

[kittygrrl]

Post anything!

[kittygrrl]

it's known...Pumpkins are about the scariest i can go...

[kittygrrl]

Pumpkin Chai Tea
(it sounds complicated but it's not & so worth it)
2 cups filtered water
1 tablespoon fresh ginger {about 1 inch chunk} peeled, grated/finely minced
2 tablespoons cinnamon chips or 1 stick cinnamon
2 teaspoons fennel seed
1 teaspoon cloves
2 black peppercorns
¾ cup homemade pumpkin puree or pumpkin puree
3 tablespoons honey
3 cups nutmilk or full fat coconut milk

In a medium-size saucepan, add water and bring to a boil.
Peel ginger and grate with a microplane or standing grater.
Combine cinnamon chips (broken pieces of cinnamon stick), fennel seed, cloves and peppercorns in a small bowl.
Add grated ginger and spices to the boiling water. Remove from heat, COVER and let steep for 25-30 minutes (30 minutes = an infusion, meaning you will get full nutritional properties from the spices).
When tea is almost done steeping, add pumpkin puree, honey and milk to the blender. Pulse or puree to blend.
Strain tea into blender. Carefully pulse to combine, the blender will be more than halfway full, so be very careful blending (otherwise the liquid will overflow).
Pour back into the saucepan and heat over low heat to desired temperature.
Serve hot. NOTE: If you prefer a super smooth consistency (no pumpkin puree "pulp"), strain before drinking.

[Stone-Butch]

In my younger days I loved going to our club for halloween costume night. I have plenty of pictures and loved every minute. I can honestly say I never mised a halloween but when the club closed I never bothered to check out another one. Yes, I did win many trophies for costume and miss it terribly. My favorite time of year, autumn and its colors and Halloween the best holiday for me and my friends ever.

[Soft*Silver]

I love Halloween! It used to be all about dressing up and going to parties. But nowadays it’s about my grandchildren! I can’t wait to find out what they’re going to be for Halloween this year. My oldest who is now nine has been wonder woman for the past four years because she loves her so much. Last year the littlest one who is now seven, was Medusa.

[kittygrrl]

[kittygrrl]

[kittygrrl]

something to consider ..
the next time you make tea

[Bèsame*]

[kittygrrl]

sleepless

[kittygrrl]

[kittygrrl]

[kittygrrl]

[kittygrrl]

i love...a little scream in my coffee

[Bèsame*]

This is on my Halloween shirt. (A black tee.)

[Bèsame*]

This is quirky and fun!!!

[Orema]

A Professional Pumpkin Carver Spills His Guts

Adam Bierton is allergic to pumpkins, but that doesn’t stop him from carving dozens each fall, the most intricate of which can cost $5,000.


Mr. Bierton comes up with carving motifs based on pumpkins’ sizes and shapes.Credit...Amir Hamja/The New York Times

A group of children watched as Adam Bierton made his first few slashes into the meat of a pumpkin at the New York Botanical Garden earlier this month.


In addition to events like those at the botanical garden, Mr. Bierton has corporate clients including Starbucks and the BBC.Credit...Amir Hamja/The New York Times

Using a tool that resembled a carrot peeler, Mr. Bierton scored a horizontal eyebrow ridge and the grooves of a frown. Over the course of three hours, a steady crowd of about 20 people looked on as heaps of orange pulp formed at his feet. Every so often he spritzed the pumpkin’s facade with a bottle of lemon juice to keep its flesh dewy.

“It looks like Javier Bardem,” Jasmine Taby, a 24-year-old college student in the Bronx, said as she watched the face being carved.

Mr. Bierton, 40, is a pumpkin carver who expects to carve more than 100 pumpkins this fall. His pumpkins appear to be snarling or wailing, and often have bulging eyeballs that he scoops from russet potatoes using a melon baller. Unlike hollowed-out jack-o’-lanterns, most of his carvings have their guts intact and are not lit from within.

His interest started in childhood, partly from watching his father carve. “My household was very creative because my mother was a hairdresser and my dad was a photographer,” he said. “My dad was always doing really outlandish jack-o’-lanterns, like, turning them upside down. He would always grab the deformed pumpkin.”



Some pumpkins he carves have bulging eyeballs that he scoops from russet potatoes.Credit...Amir Hamja/The New York Times


His carving gear includes ribbon tools and other instruments for making ceramics.Credit...Amir Hamja/The New York Times

Later, as a student at the School of the Arts in Rochester, N.Y., he began sculpting with clay, plaster and metal. He brought tools for making ceramics home from school so he could use them on pumpkins. After honing his technique under the tutelage of other carvers, he was part of a team that won a season of “Halloween Wars,” a pumpkin-carving competition show on Food Network, in 2015.

Now Mr. Bierton, who still lives in Rochester, is one of a handful of artists who carve professionally throughout a frenzied season that begins in September and ends on Nov. 1.

He has been doing weekend demonstrations each fall since 2018 at the botanical garden in the Bronx, where the edited interview below took place. Time pressure, he said, is far from his only challenge.

“I’m actually mildly allergic to pumpkin,” he said. “It’s like, I love something and it fights me. Maybe that’s why I’m so attracted to it.”

How did you go from an amateur to a professional pumpkin carver?
I had a tradition where every single year I would do an eight-hour carving. The first one I did was Beetlejuice, that was probably in 2000. I did it primarily with a paring knife and an X-acto blade. In 2012, my mom sent me a story about the Maniac Pumpkin Carvers, a pumpkin-carving team, and I reached out.

Wait, what’s a pumpkin-carving team?
Well, there are very few of them. Maniac Pumpkin Carvers are two guys, Marc Evan and Chris Soria, who bring in artists during the season. They primarily do etching work, which is a style of carving where you’re peeling the skin and illuminating the pumpkins from the inside. I worked for them for a couple of years.

How many top-tier carvers are there in the United States?
I think there are fewer than 20 of us that are on the same level. And then there are another 20 that are up-and-coming.

Walk me through your carving process.
I bathe all my pumpkins and store them with a fan blowing on them so bugs don’t get in there. Then the first step is to to peel the pumpkin. You remove the hard orange skin, which allows access to that beautiful flesh that’s underneath, which is great for sculpting. Next I’ll block in the face with a ribbon tool. I’m kind of playing with perspective and drawing with shadow: the deeper the cut, the darker the shadow. Gradually, I start to work with smaller tools, and I finish with knife work.

How do you make money carving pumpkins?
Working live events. My contract with New York Botanical Garden is the majority of my season. And then a lot of the other work is with brands that are looking for pumpkins for promotional use on social media — like logo pumpkins and time-lapse stuff. I’m working with Starbucks and the BBC this year.

How much do corporate clients usually pay for pumpkins?
A pumpkin can range anywhere between $400 and $5,000. I have a dream to replace my entire year’s salary with the pumpkin season. I’m not quite there yet.

What do you like about pumpkins as a medium?
Every single pumpkin is unique, and the material changes. It’s not a consistent medium like wood or clay. I don’t usually have a design before I have a pumpkin — the size and shape leads into the design. I also love the ephemeral part. I have to create something that I can’t keep.

Do you carve other stuff — zucchini?
I don’t have any interest in, like, watermelons or stuff like that. I don’t know why. I should totally start working with another medium that doesn’t decompose in two days.

Do you get V.I.P. pumpkin patch access?
Oh yeah. I have a very close relationship with the farmer at the pumpkin patch I go to in Rochester. We start talking early in the season and he tells me how the crops are. I have to be their best customer. I’m spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on pumpkins.

What does the inside of your fridge look like?
I have an industrial fridge that has a glass front. It’s filled with carvings. And all of my pumpkins are wrapped in Saran wrap, which adds a whole other layer of creep. I have all my guys in there and they’re screaming at me.


Unlike jack-o’-lanterns, most of Mr. Bierton's carvings have their guts intact and are not lit from within.Credit...Photographs via Adam Bierton

What do most people do wrong when carving?
The biggest mistake is cutting a hole in the top of the pumpkin.

Say more!
Something I learned is to go in through the back, by cutting a big square or an octagon. Cutting a hole in the top of the pumpkin takes away from the character of a long, ornate stem. People cut the bottom too. That’s no good, because the juice ends up everywhere.

How do you decorate your own house for Halloween?
It’s all pumpkins. I don’t get in with the tacky stuff. There’s no blown-up spiders, even though my wife tries to bring that stuff home.

Do friends ask you to carve pumpkins for them?
All the time. I don’t have time for that! I don’t think people understand that I spend six hours on a single carving.

How long will the pumpkin you carved today at the botanical garden last?
Because I haven’t opened up the cavity of the pumpkin, it has a good chance of lasting up to two weeks. It depends on the freshness of the pumpkin and the elements it’s in. If it’s in the beating sun and there’s bugs and squirrels? See you later.

How do you manage the time pressure that comes with the job?
I don’t sleep in October. I’m doing two or three pumpkins every single day. It’s exhausting, but there’s just no other way because it’s a time-sensitive medium. I try to tell all my corporate clients, like, let’s shoot in November and we can use it for 2024. They’re like, nobody’s thinking about next Halloween.

What do you do the other 11 or so months of the year?
I own a fried-chicken restaurant in Rochester.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/s...in-carver.html

By Callie Holtermann
Published Oct. 22, 2023
Updated Oct. 26, 2023

[Bèsame*]

Here are the top 10 most popular candies in America, according to CandyStore.com:

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
M&Ms
Hot tamales
Skittles
Sour Patch Kids
Starburst
Hershey Kisses
Candy Corn
Hershey Mini Bars
Snickers


Here are the rest of the 10 "worst" candies ever:

Circus Peanuts
Candy Corn
Necco Wafers
Peanut Butter Kisses
Wax Cola Bottles
Mary Janes
Smarties
Licorice
Bit-O-Honey
Tootsie Roll