Halloween has been dead to me for many years. I lost interest when the allure of charming DIY costumes (um, Anna Blessing starring as ketchup and I as mustard) was replaced with slutty insert-noun-here costumes out of plastic bags! But this year is different. Halloween rebirth. For our pumpkin carving party, we ventured into projects usually judged as ‘Who really does that?!’ Amy set up stations for each guest featuring pre-hollowed pumpkins, incredible carving kits, black bibs and plenty of stencils and other tricks for inspiration. We had snacks (chicken liver mousse on crostini with bleeding shallot jelly–had to have an offal for Halloween!) and cocktails (black vodka martinis with dry ice!) while carving and then moved in to the living room for an autumnal dinner. With everyone’s newly carved pumpkins on display, alongside Amy’s more show-off detailed white pumpkins, it was a spookily lit affair. And on their way out, everyone got Trick or Treat take-home bags filled their toasted pumpkin seeds, both spicy and sweet, respectively. Happy Halloween!
