This past week I celebrated the arrival of October with a centerfold shot of a beautiful orange Cinderella pumpkin. Around these parts October is Halloween month, when drugstore and supermarket aisles overflow with explosively bright yet strangely unsubstantial specters of black and orange: plastic pumpkins, stuffed black cats from China, and enormous "family size" (extended family size apparently) sacks of candy corn. For a short time only, the strange and the macabre can be found in convenient and sturdy plastic form at any corner CVS or RiteAid pharmacy. And the glorified pumpkin, a holiday symbol more akin to the venerable Christmas tree than the tasty turkey, can be found piled in technicolour heaps at every supermarket, waiting to be carved into strange faces and then discarded after the 31st of the month.
By now you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with my pumpkin, which, as I noted in my previous post, was destined for greater and more delicious things than jackolantern-hood. Well, really I just wanted to share with you a secret to make the somewhat tedious job of dissecting a large pumpkin enjoyable. Employ my technique and not only will the task be completed quickly, you might even consider pumpkin cleaning prime time entertainment instead of a chore.
The trick is this: Don't take your massive cucurbit into the kitchen. Don't try to cut it apart with your little chef's knife, no matter how sharp it may be. Instead, find someone with a really sharp sword and set them lose on that mutant orange squash! That's what I did, and now have about 10 pounds of pumpkin pieces sitting in my fridge waiting to be transformed into dinner.
Now, I knew you would want pictures, so instead of kicking back on the couch and enjoying the show like everyone else, I played the earnest shutterbug just so all of you can see how much fun it is to chop your pumpkin up with a Japanese katana.
Enjoy!
The innocent pumpkin awaits its demise:
The deed is done: Kill Bill with a pumpkin anyone?
Now to cut the pumpkin into quarters:
Perfect! Time to get out the old roasting pan....