Apple picking? Check. Pumpkin patch? Check.
Once you’ve made your annual trip to the pumpkin patch, get the party started at home with our pumpkin carving kit. It’s a one-stop shop towards ensuring your jack-o’-lantern is happy (not creepy) or terrifying (not thrilled). Because no one wants a pumpkin with a “meh” expression.
The set of three pumpkin carving tools includes a sawtooth carver, a scraper, and an engraver, ideal for making a beautiful lid, scooping out seeds, and making delicate touches like eyebrows and sweet tooths. Your jack-o’-lantern will thank you. (Pro tip: Re-use the scraper for avocados and other fruits and squashes with difficult-to-extract flesh and seeds!)
Stumped for where to start with your toothy little pumpkin friend? Allow us to help: Our art department dreamt up the coolest jack-o’-lantern designs.
And of course there must be food, or your pumpkin party will feel like all work and no play (which makes jack-o’-lanterns dull boys). So set out some sturdy soup bowls for gooey mac and cheese, put on a pot of hot apple cider with a ladle for guests to serve themselves, and get cozy. Here’s what we’d serve!
Ultimate Pumpkin Party Recipes
1. Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
You are going to have so many pumpkin seeds. Don’t waste them; they’re delicious after a spin in the oven. Roasted pumpkin seeds come together fairly quickly, after the admittedly somewhat Zen-requiring experience of washing them. Have an absolute ton of seeds? Use them to garnish delicious pumpkin soup!
2. Hot Apple Cider
There must be cider! Whether you’ve gotten yours fresh for the farm or you’re tucking into our delightful five-apple apple cider, do be sure to warm up a pot, and add some mulling spices. We like serving cinnamon sticks and star anise on the side, so folks can garnish their own mugs.
3. Gruyère and Cheddar Mac and Cheese
Sure, sure, you know mac ‘n cheese. You have your go-to recipe, or maybe you use the box. (Hey, no judgment; there are some great pre-prepared macs out there!) But have you had mac with a dreamboat béchamel base? This Gruyère and cheddar mac and cheese should be your entrée. A “béchamel” sounds a little fancy for a classic American pasta dish, but it’s as simple as flour, butter, milk and cheese, spun together until it’s the French mother sauce of your daydreams. Kids love this recipe.
4. Salad With Pomegranate Seeds
Holy harvest salad, Batman! Look at this autumnal beauty: apples; honeyed cider vinaigrette; pomegranate seeds; wild rice; tender Tuscan kale. You’re going to want a salad on the table after inhaling all that mac and cheese, and this is the one you’ll want, juicy and gorgeous. If kids are alarmed by the bevy of grown-up ingredients, feed them little gem wedges with radishes and green goddess dressing, or a classic Caesar.
5. Gooey Pumpkin Bars
These gloriously Gooey Pumpkin Bars are one of most beloved fall favorites from our Test Kitchen. The concept was the brainchild of our sales associates, who mingled our pumpkin bread mix and spiced pumpkin butter with genius results. Once you have those two products, the rest is a walk in the park: cream cheese, vanilla, confectioners’ sugar, cinnamon, plenty of butter. They’re precisely as good as they sound (and look!)
