HAPPY HALLOWEEN - and I'm Stealing Recipe Inspirations Again!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN and I am inspired! Yesterday was a horrible day here in god's country (Kansas). Rained all day, and I just didn't want to grill out. So, what do I do, open a Hungry Man TV Dinner, and ponder the sad state of my holiday decorations. I am no Rainey from THE PROJECT TABLE, so I needed inspiration... So I started looking around some of my favorite blogs to see what other people did...

And oh yeah, I have received my fair share of awards, and I like the idea. Not so much the receiving, but I genuinely like pointing out terrific bloggers and what they do. I can think of no greater honor than seeing what someone else has done, and either duplicating that, or being inspired to add my own touches to create from their inspiration...

So.. (THA TA TATA), I present a brand new award...

Take a close look at the photo, we used that as a Christmas card once (my Mother was so embarrassed). My two cats (Chang and Eng) are watching a fish that we grew from about 2 inches to this Great White Whale of a fish (who eventually committed suicide, but I digress)... If this photo doesn't scream, I CAN COOK THAT, I don't know what does!

Here's the rules...

1) Take inspiration from or outright steal a recipe from a fellow blogger
2) Actually make the item, or make a close copy of the item
3) Blog about your efforts, giving proper credit and links to the inspiree
4)If you receive the award, be honored, as there is no greater feeling than having your efforts not just recognized, but duplicated! That is the only real rule, is to feel honored. BUT, feel free to post this in your side bar and to pass it on to one of your favorite bloggers which you have made one of their recipes.

So, the very first "I Can Cook That" award goes not to food, but to the first pumpkin I have carved in 20 years. And here is what I stole (was inspired by...)

Miranda from MY FOOD AND LIFE ENCOUNTERS (which you can find by clicking HERE) made this wonderful whimsical pumpkin. Now, I had been to the store just the night before, and noticed that they had put their punkins on sale, for $1.99 each. Well, I couldn't resist, and decided that I COULD COOK (carve) THAT!

But, a little difference had to be done...

Here's what I did...

Assemble your tools (same as cooking a recipe, when you are elbow deep into the goo, you don't want to go looking for a scraper). But, take a close look at my toothpicks, somehow we had this big bunch of colored fancy toothpicks... This could be fun...
Draw your image on the punkin first, it is very difficult to carve freehand.

This guy was gonna get sideburns (should have done Elvis nuttonchops, but next year is another opportunity...

Cut everything out, and start putting the toothpicks in...

It's an old punkin, so she was gonna get blue hair.

And yellow teeth

And red blood shot eyes

And green snot dripping from the nose

Your friends and neighbors will stare...

Here she is in all her glory...

All Dressed up and no where to go, but will shine tomorrow!

******************************

But wait... I was inspired again...

What the heck... Toasted Punkin Seeds! Thanks to BITE ME NEW ENGLAND, which you can find by clicking HERE, I decided to give toasted Pumpkin Seeds a shot... But with a twist...

Recently, the good folks at POM WONDERFUL sent me a batch of their product to try. I will be making some BBQ sauce, and will be using it for a turkey soon, but today, I wanted POMEGRANATE INFUSED PUMPNIN SEEDS for a snack...

Here's what I did...

Cleaned the goop off of the seeds, and then put them in a simmer pot with

3/4 of a cup of POM, and 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce, brought to a gentle boil...

In about 15 minutes, the liquid had either boiled out, or been absorbed into the seeds (they plumped up nicely when I cooked em). There was no need to drain, as all the liquid was gone, just wet seeds...

I then spread them out over parchment paper, sprinkled on a bit of sea salt and baked in the oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes...

WHOO WHOO, were these ever good!

So, there you go. Two worthy websites with terrific inspirational posts (at least to me)! Take a second and drop by...

BITE ME NEW ENGLAND, which you can find by clicking HERE,

And

Miranda from MY FOOD AND LIFE ENCOUNTERS (which you can find by clicking HERE)

and thank them for having such a great blog that makes even me say... "I CAN COOK THAT"! Like I imagine most of you, I see dozens of sites a day. I have a data base of more than 100 recipes I want to make someday. Soooo many recipes, so little time. Eventually, I hope to get to them all (but by then, I will have 1,ooo recipes in my base... sigh