Alice in the Kitchen

tis the season. to carve pumpkins.

2015 pumpkin carving update!!

Some work logo pumpkins this year:

and with the logos for comparison:

Original Post, October 2009:

pumpkin carving was BACK this year after taking a hiatus in 2008 since I was out of the country.  since I have never posted about pumpkin carving but it is moderately related to cooking, this seems like a good place to look at past Halloween endeavors…

starting with the most recent, 2009:

this year featured a tribute to Matt’s beagle, Bailey (although some people seemed to think it was UT’s Smokey, which is fine too).  Then the Baltimore Oriole bird.  He is supposed to look like this:

I post this because most people seemed to have no clue what that pumpkin was supposed to be (not that I haven’t had that problem before) but this should clear it up.

The last two pumpkins should be pretty clear – Virginia Tech and Washington Capitals.  Now, a few people indicated to me that they thought it was pretty lame that I carved pumpkins related to my boyfriend’s interests, but those people didn’t realize that I’ve been at this for awhile, so I was starting to run out of things that were interesting enough to deserve a pumpkin, you know?  So don’t be haters.

Back to the pumpkins but proving my point – in 2007, I was already running out of things to carve, so I went with the logo of my place of employment.  Yes, I realize how cool this is, and yes, we can be friends.  This is what the logo looks like:

And this is how the pumpkin turned out:

Don’t judge me.

Waaaaay back in 2006, this is how the collection turned out:

The “Trick or Treat” one is just terrible and I don’t think it even made it out to the front porch before I trashed it.  Here’s a better picture of the three good ones:

And who is that familiar face on the left?  I’ve gotten some interesting guesses, including John Denver and Jesus.

It’s, of course, Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

I also did these two more generic ones in 2006:

Way back in 2005, I took on the task of carving 5 pumpkins which resulted in a pretty late night.

Clockwise from the top left we’ve got Napoleon Dynamite, the UT logo, Smokey the UT mascot, Mickey Mouse, and a generic Halloween scene.

I’d provide a picture of Napoleon Dynamite for those who might not get it, but I just can’t bring myself to do that.  So google it.  I remember showing my dad the Napoleon pumpkin and he said “Oh look, it’s Buddy Holly,” so if you’d rather imagine that’s Buddy Holly, go right ahead.

Somewhere around this time I also carved a watermelon basket for my cousin’s wedding.  Yes.  This happened.

And then…

2004 was the first year of taking this whole pumpkin carving thing seriously, and this is what we came up with that year:

That beach scene on the top left is really struggling.

I know some of you were probably hoping I would “get a life” or “learn a marketable skill” but alas, this is what I’ve done with myself over the last five years.

And let’s be honest… you’ll be looking forward to seeing next year’s editions.