Happy Halloween

I'm pretty much a grinch when it comes to Halloween.  It's not my favorite.  The dressing up is kind of cute and fun.  Trick -or-Treating brings great memories to mind as a young person myself.  The candy?  I do like getting a little bit of chocolate.  :-)   So, I'm not really sure why I don't like this holiday.  I guess it's just the hassle of it all. And the endless amount of candy wrappers I find all over the house for weeks on end (okay, had to get that out for some reason). 

Still, there are a couple of very fun traditions at our house I do love on this day....

1) Dinner in a Pumpkin - - yes!  This meal is cooked inside a pumpkin.  One year I actually made small, individual-sized pumpkin bowls for the family.  Here's the recipe:

1 small pumpkin
1-4 oz. can mushrooms (or fresh, sliced)
1 onion, chopped
1 can cream of chicken
2 TBSP olive oil
1-8oz can water chestnuts (sliced)
1-2 lbs. ground beef
1 1/2 c. cooked rice
2 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP brown sugar

Directions:  Clean out pumpkin.  Brown ground beef with onion.  Cook the rice.  Mix all ingredients together and place inside of pumpkin.  Place pumpkin on a cookie sheet and bake @ 350 for 1 hour. 


2) Family Movie Night
Every Halloween night, after the trick-or-treating has ended, we come home and watch a scary movie.  Well...scary by kids' standards anyway.  We let the kids inhale their candy all they want during the movie, too  (which somewhat minimizes the candy wrapper scenario). 

We've watched thusfar:
Jurasic Park
Harry Potter #2 (it had just come out)
Arachnophobia
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock)
Monster House
Some random Hansel and Gretel movie that my hubby and I slept through (that was a bad year)

This year's movie:  Watcher in the Woods
Do you remember that Disney movie from childhood?  Yeah.  I hope it's as scary as I remember it being then.  Unfortunately, my oldest will not be present because of a dance (I tried to persuade him otherwise).  So, really it will just be our girls watching with us (the little boys will be watching Jurasic Park earlier in the evening). 

Do you have any movie suggestions?  Let me know...'cuz I'm always searching!

 

 “God gave us memories, that we might have June roses in the December of our lives.”  - - James Barrie (Scottish poet)