A Different Kind of Pumpkin Fun

Tonight, I did not cook with my current food obsession, but I had a different kind of fun with pumpkin. I decided to try my hand at pumpkin carving. I was intrigued by the idea of using craft pumpkins to avoid the mess of cleaning out a real pumpkin. I went to Michael's and picked out a craft pumpkin and the tools for carving. Then, I visited the PumpkinLady site that is full of fabulous pumpkin carving templates. Since dragonflies are one of my passions, I chose the dragonfly template. I taped the template to my pumpkin and used the tip of the carving knife to poke holes all along the outline of the dragonfly. Then I went to work carving! I thought the craft pumpkin would be easier to carve, but it felt just as thick and tough as a real pumpkin shell. It definitely takes a lot of arm work and patience. If I ever carve a pumpkin again, I will definitely choose to do it this way, because you can save the finished project for years.