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Pumpkin Carving, Dips & Seeds.

October 31, 2010 by Carolina

It’s Halloween, have you carved your pumpkin yet? A few girlfriends & I got together to carve pumpkins, share a great meal & drinks. I decided to make my boss’s fabulous Artichoke Dip for the occassion (thanks for sharing the recipe Susie!). Simple, tasty, amazing. Here’s how you make Artichoke Dip.

Ingredients

2 Large Jars Artichoke Hearts, chopped to bite size

1 Cup Mayo

1 Cup Sour Cream

2 Cups Parmesan Cheese, shredded

1 Package of Zesty Italian Dressing, powder form

Mix all ingredients in the pan you’re baking the dip in, top with a little parmesan cheese & cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes then remove the aluminum foil & bake an additional 5 – 10 minutes until the top cheese is melted…and you’re done!

The girls loved the dip, as do I, it really is a crowd pleaser. In addition to the artichoke dip we shared baked beans, texas caviar (recipe for this will be shared in an upcoming post, I’m now obsessed with it), deli wraps for the meat eaters, pasta salad, the best homemade salsa I’ve ever had, pineapple raab (which we devated eating as dessert though Kim, the hostess & cook of the raab, refuses to admit it’s a dessert) & guacamole, washed down with an assortment of Fall & Harvest Ales. Kim also made us Butter Beer, which was incredible, & will be sharing with you soon.

We were now ready to carve some pumpkins! Everyone got to work on their creations.

All of our pumpkins turned out great & good times were had celebrating the season. Now armed with a bag full of pumpkin seeds I decided to bake them. I typically bake them with salt & olive oil but this time I tried a different technique, compliments of Kim.

Ingredients

Fresh Pumpkin Seeds

Salt

Olive Oil

In  a bowl, soak the pumpkin seeds in salt water for at least 2 hours (the longer you let them soak, the saltier they’ll be). Drain water & spread seeds over paper towels to remove excess moisture. Place in a cookie sheet & drizzle with olive oil, bake for 8 – 12 minutes at 400 degrees until seeds are golden brown. Buen provecho!