The cupcake eating, I mean, pumpkin carving party

Warning: I am under the influence of some cold medicine, so this one is a bit rambly and stream of conscious. I realize this, but am too lazy - and currently mentally incapable - of going back and editing it to make it less so.

Last night was the neighborhood pumpkin carving party, though you may have figured out from the title above or the photos below, my kids were much more interested in eating Halloween cupcakes than any kind of pumpkin-related activities.

Just so you know, in addition to single-handedly polishing off about a half dozen cupcakes, my children also jumped a marathon on the trampoline in one of the adjoining backyards where the party took place. Oh, and Evan.... Evan somehow climbed to the top of one of the swingsets, and out onto the brace that holds the swing. As Corin and I yelled helplessly from a distance too great to do anything about it, the entire neighborhood watched as he moved out away from the platform he had used to access the brace, shimmied across and halfway down one of the swing chains to drop safely to the ground below. ER visit averted. But, sheesh. I heard one of the neighborhood dads exclaim, "Brave kid!" Really? Not so much brave as, well, not the most brilliant idea he's ever had.

I've been feeling kinda miserable these last couple of days (just a cold - no flu; swine or otherwise), so if I had it to do over again, I may have done a few things differently. We were invited to bring an appetizer or sweet to go with the couple-of-crock-pots-of-chili-type-dishes and drinks that were being provided. I would normally sign up for a sweet so that in the event of a busy week, I could just swing by the Publix and buy some cupcakes. I'm apparently not the only one who thinks this way because there were lots of cupcakes at this bash - at least until my children were unleashed on them.

Anyhoo, this time I signed up for an app instead. And decided that I would try to come up with something other than a dip and a chip to take. So I researched. I looked first at the Weight Watchers website because they have some surprisingly good recipes most of the time. I found a recipe for an artichoke tart that I found intriguing, so I printed it and then moved on to Rachel Ray's website. There were MANY many recipes there that involved something with some kind of "dipper" on the side. RR apparently loves her some dippers. And everything seemed pretty complicated.

So, I decided to go with the artichoke tarts and just not tell anybody they were from WW. I bought all the ingredients earlier in the week before The Cold hit, so I was kinda stuck with following through. Seriously, they were awesome. They were the hit of the party. Well, not with the kids. Even in my organic-buying, baby-wearing, CSA-belonging, hippie neighborhood, apparently the children will not experiment with an artichoke tart. My own child told me in no uncertain terms before we left the house that though she thought my tarts were pretty, she'd be having none of that. And she stuck to her guns.

But the moms and dads were fans. One mom said to me, "Oooh. These are incredible. I feel so fancy. Have you tried one of these?" To which I got to reply, "Oh, yeah, I brought those." Doesn't happen to me all that often. I even admitted in a separate conversation with some other moms that the tarts were a WW recipe that I had slightly modified since I was making it for a crowd (because, you know, Corin tells me that there is really never any good excuse to served fat-free anything to people you want to continue to call friends).

Sometime in the evening, after darkness fell, some of the dads did actually carve pumpkins. Let me tell you though, that was no place for a protective parent to be. Darkness, knives lying about, children running amuck. It's all fun and games until a toddler starts running around with a carving knife. I'm just sayin'.... I had to get out of there just for my own sanity. Plus, by then it was too late and dark to get any really good pictures, and that was really the only reason I dragged my sick self over there. That and to accept the compliments on the artichoke tarts.

Here's Matt - on of the party hosts - scooping the guts out of his pumpkin. Ick.

Here's Corin working on ours. Which turned out really cute. I'll try to get pics of the finished product tonight or tomorrow night. By the time Corin and the kids were back home with the finished product, I was in my jammies moaning about the fact that my sinuses just might explode. So, I didn't remember to go get the camera.

Just in case any of you want to try the Artichoke Tarts after all that build-up, I've provided the recipe below:

Artichoke Tarts:

Ingredients
6 spray(s) cooking spray
16 pieces wonton wrapper(s)
1/4 cup(s) low-fat shredded cheddar cheese (I used the real stuff)
4 oz fat-free cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat rather than FF)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp sweet red pepper(s), chopped
7 oz canned artichoke hearts, without oil, drained and chopped
1/4 cup(s) parsley, fresh, sprigs (I omitted, because, who am I? Martha Stewart?)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 16-hole miniature muffin pan with cooking spray.
Gently press 1 wonton wrapper into each muffin hole, allowing ends to extend above cups. Coat edges of wrappers with cooking spray and set aside.

Combine cheeses, cayenne pepper and mustard in a medium bowl; mix well. Stir in red pepper and artichoke hearts; spoon about 1 teaspoon of cheese mixture into each muffin cup.

Bake until cheese mixture is set and edges of wrappers are lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve. Yields 2 tarts per serving.

I doubled the recipe and the filling from the double recipe ended up filling 42 wontons. So, it filled up a pretty large platter. And, just so you know, it was pretty rich, so I'm thinking that the fat free cream cheese and 2% cheddar cheese would have worked just fine.