I can’t recall where I first heard/read the idea of carving bell peppers instead of (or in addition to) pumpkins, but I’m sure there are several sites to spark your creativity. We had a do-it-yourself dinner instead of carving pumpkins for Halloween, and the boys had a blast. It was the younger ones’ first time to use a “real” knife (a paring knife), and I’m pleased to report that dinner did not result in bloodshed.

I splurged on colorful bell peppers from the grocery store, one for each person. Our garden still has a couple of small, green ones, but the red ones got overheated in the Texas sun. I browned some ground turkey and added seasonings like I might use for meatloaf, etc. We topped it with shredded cheese. I knew that not everyone would like the bell peppers (they have a very strong flavor, after all), so I just took what was left over, chopped it up and froze the pepper pieces for future use.

Here are our creations:

Clockwise, from top left: No. 2 had the clever idea to carve his upside-down so that it would stand alone. No. 5 did a surprisingly good job on his red one! Mine is the “BU” one. 🙂  No. 4 started off well but accidentally cut his pepper’s face open. No. 3 decided to go with a Picasso look … or else just wanted to make a funny face. The pile o’ slivers on the last plate were No. 1’s creation that he decided to chop up, instead. I wasn’t going to include it in the photo, but that apparently hurt his feelings, so we’ll call his creation … abstract.

After dinner, I surprised the boys with a DIY dessert — inside-out candy apples! They are so simple and much, much easier to eat than the dipped kind. You just partially core the apple but leave the bottom of the core intact to keep the caramel from oozing out, then stuff a couple of caramel squares in the cored out section, bake at 350 or so until the caramel is melted and the apple is starting to get soft. Enjoy!

The 10-1/2yo certainly enjoyed his! 🙂

inside-out candy apples