The flaming jack-o-lantern project has begun

We're having what may be our last fire party of the year, where friends come over and we roast hotdogs and marshmallows over our fire pit. While St. Louis winter temperatures vary enough that it will be warm enough again to sit outside after dark for hours without being bundled up enough to make it unpleasant, knowing that the weather will be cooperative long enough in advance to make plans will become increasingly difficult.

The weather's going to cooperate tonight. While I expected it to be in the lower 50s and was worried we might be in the mid 40s, the forecast kept getting warmer as the week progressed and we're now supposed to be in the upper 50s at 7:00 pm tonight. And in a nod to the fact it's not summer any more, rather than serve cold beer, we're serving beer cheese soup and hot spiced cider. At some point I need to get an iron fire poker so I can make mulled Guinness. I could just make it, but according to the traditional Irish cookbook I picked up years ago, plunging a red-hot iron poker into a pint of Guinness creates a flavor that can't be recreated by other means.

Having been inspired by ExtremePumpkins.com, I've put a roll of toilet paper in a bowl of lamp fuel last night and I'm going to give the jack-o-torch a try. Before my in-laws left in September, they'd brought us a large pumpkin grown in the RV park where they'd been staying in Edwardsville, IL, so we've got a pumpkin large enough to hold a flaming roll of toilet paper. Assuming that lamp oil is an acceptable substitute for kerosene, I'll post pictures of the flaming jack-o-lantern in the next couple of days.

And in case you've been wondering, the grass seed has sprouted. Unfortunately, as all of our backyard that isn't patio is week old grass, we don't have a whole lot of room to spread out tonight.

extremepumpkins | extreme pumpkins | Halloween | jack-o-lantern | jack-o-torch | pumpkin