Episode 5 -- Pumpkin Carving is a Spectator Sport

I pulled a table into our front yard and sat down with friends and family who came by to visit and maybe even carve a pumpkin. I'm not much of a pumpkin artist, but I hauled out my microphones to get people's thoughts on favorite treats (and memories) from Halloween's past. If you listen carefully, you can hear folks hacking away at their pumpkin projects while we talked. At the end, I weighed in (privately) with my own controversial candy preference. We're carving pumpkins and chatting -- pull up a chair -- this is Fran's Table and there's plenty of room. 

Transcript

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You know, there is not a thing wrong with eating your dinner over the sink or in front of the television, and I'm a big believer in grabbing comfort wherever you can find it. But in my experience of the world, it seems to me that the very best moments around food, around companionship occur at the table. So this is Fran's table, and I want you to come find a seat. There's plenty of room. Sit down next to me. And the thing about it is we may talk about food on account. It's one of my favorite subjects, but we may talk about other things as well, just like around a regular, you know, table where we have conversations and we connect and we learn about one another. So this is Fran's table. Grab a chair, let's go. So if anyone's wondering, cutting pumpkins is indeed a spectator sport. And so what I'm gonna ask people as they sit and work on their pumpkins, if they're amenable to it. And by people. I'm not talking about crowds of people. I'm talking about the neighbors and family who foolishly say yes to anything that I want to do these days and then have a microphone stuck in their face. But I'm gonna ask them, um, and David, you're on deck, so get ready for this question. Oh, oh, start with the other guests first. Fair enough. Yeah. Start with the other guests. That's, I better get used to hearing that. Um, is. The holiday treat that you're looking forward to. Now, of course when I say holiday treat, I'm thinking food. Yeah. But um, it might also be something like this, like sitting, because actually this is imperfect keeping with Fran's table because I've set up a table in our front yard and we will presently have a fire in the fire pit. And. So we're sitting around the table and people, some people will make pumpkins and I will watch them because I like picking out the uncut pumpkins. But I, I, I get so frustrated with my lack of artistic ability in the cutting of pumpkins. So that's, that's the mission for the day. Okay, dusty. So here's the thing I'm asking people while we sort of engage on the periphery about the holiday treat, they're most looking forward to. Now, of course that could be any holiday'cause we've got all so many holidays coming up, right? Right. We do. But um, I'm thinking more specifically about. First of all, Halloween treats. Now you are not a food person. So that's one reason why I'm focusing. I mean, but Halloween's all about the candy. Yeah, that's true. So, so when you, okay, dialing back then to when you were little, was there a particular kind of candy that you would really hope that you got when you went trick or treating? Yeah, you can still find them now, but, um. They were little, um, peanut butter logs. They were little, um, rectangular lumps of sugar with brown stripes and a little noot of peanut butter in the middle. Really? Yeah. So were they more crunchy or more Yeah, they were crunchy and sweet and delightful, but not with the, with the thing in the middle. Would that be like chewy or soft? No. No. I mean, it was just a, it was, uh, just kind of. They peanut butter? Like was it Newie thing? Yeah. Yeah, it was just, yeah, they still got'em. Do they really? Yeah. I think you can get'em at King's. Okay. I have to go check that out. Maybe that'll be sort of late. They're not that good. No, they were just white, sugary things that had little brown stripes on them, and I think they called'em peanut butter logs. Yeah. Yeah, they get stuck in your teeth, you know, I mean like all crunchy sugar things did, so, and you don't, you don't like a lot of chocolatey things, right? Um, yeah. I like chocolate. I can only eat so much of it, and then it's kind of, you know. Yeah. But, you know, good old Reese's Cup's kind of hard to beat. Yeah. I mean, seriously. And that involves the peanut butter, peanut butter, chocolate, straight up. That's pretty hard to beat. Okay, David, pull up that mic and tell me what your favorite Halloween Halloween candy is. All right. It it's something, it, it's something chalk. It would be, you know, in the chocolate family like today. Um, like Milky Way Yeah. Would probably be like my favorite Candy bar, M and mss. Um, when we were, I was a little kid and actually went trick or treating back when we lived in. West Virginia.'cause that was like a self-contained kind of neighborhood out in the country. We just marched the whole neighborhood. Um, this isn't like my favorite treat, but there was one neighbor that made popcorn balls. Everybody got a popcorn ball. That was just, I felt like that was the biggest rip off. Yeah, back in those days you give fruit and shit. I mean like, man, I got that out. Was she always, it was always, and when, you know, she made one for each of the neighbors. We would get a few kids that would come into the neighborhood that, you know, lived someplace where there was nobody around, so they had to. But if you lived in the neighborhood, you got a popcorn ball and she made a big deal about when you came in. So yeah, I made this just for you and you know, I was, I was raised, just be grateful, express, appreciation and all that stuff while the internal monologue was God. Yeah. This is just, yeah, we got a whole bowl of fruit at home. And popcorn. You know, popcorn. Exactly. Thank God we were poor and we had popcorn. You know what I'm saying? Well, I thought, you know, you started out saying, you know that that was something that she did and everyone got one, and we're really building it up to be a tender moment. Yeah. I have a cold, calloused heart bitter, bitter. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so, but now you said you can still get those peanut butter log things, right? But, but do you, do you like it, do you, you don't buy that for yourself very much? No, I, the tooth there's too sweet and they stick to my teeth too bad and they really don't have that much taste. But I mean, when you were. 10-year-old and you had limited access to candy. I mean, Lord Halloween was the time that you could just stock up and I had friends that would keep theirs for like, you know, weeks on a time. They'd have Halloween candy left over. Hell no, between me and my sisters, our candy was gone with it went by the next day usually. With you. We were, that was like the time. That was that. And whatever you got, Christmas, candy, whatever you got for Christmas candy, you know, um, in our household, if you wanted to eat it all on Christmas day, you could eat it, you know, it was entirely yours. And you could pick and choose. And most of us, there were, you know, of course five of us, it was gone. Within about 24 hours, Gwen could make Halloween candy. Last until the 4th of July. Nah. Both horrifying and admirable. If we had any candy left more than two days, Halloween, Christmas, whatever, you know, that was pretty miraculous. Yeah. I don't, I don't know that mom and dad ever ate Ark Halloween candy, but it did seem to disappear, right? Well, carefully, yes. And, and you didn't have this phenomena in your household, but in some households. The oldest brother was also helpful in the elimination of Sisters Candy. Yes, on occasion. Um, there's not been any proof. To that effect, but because you left no prints, I have an inside source. I have an inside source of information. Yeah, that's pretty impressive. Okay, Craig, you gotta come up and tell me about your favorite Halloween candy. But you have to like talk into this thing. Usually it was one of the little mini bars, whichever one, they were Snickers. Uh. Milky way didn't matter, you know? So chocolate, chocolate peel though. Chocolate. Yeah. Yeah. Don't give me, uh, uh, cellophane covered popcorn balls. Thank you. Call back. Thank you. Call back that, that is wrong. And if, and if the current administration wants to make America great again. Outlaw the fucking popcorn ball. Exactly. Yeah. Sorry. Oh, okay. I think that's pretty. That says it all right there. So Kirsten, you have to tell me, um, more about your favorite holiday treat and it doesn't have to be food. Now, dusty, that's good because it's not. No, because it's not. And Dusty was talking about, um, and there's a chair behind you too if you wanna sit down. Um, those little peanut logs, I know y'all like connected on that. Yeah. Um, so, but you have something else in mind? Yes, I do. Uh, well when you asked, I mean, I love to just gorge on the candy. I still love to do that. So that kind of goes without saying. But it occurred to me that what I loved about Halloween was the freedom. Ooh. And I mean, I was a kid who had a lot of freedom and um, but that same degree of freedom at night. Was very different from how we spent our days. And so we could go and, you know, dusty got me a lot more freedom than I might have had had he not been. Had we not left the house together. Oh.'cause your mom would say, no, you take care of your little sister. Okay. But she didn't know that we soon parted ways. And, and maybe she did. She probably did. I didn't like, but she actually knew some of that. She probably did. But, you know, we could, we could go places and that were farther from home than we were allowed. I mean, at night we had to stay on the street, you know? Yeah, yeah. And, um, so being able to go and explore the places that we went routinely during the day and be, you know, nighttime makes it different, you know? Yeah. And, um, and seeing people that we would, had we like, that we knew lived in that house or this house or what have you, but then seeing them on the street and seeing them like. People who are active in a, you know, not caricatures of a person. Yeah. Or, or, um, sort of symbols of, of families. They would actually be out there and sometimes, I mean, I was kind of a. A little bit wild sometimes and, and sometimes I would kind of get in some trouble and I could usually, I can only remember one time I did get out of this trouble, but I, there was this boy, Danny, I won't say his last name, even though I still remember it. And he was just talking some smack, you know, just being a jerk. And, and was this on Halloween? Yes. Uh, that evening we had been running about and although I had never ever procured eggs to throw, correct. I was given one that night. Right. I'm not sure. And how old were you, give or take? Five years. Oh, probably 11. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I was given one that night and I thought, well, maybe I'll throw it at us. I don't know, a tree or a stop sign or something, but this kid starts just talking Trash. Trash, yes. Cold cash. Shit, man. I mean just and and walking past me and he walked past me and I'm like, I got this egg. And he probably. I mean, he was a good ways away, and so I thought I was safe to throw it at him, but I clocked him right in the back of the head with that egg. I mean, I thought I would never be able to Did it. Did it smash up real good? Oh, yeah. Oh hell yes. He was wearing his mother's wig. Oh. And then the, the talk on the street was the Danny Elliots oop. Mom wanted to see me. And I was like, I ain't scared her'cause of the egg of the wig.'cause I had ruined her a wig. And I'm like, look, you need to teach your boy to keep his damn mouth shut and not to be talking shit when he is wearing a wig. I didn't, you know, I just was trying to maintain some respect in this neighborhood. I have to live on these streets. And so I just told her that and thought, oh Lord, please don't let mom find out. She did. And I think I bluffed good enough that, um, and I just went on off. Of course she knew Danny well enough. Right. I well start in trouble. But yeah. So, um, that's what, and that's kind of a thing that when. I mean, our, the kids on this street get something like that. Um, a little bit, but that's a thing that makes me sad for kids just in general these days, that it's not, it, it's not smart to let your kids just go wherever they want to, you know, even if it's just the other side of the neighborhood. Right? Because, you know, you don't know what might happen. So. I love that. I, you know, and it's funny because, um, I also experienced that it was a lot of fun to see other kids' neighborhoods. Oh yeah. Right. Yeah. So that was always a big deal is like, um, I not only did that like two or three times, but I remember. Okay. Um, I had a friend who lived on Dixon and we went and that was like my favorite, um, Halloween memory. Yeah. Yeah. And I dressed as Peter Pan Mom made me that. Awesome. That was an awesome costume that I had for many years, too many years after that admit it used. Still have, I probably still do somewhere. The hat she made it out of felt and everything. You'd appreciated that. Yes. It was exquisite. It was exquisite. Not nearly as exquisite as my big sister's felt hat that she's wearing right now. I bet yours didn't have much felted hat. No, it did not. And I wish it did. Um, but yeah, and it was fun to get to see the neighborhoods.'cause you're right, like when you're, when you're roaming around at night. You see, you can actually see the character over place. Yeah. Like, not, not, not to get all too, you know, like woo woo. We're sentimental about it, but, but I, I don't, even though it's Halloween and even though it's a special event, nobody goes roaming at night except on Halloween. There's just something about it, I guess, because everyone's outside their house. Yes. At some point or another. Yeah. Either answering the door and you don't know who you might encounter. I mean, that was for, for when I was little, it was like never sure who I was going to encounter, so. I had to mind my P's and Q's to some degree because I knew that there would be other parents who, you know, knew me and might not, I might not see them, but they might see me. Um, but mostly it was, um, people you didn't know very well. Hello. My sweet. Hey girl. Yeah, I think people, we see them both at their best and their worst on that night. Definitely. Oh, that's a really good, that's a good, um, holiday memory. Okay. Um, now I'm gonna think about it some more because I was, you know. I don't, I don't, I don't love Halloween in the way that I used to, but I need to revisit it just because you, you haven't dressed up. Yeah, that's true. I need to start dressing up again. Hi sweetie. Hi. Okay. Thank you Kirsten. You're very welcome, Fran. And you know, I do indeed. I do need to revisit Halloween as a holiday, and I wanna make more of so many of the holidays that dot the calendar. I mean, perhaps holidays are an opportunity to remember or to feel a little extra freedom or connect with a neighbor or wear something really special, something that makes me feel special. Anyway. I think I like Halloween because it's also a low pressure holiday. Maybe that's a goal for the other special days that loom. Maybe I should depressurize them and experience them as I do as Halloween well, as I did at Halloween. I have neglected to answer my own question about my favorite holiday treat. I'm gonna say that my off the top of the head answer is perhaps controversial. But maybe you'll love me anyway'cause I do enjoy, and here it is, candy Corn. Yes, I know, I know. It's all very sweet and vanilla and bears absolutely no resemblance to corn. I mean, even when you see the images, you know, those drawn or photographic or even sculpted images of candy corn, you know, it could only be that kind of candy. So in my defense, however, I do love to eat seasonally, and you have to admit that one can only acquire candy corn in the fall. Unless you save your candy from one year into the next, and even I wouldn't recommend that. Not with candy corn. So, yes, controversial though. It is. I love me some candy, corn there. I set it. But listen, even if you don't like candy of any sort, maybe you've always hated Halloween. Even if that's the case, take the opportunity to experience a little of that community that comes with Halloween. And so many of the other holidays that follow connect, maybe answer the door for the trick or treaters who make their rounds at four 30 or five, you know, the little teeny tiny ones. Uh, and if that doesn't resonate, then sit on your stoop maybe, and just watch the neighborhood become a little more lively. Usual. I mean, maybe you could even ask a friend what they remember about holidays, favorite candy, favorite memory. Just connect. Oh, and by the way, I almost finished without answering the other crucial question for the day. What do I want for dinner? I'm gonna tell you. What I had for dinner on the carving of the pumpkin day and, and a whole lot of it for the next two or three months is gonna be something hot and stewy and something that's easily shared. So to answer the question, I think for our pumpkin carving afternoon and for other afternoons to come down the road, I had a giant slow cooker of pot roast. Now I resisted the temptation. I want you to be proud of me to use a soup packet for seasoning, although there's nothing wrong with that. But I wanted to see what I could do on my own, and instead, I salted and peppered a chuck roast. I went with chuck instead of shoulder. I brown it. I got a really nice little bark on it, and then I threw it in the slow cooker with some brown onions. I got a nice little char on the onions, which I like. Um, and beef broth and thyme and sage and a couple bay leaves. Um, a few squeezes of tomato paste. I used the kind and the tube, and I'd say it was like three tablespoons, something like that. A few lugs of red wine. Measure that shit with your heart. Um, and when it was fork tender after a million hours of being in the slow cooker. I pulled the meat out and you know, set it on a plate and thickened the cooking liquid with a really thick flour water mixture. Some people call it a slurry. I think that just sounds so disgusting. So anyway, a slurry, a. Of flour and water. And then when that started thickening up, I corrected with salt and a whole bunch more pepper. I took out the bay leaves. I'm very proud of myself for doing that. Put the meat back in. And then when I served it, I served it with, um, mashed potatoes and caramelized carrots and green peas. Really straightforward. Highly recommend saves. Well, I mean, you guys know this. It's, but I love that, those kinds of meals that cook while you're doing something fun. You know, they, they lend themselves to additional meals and they just like fit the mood of the day. So anyway, I, it did not suck and I feel proud of myself for, uh, coming up with an inspired meal for once. You know, that's really it. I, I'm, I'm all done. I'm really glad you, you were listening. If you're moved to share, I would love to see in the comments what your favorite treat is for the coming season of holidays. And listen, I hope you'll tune into the next episode. I am talking with my sister-in-law about parties, some from our way back, some from the more recent, some of them parties that were sort of of the standup variety, and some of them, you guessed it, not surprisingly at the table, this is Fran's table. I'm so glad you stopped by.