While not normally a tradition for us, my two kids and I carved pumpkins this past weekend. It was their first time and only my second.

They’ve seen our neighbors and their friends display carved pumpkins and have been asking me about it. I jumped at the chance when one of my co-workers at MomsRising unveiled these cool designs:

MomsRising Bullhorn
MomsRising Stars
MomsRising Rays
MomsRising Voting Check Mark

I chose the rays – see above – while the kids made up their own.

We are mighty proud of them! The letters of MomsRising fell apart on me, but I was able to Krazy-glue a couple pieces and voila! :) I used the inside of the pumpkin to make a sancocho -- a Cuban white bean and pumpkin stew. See recipe below.

Happy Halloween!

Cuban White Bean and Pumkin Stew ("Sancocho")
(2) 15oz cans of white kidney or cannellini beans

(1) medium-sized pumpkin or small butternut squash

1 teaspoon of salt

sofrito sauce

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 poblano pepper, finely chopped

1/4 cup of chopped cilantro (tightly packed)

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup or half a can of tomato sauce

6 manzanilla olives (This is optional. Put in as many or as little as you’d like. We love olives so I always put in a minimum of 6.)

Directions: De-seed pumpkin and cut pieces in 1/4-inch cubes. You will make approximately 2 cups.

Boil the pumpkin in 5 cups of water. Drain can of beans and add beans.

While the beans are cooking, prepare the sofrito, which by the way, I use as my base sauce for everything from beans to lasagna. Put the oil in a large frying and set it on medium-high heat. Put in the onion and garlic and stir and fry for a minute. Now put in the poblano pepper and cilantro, turn the heat down to medium and stir for a minute. Put in the cumin and stir once, then add the tomato sauce and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat to low and simmer very gently, stirring now and then, for 10 minutes.

Add the salt and the sofrito to the pot. Stir and bring to a simmer until all the flavors are blended. Enjoy!