Jack-o-lanterns bring out the best in people.

Aaron is really clever and made his jack-o-lantern's mouth also look like a bat.

Dana and her family had a pumpkin throwing up pumpkin guts and another one squinting because a knife was still stuck in its eye.

Karen grew a bunch of nobbly gourds and arranged them around her yard looking like little animals with the gourd stems as beaks.

Maybe they will start blogs and post pictures of their creations.

Karen is also the reason for my new favorite fall dish -- a tian.
She puts potatoes, apples, beets, yams, sweet potatoes, olive oil, herbs, and shallots or onions in a big casserole and bakes it up.

Here is a tian before being baked. Mine has a turnip instead of a sweet potato and it is darn good. We've been eating this all week and don't want to stop.

Here's my pumpkin and Aaron's bat-mouth pumpkin on the right. I'm trying to be adopted by these people because of this meal and thought having exciting hair might make me look more like one of the family...Is that a monster peaking out from our front door?