Chile Chapters

This Halloween my friends and I attempted an experiment– carving hot peppers into tiny jack-o'lanterns. Whether it would work and how they would turn out was a mystery. Our kitchen had a Day of the Dead theme this year, so this seemed like a fitting decoration to include, along with the brightly colored strings of skeletons, candles, stringed flowers, and a chupacabra trying to escape a boarded closet.

First, I picked up a variety of peppers from the grocery store. And some disposable gloves. I was very careful not to rub my eyes during the process...that would have been painful.The carving was done using X-acto knives, dug up from a pile of art supplies. The process of carving was not too hard, and pretty fun! The peppers are very easy to cut into; it's much less work than a pumpkin.

Areas for carving were marked with a sharpie. The bell pepper turned out the best! Careful with carving the top like a pumpkin. On that one, it started to fall right through, so I had to turn it to a different angle.

The cubanella pepper turned into a perfect alligator head. We carved these the day before, which was probably a mistake. The teeth started to lose their sharpness the day after; they start to shrivel quickly.

A cthulhu jalapeno?

The lighting was the hardest part, with many of the peppers being so small. We used LED balloon lights. They're about the thickness of a sharpie, and 1.5inches in length. You can see one placed haphazardly beneath the red pepper on the right. Your local Party City should carry a pack of 12 for about $10.

Some of these photos were originally posted on our Instagram– follow us @hotsaucefever!