Happy Halloween Everyone!!!
Halloween is probably one of my most favorite times of year. I would wear a costume everyday if I could, or at least some type of headband with a unicorn horn or kitty ears on it. I am always looking for an excuse to dress up in costume and eat gummi bears, and on this holiday it is more than acceptable! I also love the crispness that you start to feel in the air, the boots and fluffy sweaters, the leaves changing, apple picking, pumpkin carving…but most of all I love making and eating pumpkin seeds. I just found out that squash seeds are equally as delicious and I am beyond excited, because now I have more opportunities for seed snacking.
Before I get into the simple magicness that goes into making pumpkins seeds, I need to go off on a teeny Halloween tangent.
Instead of dressing up for Halloween this year, Derika and I will be hopping on a plane for a 10-day adventure in Thailand. I am beyond excited to check Thailand off of my bucket list, but I am a little bummed that I will not be able to get into one of my many costumes and pass out candy. Lucky for me, we went to 3 Oktoberfests this year so I got the dressing up bug out of my system for 2014.
Last year was our first Halloween living in a huge building in NYC. The great thing about living in a big building, is that our building hosts trick or treating from 8:00-9:30pm for the kids that live in the building. All you have to do is decorate your door, and you will get oodles of cute kids ringing your bell looking for candy. Well, if I am going to be handing out candy, then I am going to dress up. After many years of playing derby and Derika playing rugby, we have tons of costumes! One of my favorites is my unicorn costume with the glowing mane.
Sorry for the blurry photo, but this hula hooping unicorn photo is the only one that I have that shows the whole costume.
So last Halloween, I dressed up as a unicorn and handed out candy to a ton of cute kids and excited parents. We live in a small 581 square foot apartment, so when you open up the door to hand out Halloween candy, the kids are already in our living room, and their parents can pretty much see our whole apartment.
As a result, I spent most of the evening handing out candy and fielding decor questions from the parents. Towards the end of the night, when I was running low on candy, a cute Buzz Lightyear and his dad came to our door. As I was leaning over to dump the last of our candy into Buzz’s bucket his dad says to me…
Dad: “NICE Rack!”
Me: “Ummm, hey thanks!?” As I look down at my costume, which is not low-cut I might add!
They proceed to walk down the hall, and as I am getting ready to shut the door, I hear the dad running down the hall back to our door. Just before I close the door he yells “I meant wine rack…NICE, WINE RACK!” I start laughing hysterically, while he stood there turning 18 shades of magenta! If you look at the photo above you can see a small sliver or our wine just to the right of the bathroom. This wine rack was behind me while I was handing out candy!
That my friends, is probably one of the most amazingly ridiculous things that has ever happened to me on Halloween and it was way to funny not to share. Even though we are going on an epic adventure, it saddens me just a touch that I am going to miss out on passing out candy this year…
Instead of passing out candy, I will be munching on some homemade pumpkins seeds on the plane. I prefer savory to sweet, so below is 3 of my favorite ways to make pumpkin seeds. I can’t wait to hear what other versions you come up with.
Ingredients
Garlic, Salt & Peppers Seeds
- 1/4 Tsp. Truffle Salt
- 1/4 Tsp. Granulated Garlic
- 1/4 Tsp. Fresh Ground Pepper
- Olive Oil or oil of choice
Smoked Paprika Seeds
- 1/2 Cup Pumpkin Seeds
- 1/4 Tsp. Himalayan Sea Salt
- 1/4 Tsp. Hungarian Smoked Paprika
- Olive Oil or oil of choice
‘Cheezy’ Seeds
- 1/2 Cup Pumpkin Seeds
- 1/4 Tsp. Himalayan Sea Salt
- 1/4 Tsp. Nutritional Yeast
- Olive Oil or oil of choice
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Remove seeds from pumpkin and rinse well in a colander.
3. Dry thoroughly using paper towels.
4. In a small mixing bowl, combine seeds, olive oil, and ingredients for whatever flavor version you are making.
* You don’t need a lot of oil; just make sure that all of your seeds are very lightly covered. *
5. Spread seeds on an ungreased cookie sheet making sure none are touching.
6. Bake 10-15 minutes on one side. Turn seeds using a spatula and bake another 10-15 minutes. Seeds are done when golden, slightly brown on ends and edges, and have a nice crunch when eaten. They will continue to cook after you take them out of the oven so make sure that they are not too brown on the edges.
Voila!
You are now pumpkin seed-roasting professional! You can eat these seeds right out of the oven, or you can save them to sprinkle on top of your favorite salad or squash soup.
Happy Roasting and Happy Halloween!!
