Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds ready to be scooped out.

Are you carving a pumpkin this year?  We just carved ours last night.  In years past, I always made it harder than it needs to be.  This year, I just grabbed my knife and started carving.  I didn’t have a plan.  My kids told me what to carve as I went along.  “Make it a vampire… give it a funny nose…”  It was easy and fun. 

I scooped out all the pumpkin seeds and rinsed them off in a colander.  I dabbed them with a paper towel to dry them a little and I spread them out on parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet. 

Washed pumpkin seeds.

I drizzled maple syrup of them and then sprinkled them with some Jamaican all-purpose seasoning (Grace brand).  It’s a mixture of paprika, black pepper, garlic, onion, cumin, coriander, ginger, Jamaican pimento, celery, thyme, oregano, salt and sugar.  Yum!

Pumpkin seeds ready to go into the oven.

I cooked them at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes.  I wanted to take them off the cookie sheet and put them in a pretty bowl to make them photo-worthy, but everybody started grabbing them.  I can’t blame them… they were unbelievably crunchy and delicious!  Sweet and salty.  I was one of the grabbers.

The cooked pumpkin seeds.

If you’re going to carve a Jack-o-lantern, don’t throw your pumpkin seeds away.  They’re just too easy to cook and they’re so yummy.  They can be saved in the refrigerator to sprinkle on salads or to take with you as a snack when you go out to do errands.  That’s what I was going to do with ours, but they didn’t last long enough.  No problem… I’m into this pumpkin carving thing now and we’re going to make more Jack-o-lanterns.  I plan on cooking enough seeds to actually save some.  Click here for 10 reasons to eat pumpkin seeds.

Happy Halloween!

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