toasted pumpkin seeds

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite seasonal treats are toasted pumpkin seeds!

I grew up on the traditional salted seeds, but the last two years I've tried some other flavors.  If you've never roasted pumpkin seeds, it's really easy.  I've got steps below to help you out!

Gather:

• Pumpkins - make sure to look for mold and soft spots when picking out your pumpkins.  If they are soft or moldy, your seeds may be bad as well.
• Bowls (I used four)
• Knife
• Pumpkin Scoop/Spoon - I got my scoop 75% off at the end of the season a few years ago and it has made scooping out the seeds much easier!
• Covering for your work space - I cut open a plastic bag and when I'm done, it can all be tossed
• Towels/Paper Towels
• Baking Sheets
• Butcher/Parchment Paper
• Butter
• Flavorings of your choice
• Measuring spoons/cups

Tip: I like working on the floor so I don't have to worry about anything rolling off a table.

At this point, we don't carve pumpkins so I purchase solely for decor and to enjoy the seeds.  Meaning I just cut the pumpkins in half to get the seeds out as quickly as possible. Make sure to look for dark spots and mold.  Even if the outside looks great, you can still have mold inside the pumpkin.

Use a spoon or scoop to get out all the seeds.  I recommend scraping around the entire pumpkin to break all the membranes before trying to pull out the seeds. Makes the process much easier!

  

Now for a quick visual break of a perfectly adorable pumpkin stem!!

Now for the cleaning of the seeds. I do a two bowl system - one with the seeds and guts and another with water. Using your hands squeeze as much of the pumpkin off the seeds as you can and drop the seeds in the water.

The seeds will float.  Once I have a good covering on the top of the water, I swirl the seeds and agitate them with my hands to separate the last of the pumpkin.  The pumpkin will mostly sink to the bottom of the bowl.  I used a strainer in the past, but this way is much faster!

 

Proof that it works!

After the seeds are clean, I lay them out on towels on top of baking sheets to dry.  I use the baking sheets so I can move them out of my way if needed.

I like mine to be thoroughly dry so I continue to move them around on the towel.  I sometimes leave them for a full day.  Just don't store them in an air tight container before toasting (or unless you are positive they are 100% dry)!  I did that one year and they were moldy when I went to toast them two days later.  Sad day!

The seeds will stick so when I take them off the towel, I do have to scrape some off but I have not had an issue with fibers sticking to the seeds.

Time to toast your seeds!  

Pre-heat your oven to 300 degrees and layout parchment paper on your baking sheets.  

Place seeds in a fresh bowl and mix up the recipe of your choice (links to the recipes I used below).  Spread the seeds out on the baking sheets.

Every 10 minutes, stir your seeds.  After 30 minutes, allow a seed to cool and taste.  Continue cooking until seeds reach your desired crispness. I find the 40 - 50 minute mark is good for our preference.  If you are worried about them burning, you can lessen the time to 5-7 minutes between stirring. I've also found I can take them out for a few minutes to see how done they are then put them back in and they will continue cooking.

Once they cool, store in an air tight container.

This year, I made three recipes:

For each recipe I used 2 cups of seeds and 1 Tablespoon of butter.  

Add your liquid ingredients to the bowl first and stir thoroughly.  Add your spices and stir thoroughly then spread out as evenly as possible on the baking sheet.

gf foodie's: Sugar’n’Spice Pumpkin Seeds (these are my favorite!)

Survival at Home: Spicy Pumpkin Seeds (these were E's favorite)



Savory Pumpkin Seeds 
inspired by The Girl Who Ate Everything: Delicious Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

• 2 cups pumpkin seeds
• 1 T melted butter
• 2 t Worcestershire sauce
• 1 T garlic salt
• 1 T onion powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees and place parchment paper on baking sheet
2. Mix butter & Worchestershire sauce together, pour over seeds and coat thoroughly
3. Add 2 t each of the garlic salt & onion powder, coat thoroughly
4. Spread out on parchment paper on covered sheet
5. Every 10 minutes, stir your seeds.  During the second stirring, sprinkle on the last teaspoon of garlic salt & onion powder and stir thoroughly
6. After 30 minutes, allow a seed to cool and taste.  Continue cooking until seeds reach your desired crispness. If you are worried about them burning, you can lessen the time to 5-7 minutes between stirring.
7. When toasted to your preference, store in an airtight container

Do you have a favorite seed recipe?  Feel free to share below!

good not perfect

Over the last few days I've been struck by the idea of wanting a good life.  Not a perfect life - a good life.

I'm a perfectionist, just ask my family.  I have activity books I never touched because I wanted them to be perfect.  There was a sticker "collection" because you can't move stickers once they are on paper so I never had the guts to stick them somewhere. The countless activities I never tried because I knew I wouldn’t get them “right”. The call to my mom freshman year because I was getting a "B" and the list could go on.

I can’t say I've completely moved past perfectionism (I still write a lot of things in pencil) but I’ve gotten better.

This week it struck me why I’ve felt stuck for so long.  I don’t start things because I want them to be perfect before I even get started.  Take this blog.  I’ve wanted to have a blog for a while.  In fact, I had one a few years back but it never went anywhere because I felt my pictures weren’t perfect, I didn’t have a logo, my brand wasn’t strong enough, you name it: there was an excuse.  But the few posts I wrote, I really enjoyed sharing.  It brought me a little joy to know someone may have clicked on the link and enjoyed something they saw.  I thought I’d take a step back and get it all together and have an amazing relaunch, but perfectionism kept me from pursuing.

The revelation that hit me this week was: I don’t want a perfect life.  My version of a perfect life always came with measuring what I’m doing to someone else. So many times I’ve made a list of the things I need to do to make my life “better” and let me just say, whenever I started trying to do all the things it was overwhelming, tiring and made me feel worse in the end.  It leads to me feeling like I’m not enough.

I want a good life.  A life I am happy with regardless of whether it measures up to anyone else's standard.  Because, to me, a good life can only be measured by you.  My good life involves people I love, yarn and baking.  That’s not everything that makes up my good life, but it’s a piece of it and just typing those words out makes me smile.  It’s been really freeing as well because to me, a good life involves wiggle room, forgiveness and change whereas with perfection, I didn’t start because I was fearful of never measuring up.  I'm learning there’s freedom in goodness.

Now it’s your turn: What is part of your good life?