Roasted Pumpkin Seeds. 'Tis the season and all that.

So I spent the entire morning carving pumpkins with the boys, where "with the boys" mostly equaled me yelling at them to "Stop that! That's sharp!" and "Stop that! That's sharp!"

Before we started there was much debate about what our pumpkins would look like.  Since I am a notorious control freak, I gently suggested we find some Batman & Robin templates, since that would match the boys' costumes.  Batman was easy, but Robin proved more difficult.  As we were looking at a blue million templates online, we ran across one for Mickey Mouse.

Cj: "Mouse."
"MOUSE!"
"MY MOUSE!  MOUSE FOR BABY BOOPER!"
"MOUSEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

Ok, Batman and Mickey Mouse has a nice ring, too.

They turned out super cute, too, despite all the good help I had.

When it was all over, I had a bowl of pumpkin guts that looked like this:

Now at this point in your pumpkin carving process, you might take a look at this nasty business and decide it's just not worth the effort and dump the whole mess in the trash.

STEP AWAY FROM THE TRASH CAN.  

It's not as hard as it looks, and it's totally worth it.

First, set yourself up a colander to put the seeds in.

Second, fill the bowl that has all the pumpkin guts in it up with warm water, and VOILA! most of the pumpkin seeds will float to the top. 

[Printable Recipe]

Skim them off and put them into the colander.  

There will still be some seeds mired in the guts that have sunk to the bottom.  You can either pick them out, one by painstaking one like an anal retentive fool like me would do or you can toss it all in the trash.  It's ok.  I give you permission now.

Next, rinse the seeds in your colander very well.  There very well may still be little bits of pumpkin guts here and there... Pick them out, don't pick them out, whatever floats your boat.  

Now you will want to let your pumpkin seeds dry out completely.  It is very important that you do NOT put them on paper towels to dry.  Trust me here when I tell you that these little buggers are stickier than... well, than something that is really sticky.  You do NOT want to spend the next three hours picking them off the paper towels.

If you are the patient sort, you can let them dry naturally, just by letting them set out in a shallow baking sheet for several hours.

If you are as impatient as I am, you can a) dry them with a hairdryer or b) dry them out in the oven - kinda like a pre-cooking thing.  

Last year I went the hairdryer route, and it was all fine and good till I decided that it would go much faster if I turned the speed up to high.  Uh, bad call.  

This year I turned the oven on to 200 degrees and let them dry out in there.  It took about 45 minutes, and I stirred them several times in the process.

After your pumpkin seeds are completely dried out, it's time to season them and cook them for real.

You will needs some sort of oil and some sort of seasoning.  Coat the seeds with the oil and seasoning - roughly 1 teaspoon oil and 1/2 teaspoon seasoning per cup of seeds will do the trick.   Bake them for about an hour at 300 degrees, stirring at least every 15 minutes.

Here are some suggestions for seasonings.

• Butter and coarse salt
• canola oil and spicy taco seasoning (MY FAVORITE!!!)
• Olive oil and Italian seasoning blend.  Toss a little parmesan in the last 15 minutes as well
• Butter and cinnamon sugar
• Olive oil and garlic salt
• Whatever you want.  After all, you're going to be the one eating them.

Let them cool and enjoy.  

You will be glad you didn't toss them in the trash.

Really.