I recently read an article criticizing Halloween givers. It was something like "the ten worst Halloween treats." And, it's final point was to say how lame anything "fun sized" was, as if every household in America should be giving out full-sized candy bars to kids, because gee, most of America isn't fat enough. Reading it, I was unbelievably irritated.
We're lucky. We live in a small town where the businesses do a Halloween Parade for the kids, which means that the children pre-school aged to third grade go trick-or-treating down the main drag in the middle of the afternoon. It is awesome, and my only complaint is that the kids get too much candy. Seriously, WAY too much. We get a few trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, and mostly, we know them. This is a big change over how it was when we lived in Washington.
However, there is one thing I love about Halloween:
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds. Four years ago I called my step-dad and asked him how to make good roasted pumpkin seeds. He gave me the secret. Boil the seeds in salt water for about twenty minutes, then spread them on a cookie sheet and bake at 250 degrees for an hour and a half to two hours. So, last night we carved pumpkins.
Usually, I'm lame and only buy one, so we carve a single pumpkin for the entire family. But, last year everyone loved the roasted pumpkin seeds and they were gone as soon as they came out of the oven. So, this year I let everyone get their own pumpkin, just so we'd have more seeds. Crazy, I know.
Last night, we only finished half of the carving project (the gross cleaning part), because we couldn't find the dandy little carving set that Nathan bought last year. We're planning to buy a new one today and finish the faces. Now if I can only find the candles!
I found you on Tiffany's blog. I just had to stop by and say hi! Your family is so cute. I think I might have to try roasting some pumpkin seeds. That sounds like fun. Thanks for the good idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you posted how to roast the seeds, I am going to do that today too, but I was just trying to remember how long to cook them! Thanks! After so many years of doing this you'd think I could remember something like that!!!! Nope! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the seed recipe. I always try different recipes and they never turn out. I finally gave up a couple of years ago. I look forward to trying this one!!
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Yum. Roasted Pumpkin seeds are so good! Thanks for sharing your tips on roasting them.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about the greed of Halloween candy. I always take the kids to an afternoon trick or treating thing too, and they come home with SO much candy. It is insane. Sometimes, I'll even take half of what they get and give it away to the door to door trick or treaters that come by. I know, I'm so mean.
I didn't buy any costumes this year. I had no desire to fork out 60 bucks on 3 costumes that would never be worn again. Hannah is wearing her ballet recital costume from last spring.(that thing alone was 60 bucks, she whether she wanted to or not, she was going to wear it!! See, I told ya I was mean) and the boys traded costumes with some cousins. I think I'm convinced that I don't ever want to buy another costume.
I hate carving pumpkins. I do not look forward to Halloween myself, but the kids love it so I try to be a good mom and do all the fun stuff. But I really don't enjoy it. We bought a neat little pumpkin carving kit this year and the kids all chose patterns that were pretty difficult and advanced. They turned out okay but next year, I will choose the patterns and they can like it or lump it! I wish I had the pumpkin seed recipe when we carved our pumpkins this year. We were all talking about roasted pumpkin seeds and how yummy they were but didn't know how to do them so I just threw the seed out. Next year!
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