Halloween brings jack-o-lanterns, and jack-o-lanterns bring pumpkin seeds! I bought 2 large pumpkins this year because the grocery store had a wonderful deal - buy one get one free. Carving is never an art at our house, although we have made some decent looking pumpkins. I am amazed and somewhat envious at some of the incredible pumpkin designs I see; rest assured those will never be produced here. With my usual inability to decide, I dithered and debated over what my pumpkin would look like. My husband went at his immediately, knife in hand.
We never carved pumpkins when I was growing up, my mother carefully painted a face on our solitary pumpkin because it would last longer than one that was carved. It makes sense, total sense, but I must admit nothing can substitute for the glow of a real candle (none of those fake battery substitutes here!) inside a jack-o-lantern.
But the real treasure is the seeds! I had tried a number of pumpkin seed recipes early in our marriage. Most involved cleaning the seeds of all pulp, soaking in water (salted or not)for a day, all in all a very long, tedious process. Then I discovered The Victory Garden Cookbook! Marion Cunningham's recipe for pumpkin seeds was a revelation - extremely easy, not overly salty (unless you wanted them that way) and delicious! This is NOT the way the book writes the recipe; it is my own restating.
Pumpkin Seeds (from the Victory Garden Cookbook)
Remove seeds from pumpkin. Discard all major stringy pulp, but do not wash the seeds. Measure.
For every 2 cups of seeds, add 2 Tablespoons of mild vegetable oil and 1-2 teaspoons of salt. (I find 1 t salt is more than enough). Mix together, then spread on a lightly oiled baking sheet.
Bake in a preheated 250 degree F oven for 75 minutes. Watch towards the end so they don't burn (remove them earlier if burning seems a possibility).
Obviously, rescale the recipe to the amount of seeds you have - for 1 cup, cut the recipe in half, and so on.
