Cleaning our Pumpkin and Roasting Seeds!

Today, my daughter had a day off of school so we began working on our pumpkins. My daughter does not quite accept the difference between pie pumpkins and carving pumpkins. So while she likes me to make pie or bread in the fall, she also wants me to carve my pie pumpkin. I guess moms don't get a break!

We cleaned out our pumpkin by using pumpkin carving tools and a melon baller. The melon baller actually made the process pretty easy. We kept the pulp separate from the seeds. Once we finished, I put the pulp in a pot, added 2 cups of water and heated the pulp for 2 hours until it was pretty smooth. I simmered it on low heat to keep the pumpkin from burning. If the pulp is not smooth enough, you can puree it. I put this aside in the refrigerator for baking this week.

Next, we moved onto the seeds. There is nothing like fresh pumpkin seeds in the fall!

Here is what we did to make our seeds:

Ingredients:

Pumpkin seeds from one pumpkin
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Rinse the seeds in a colander. Boil them for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 300 F. Strain the seeds and pat dry. Pour them into a bowl and mix with 2 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp celery salt and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Spread the seeds onto a baking sheet, preferably with sides. Bake for 15 minutes. Then, take seeds out of oven and flip the seeds. Sprinkle a little more cinnamon. Bake for 15 more minutes. Stir again. Heat 15 more minutes. Seeds should be lightly golden brown when finished. Cool and eat!

The olive oil really makes these pumpkin seeds addictive. They taste like popcorn!