October 24, 2008
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
Now is the time for pumpkin carving, but what do you do with all those seeds?! Well, I have an easy recipe for toasting them. TIP: After recovering the seeds from your pumpkin (or squash), remove all the pulp by placing 1/2 C seeds at a time, between 2 towels and rub to remove strings and flesh from seeds. In a colander, rinse seeds well and drain. The only way to do this is by hand, so make sure your manicure is completely dry!
In a 2 quart pan, bring water (2 Cups) and salt (2 T) to boil over high heat. Stir in seeds. Remove from heat and let stand until cool. Cover and chill 12-24 hours. Use less salt if you just want a hint of salty taste. Pour off the salt water solution and pat them dry for the day or overnight. Seeds will toast or roast best if dry. Drying tip: put seeds on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper so they don’t stick to it.
Oven: Spread seeds on a foil-lined (important for easy clean-up!) cookie sheet and bake them in a slow oven (250 degrees) for about 1 hour. Be sure to watch them and stir every 10 minutes so they don’t burn and are “golden brown”. Be sure to cool before eating!
Skillet toasting: Toast seeds in a heavy, dry skillet on medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning, until they start to pop open.
Microwave: Toast on high in microwave for 6- 8 minutes, stirring once every minute to prevent burning. Watch carefully as it is easy to burn things in the microwave, too.
These may be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a year, but my guess is that you will be lucky if you have some left over at Christmas!
You can also toast the seeds without soaking them in salt water. You can also spray them with oil (more calories) and sprinkle the seeds with various toppings (cinnamon/sugar, garlic salt, cayenne, onion powder, curry powder, etc) before or after baking.
Thanks to Susan List for the basic recipe, which Portland Firefly greatly embellished.
Portland Firefly tip: I couldn’t wait for my seeds to soak in the brine (salt) solution for 12 hours, so I just let them soak in the hot salt water for about 30 minutes. Then I let them dry and skillet toasted them. M-m-m-m-m Yummy! And just the right amount of salt for me!
Enjoy!!!! And let Portland Firefly know how they came out!
Roloff Farms
Well, I finally made it to Roloff Farms near Hillsboro. I have been a fan of “Little People, Big World” since the reality series first aired several years ago and when I moved here to Oregon (the most beautiful state in the union!) I knew that I would be visiting the featured farm at some point in time. And this last weekend was it!
Now is the pumpkin season and this is the only time of year that Roloff Farms are open to the public, so we packed up the baby and went!! We had a beautiful crisp, clear, sunny fall day for the outing. You can even take a wagon ride to see the entire farm. I was prepared for the crowds of people, but I was not prepared for how clean and homey it felt there. Even though the farm operation is large, the public part is quite contained and this makes for a very comfortable day. The signage is excellent, parking is convenient and free and it is easy to get around. I was please to see the row of new clean porta-potty’s were easily accessible. We had a little wagon to pull through the pumpkin patch which Baby loved sitting in; he looked so cute in it, surrounded by our pumpkin choices.
Baby in Wagon at Roloff Farms by PDXFirefly
We thought that the pumpkins were getting a little thin in the patch and were happy that we chose today to stop by for our visit. But we needn’t had worried because while we were there, a truck pulling a low, large farm wagon heaped with pumpkins came up over the back hill (probably from the “back 40″) and workers started unloading the pumpkins. They had lots of help from the visitors, because when someone saw “just the right pumpkin”, they would go & get it out of the wagon.
Wagon Rides, pumpkins and simple food were available. When you combine that along with the clear, crisp, sunny October day everyone goes home happy and has just that special pumpkin for their very own. Definitely another fabulous memory making option here in the beautiful North West!
