Lake Neuron

We had “trunk-or-treat” in the church parking lot tonight, followed by chili, followed by pumpkin carving. I asked for some people’s pumpkin seeds, and got a nice supply.

I love pumpkin seeds — I frequently buy the ones you find next to the sunflower seeds in convenience stores. Unlike sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds can be eaten either with or without the hull, and I actually prefer them with the hull.

I’ve tried toasting them the past few years with mixed results. I go online and look for instructions, and I often find wildly contradictory information about how the seeds should be handled and what temperature should be used to toast them. I see from this blog that I was relatively pleased with last year’s effort, although they were a little too brown.

This year, I found a recipe from About.com, and I liked the alternative directions about soaking the seeds in salt water — I like snacks like this to be salty, and I know that things like peanuts roasted in the shell are often seasoned by soaking or boiling them in hot water.

So my seeds are soaking right now — with a twist. I’ve added a little bit of liquid shrimp boil to the soak water in hopes of adding some seasoning along with the salt. Dry seasonings sometimes burn in the oven, but this should actually work pretty well. I will try to remember to drain them and set them out to dry before leaving for work in the morning. We will see how it turns out.