When David woke up from his nap yesterday, my kitchen looked like this.

He was understandably elated.

You’re probably assuming he woke up early and caught me in the middle of a Halloween craft, but I actually planned this.

I love, love, love roasted pumpkin seeds. Usually I just buy a couple of pie pumpkins and puree them when they’re done decorating my front porch. The problem with that is I don’t get my annual fix for roasted pumpkin seeds. But then Tom’s mom mentioned she was pitching her pumpkins, so I took them off her hands.

I’ve been starting to involve David in some of my tasks. So what if it’s messier or takes four times as long? What I’ve learned is that though you expect a mess, toddlers don’t make messes the way you expect them to make messes.

For example, I expected David would put his hands in the pumpkin goo and smear it on the floor, the cabinets, in his hair, in my  hair.

Instead, he picked up a pumpkin and threw it, sending seeds and goo everywhere.

I got this action shot because, at this point, I didn’t realize he was going to throw the pumpkin.

He was actually a little weary of the pumpkin goo. He mostly stood back and watched. He did copy me for two seconds and put a pumpkin seed in my bowl.

Then he got bored, went in the other room and fell off the ottoman.

The good news is my pumpkin seeds are delicious.

Here’s the recipe I use. There are lots out there, but I think the secret is boiling them before roasting them. It changes the texture for the best.

And there are lots of different spices you can use, too. I’ve tried garlic, cumin, ginger, etc. You can even make them sweet. But my favorite is to just use olive oil and salt because I think that brings out the flavor the best.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
– Separate pumpkin seeds from pumpkin guts and rinse under cold water
– Bring a large pot of water (and a few tsp salt) to boil. Add seeds and boil for at least 15 minutes
– Strain seeds and shake dry
– Preheat oven to 250
– Arrange seeds on a baking pan and drizzle a little olive oil, tossing evenly to coat and adding more salt if necessary
– Sprinkle with salt, to taste
– Bake for about an hour, tossing every 15 minutes
– In the last 10 minutes, increase oven temperature to 400 until seeds are golden brown

Store in an airtight container.

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