Salt & Balsamic Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

It's October and here is the United States, that means it's pumpkin season! Whether you're stocking up on pumpkins to bake with or to carve up and decorate with, you will inevitably be faced with one messy decision: to roast the pumpkin seeds or to toss them. Pumpkin seeds are loaded with nutrients like zinc, iron and low in calories. What's not to like?

It seems that almost every time I've cleaned out a pumpkin, I've tediously separated out the seeds from the muck with intentions for a healthy, yummy snack. Inevitably, I roast the seeds and they're alright. I nibble on them them fresh from the oven, throw them in a container and they're never “good enough” to be a draw when I want a snack later. Eventually the container will end up emptied in the trash.

This year, I did some research, changed my method and had to hold myself back from eating the whole tray of seeds from the oven!  The best part, a week later stored in a sealed jar and they're still super crunchy!  Here are some of the tips I found and implemented for this year's pumpkin seeds:

1. 
   

   Rinse the Seeds: Once I had separated the pumpkin seeds from the orange muck, I rinsed them thoroughly to remove any remaining bits of pumpkin flesh. I couldn't rinse them enough to remove the sliminess but did get all the orange off.

   
   


2. 
   

   Boil the Seeds: After rinsing my seeds, I boiled them in heavily salted water (1 Tablespoon salt to 1 cup water) for 20 minutes. This removed a little bit more of the sliminess and infused the seeds with a little bit of salty flavor.

   
   


3. 
   

   Dry the Seeds: I drained the seeds and spread them out on a baking sheet. I let them dry overnight. They didn't dry completely but did dry down.

   
   

When ready to roast the seeds, I mixed my marinade and tossed the seeds in the marinade. Spread the seeds back out on the baking sheet and baked them at 325. I stirred them after fifteen minutes intervals at a time and roasted them until they were golden brown and completely dry.

For about 3 cups of pumpkin seeds I used this marinade:  2 Tablespoon Olive Oil, 1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.  Shake it all up and pour it over the seeds and toss them thoroughly.  The vinegar didn't come through quite as much as I would have liked, but they're still pretty yummy!

Check out my guest post at Quick Easy Cheap Healthy for my Pumpkin Pie Spice Roasted Seed recipe!

This post is linked up to An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party

Freezer Baking Wrap Up

After about three bags of flour, a bunch of butter and margarine and a good bit of sugar.  My freezer baking is caught up for this month.  Here's the low-down:

Pie Crusts: Handyman has made a bunch of pie crust to get ready for a dinner at church. He's the the go-to guy for pastry in my house so from best I can tell, he mixes it up, rolls it out, layers it in wax paper and wraps the stack in foil.  I've had pie crust in residence in my freezer for up to three months and couldn't tell the difference when the final pies were done.  This is a great time saver if you're one of those families that has multiple pies on the  menu for the upcoming holidays!

Pumpkin Bread: This week I cleaned out five of my little pie pumpkins from the garden and cooked them up.  The yield was ten cups of pumpkin  puree.  Four cups of that have already ended up in Pumpkin Bread.  I made four loaves and one 9x9 pan. The loaves went to the freezer, the pan went to our tummies!

HV Zucchini Bread: A friend needed zucchini bread made for the same dinner HandyMan is making pies for.  She said she'd bring me zucchini if I'd make bread.  So after some baking: four loaves for her, two loaves for me-all residing in my freezer right now.

Cookie Dough: This is the time of year when ready to go cookie dough is a "must-have" in my freezer.  My supply was completely depleted so it was time to restock.  I put some great Double Chocolate Pecan drop cookies and Sugar Cookie dough into the freezer.  I rolled and cut out the pumpkin sugar cookies to use for the few trick-or-treater's we'll get on Halloween.

Butterhorns: Ack!  These didn't get done.  I really need to move them to the top of the list.  Any list! But I think if I have time to play in the kitchen this afternoon they're at the top of the list

Sloppy Lasagna: This turned out pretty good.  Using the basic idea from this recipe - my own marinara, no hamburger, and making up my own white sauce - I ended up with a pretty decent pasta dish.  I put it in my square non-stick pans, flash freeze and then pop out the whole block-o-pasta from the pan and put it in a Food Saver bag to freeze.  I love this method because it's so easy to see what's in the freezer and they stack great!  When it's time to eat, take the pasta out, remove from bag while still frozen and put it back in the square pan to thaw and cook.



Hope everyone's freezer cooking nets them an easier week this week!

Sunday Sunshine: Friends & Frosting

Practicing contentment by remembering the graces of the week and practicing gratitude by giving.

This week was one of those weeks where everything just seems to go smoothly.  I got ahead in my baking, I got a good bit of real paid work done and I got the house cleaned up.  I realized as I finished folding a huge pile of laundry, that I had only had to fold it once since GBaby was napping.  (Note to self...)

New friends and old friends have made appearances brightening this week as well.

I have had particular fun with GBbaby this week as she has taken to independent play again and I often find her sitting in the living room happily looking at books while I work.  She's also, more than once this week, swiped my spatula while I was baking.  She is becoming so much more animated and has just seemed happier this week.  It's good.

I hope you can look back, and forward, to find the joy dotting your story!

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” (James 1:16 -The Message) May the light of the Father brighten your week!

Freezer Friday: Sugar Cookies Made Easy

Sugar cookies are such a festive cookie adaptable for as many occasions as you can invest in cookie cutters or decorations.  Rolling out the dough and frosting them can be such a fun family activity too!  Most times, I get them rolled out, baked and decorated with the butter cream frosting and stand back and think "now what?"  I can't stack them up on a tray or storage bag or all the frosting will get mashed up.  I could throw them all in the freezer and then stack them and freeze them - but they just wouldn't be as good frozen and thawed later.

A couple years ago I came upon a great frosting recipe that sets beautifully and dry on the surface but moist underneath.  Bingo!  That takes care of part of the dilemma.  But what about the mess of mixing, rolling, and cutting?  This year I decided that I could mix, roll and cut all in one big party, and then freeze the cut out cookies before I bake them.  Pull what I need for a given occasion and bake them.  Mix up frosting and voila! Ready to go with half the mess.

So, here's how it breaks down:

1.  Make a batch (or 2) of your favorite sugar cookie recipe.  I use The Best Rolled Sugar Cookie recipe and it has always turned out great.  When I mix two, I'll mix the first, empty the bowl, and then mix the second - in my world of dish loathing there's no point in washing in between if you're making the exact same recipe.



2.  Roll, cut, layer, freeze.  Repeat. Repeat.  Repeat.  Until the dough is gone.  A round cookie cutter (glass) will give you an all occasion shaped cookie.  I am working with pumpkins and fall leaves as I have three parties coming up for which fall theme will be appropriate.  Once the cookies were frozen between layers of wax paper, I stacked them in a plastic container before they found their somewhat temporary home in the freezer.



3.  Pull and bake what you need and mix up an adequate amount of icing.  I love this recipe because you can dip your cookies in and it dries glossy.  Take a bit of the remaining icing and add a little more powdered sugar to thicken it up and it pipes on nicely for accents.  If you don't have a pastry bag or decorating tips, no problem.  Put the frosting in a freezer zip top bag and cut a tiny opening in one of the corners.  Decorate away.

4.  Once the frosting has set, your cookies can be stacked and displayed on a tray - party perfect!



Then, the next time you need a cookie tray, repeat steps 3 and 4 until your freezer stash of cookies is gone.

This post is linked up at Life As Mom's Frugal Friday: Gearing Up for the Holidays.