Pumpkin!

Abigail spent the last week dropping hints that she'd like to carve a pumpkin. It finally occurred to me that she had never done this. Poor girl! Somehow our youngest misses out on things. We quit carving pumpkins years ago when it seemed like they rotted too quickly on the front porch and went with pretty little gourds instead.

Tonight was her night. She didn't realize that the insides would be as stringy and messy as they are, nor that the pumpkin would be so difficult to cut, and enlisted her daddy and brother to help her. It was my job to roast the seeds.

We lit the pumpkin, dimmed the lights, and watched The Music Man. "Now this is cozy," she said.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

One pumpkin

Salt

Olive oil

1 Cut open the pumpkin and use a spoon to scoop out the insides. Separate the seeds from the stringy core. Rinse the seeds.

2 Preheat oven to 400°F. In a saucepan, add the seeds to water, about 2 cups of water to every half cup of seeds. Add a tablespoon of salt for every two cups of water. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Drain.

3 Spread about a tablespoon of olive oil over the bottom of a roasting pan or cookie sheet. Spread the seeds out over the pan, in a thin layer. Bake on the top rack until the seeds begin to brown, 10-20 minutes. When browned to your liking, remove from the oven and let the seeds cool before eating.