My Best Roast Pumpkin Seed Recipe

I love saving the seeds after carving pumpkins and then roasting them. This year they turned out the best ever! I’ve been snacking on them all week. I’m ready to run out and get more pumpkins just so I can do it all over again and try different flavors!

I think the secret to their deliciousness was letting them soak in the spices overnight. I just rinsed off the pumpkin goo, and then added a hefty dash of garlic salt, a sprinkle of white pepper and a little bit of steak seasoning from Omaha Steaks. It was just something random I threw in there and it worked out really well. I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and then let them sit in the fridge overnight.

pumpkin seeds

The next day I took them out, mixed in 1 tsp of melted butter and spread them out on a foil lined pan. I set the oven to bake at 350 degrees, and put the pan on one of the upper shelves.

Roasting pumpkin seeds

I checked them after 30 min and they were cooked but not enough. I tried stirring them around and they kind of stuck to the foil and didn’t budge so I put them back in for another 10 min.

The next time I peeked in, I was greeted by the sight of perfectly roasted pumpkin seeds! They had toasted up a nice brown and looked really crispy. After letting them cool for a moment I was able to confirm, yes, they were crispy and delicious!

Perfectly roasted pumpkin seeds

If you have a favorite seed recipe, tip or seasoning mix, I’d love to hear about it. Our carved pumpkins already rotted in the Florida heat, so I’ll be getting some more pumpkins soon and I want to try out a few different flavor mixes.

It’s Halloween! Carve ALL the pumpkins!

One of my must-do Halloween activities is carving pumpkins. This year Vita For Home sent me their stainless steel Pumpkin Carving Tool Set to try out. I’m happy to say, I was impressed with the durable tools!

I started my pumpkin project by making a Pinterest board for ideas and tips. So thanks to Pinterest, I decided to paint my pumpkin black to make it look cooler during the day. I really like the contrast of the orange showing through where it’s cut.

The kit came with a nice metal scooper, small carving saw and wedged shaped etching tool. I needed to use a larger knife to cut around the stem and remove the top piece, then went to town with the scooper/scraper. The metal scoop worked way better than the spoon I usually use. I was able to scrape the sides really clean and smooth. It even had serrated corners for digging out chunks.

After the pumpkin was all cleaned up, I drew my design on with chalk. My son had a smaller pumpkin and I let him draw his face on with a sharpie so I could cut it out for him. He wasn’t into scooping out goo and too little for a knife, so it was a good way to get him involved a little. He enjoyed sitting in my lap while I was carving my design.

The carving saw worked really well. I will definitely be adding these tools to my carving collection. So many pumpkin kits come with those flimsy knives that bend unless you poke them in just right. This small saw was very sturdy. My only complaint is that I wanted more! More tools like a larger knife for big parts and a poker for making small holes. This is a great starter kit for basic carving, and you can always raid the kitchen and get creative with basic utensils.

I was really happy with our pumpkin family results:

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If you’d like to try out the set, you can get here: www.VitaPumpkin.com and save with this 20% OFF COUPON CODE: RR6J3XMB

And then when you finish your masterpiece, be sure to post on Instagram and tag @VitaForHome to enter the pumpkin carving contest with a chance to win a $200 Amazon gift card

Pumpkin Carving contest rules:

1. Must be a pumpkin (of course!)

2. All entries must either be published to Instagram with @VitaForHome tagged and hashtags:
– #VitaForHome
– #CelebrateWithVita
– #CarvingContest
OR the contestant can email their submissions to hello@vitaforhome.com
3. The winner will be announced on November 20th
4. The prize is a $200 Amazon Gift Card

It’s so hard, To say Goodbye, To Yesterday…

baby sleepingEspecially when yesterday your toddler took a 3 hour nap! I hate to say this, but I think nap time is coming to an end. I’ve been dreading this day and it’s hard to accept.

Our first year so tough. So tough. We took baby nighttime shifts and slept in the guest room so the other person could get sleep without hearing the screams on the monitor. I don’t think either one of us slept more than two consecutive hours for a year and a half.

And then suddenly he started sleeping all night. It was magical. And then the 30 min nap turned into a 2 hour nap. And then it became a 3 hour nap and I was SO thrilled. It was good times. I started getting stuff done.

But now, it’s going away. Nap time is becoming a fight and it keeps getting later and later and is messing with bedtime. We’ve skipped it some days and he did fine, and even went to bed a little earlier. 

I am mostly hanging onto it because naptime=metime. I’m not ready for it to go away! I was really hoping it would last until he started kindergarten, lol. I keep trying to tell him, one day, you’ll appreciate a good nap! I know I do. 

Supporting the Arts

So far in my blogging endeavors I’ve earned free make-up, toilet paper and a few toys. What I have not earned is actual money. And while the free perks are fun, I can’t pay for a blog upgrade with toilet paper.

After some research, it appears most blogging money comes from ads and sponsored content. I started blogging because I enjoy writing. I also like a nice clean page free of flashing ads and links to buy things. So in an attempt to avoid that fate, I decided to give Patreon a try.

Patreon is a way to get paid for creating the things you’re already creating. I’m already used to posting lots of stuff on the blog, Facebook, Twitter and IG so I figure why not focus on a platform where people are actually supporting me to do all that? The arts have always had patrons, this is just the new fancy Internet way to do that. Nothing will change on the blog and I don’t plan to constantly hound people to join up. Just putting it out there…. 🙂

Check out my Patreon page: Sew. Geek. Mama. on Patreon

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Think you might want to give it a try yourself? Click here!

 

Don’t Come Around Here No More, promoting innovations in baking since 1985

This is a post from my old blog. Wanted to share it since Tom Petty passed away today. I’ve been fan since the Heartbreakers! This video was a big costuming inspiration for me.

A Mused Life

There a new book out called I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution that tells the story of the first decade of MTV. Like any kid in the 80’s I watched my fair share of music videos and their impression has lasted way longer than MTV’s programming format. In case you didn’t notice, it’s hard to catch on actual video on MTV anymore!

Several of my costumes have been inspired by those early golden years of music videos so I was particularly excited to get this e-mail recently:

“Hi Candy,
Just saw the costumes you created for Comic Con based on the video I conceived and directed for Tom Petty- they were fantastic!
Best regards,
Jeff (Stein)”

After e-mailing with Jeff a bit, I learned a few interesting tidbits about the video for Don’t Come Around Here No More and the sensation it caused when it…

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