Halloweeeeeeeeeeeen!

I hope your Halloween was fun and festive! I was pretty happy with the way my crystal ball reader costume turned out. I will say that Coconut handled his first Halloween very well. He was an excellent crystal ball. I would ask people if they wanted me to read my crystal ball, rub my belly, and then pull out a fortune and hand it to them. (As a side note, I downloaded, printed, and cut the fortunes from this fortune cookie site.)

Matt had fun carving a pumpkin with our dremel. Hoss was happy that we didn’t attempt to dress him up…

In terms of ideas for next year, I was inspired by a cute flamingo costume, a “Devil is in the details” costume, a french woman, and a family of garden gnomes.

By the way, if you have pumpkin seeds that you still need to cook up, I recommend this recipe:
Ingredients:
1 medium pumpkin (5 to 7 pound size), reserve seeds
5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
1 1/2 tablespoon peanut oil Directions: Heat oven to 250F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut pumpkin open from the bottom, removing seeds with a long-handled spoon. Separate flesh from seeds and discard. Spread seeds on parchment in an even layer. Bake until dry, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour. Let cool.

In a medium bowl combine 3 tablespoons sugar, salt, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and cayenne. Heat peanut oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat. Add pumpkin seeds and 2 tablespoons sugar. Cook until sugar melts and the pumpkin seeds begin to caramelize, about 45 to 60 seconds.

Transfer to bowl with spices and stir well to coat. Let cool. These may be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.