Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Nothing says October like pumpkin carving. But do not just throw out those
jack-o-lantern seeds. You can easily roast them for a healthy snack.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

seeds of one large jack-o-lantern pumpkin (about 2 cups)

Salted Seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Seasoned Seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Sweet Cinnamon Seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon sugar

Preheat oven to 325 ° F.
Clean any pumpkin pulp off the seeds. I fill my sink or a large bowl with water and sort the clean seeds into a strainer.
Let the seeds drain most of the water off.
Place seeds into a bowl. Place the ingredients from your selected recipe in the bowl. Stir until well mixed.
Pour seeds onto a parchment paper or foil lined baking pan.
Bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
Remove seeds from pan and allow to cool.

Enjoy!

Additional Activity:
We love to guess the number of seeds that will be in the pumpkin and then count them to see how close our guess was.

Pumpkin Brownies

Healthy brownies? Could it be? Not only is this recipe beyond easy, it eliminates the oil, eggs and butter. And is still delicious.

Pumpkin Brownies

1 - 19.5 ounce box brownie mix
1 - 15 ounce can pumpkin

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional, used regular and mini sized)

sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 ° F.  Spray a 9x13 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray or olive oil.  In a large bowl, mix together only the powdered brownie mix and pumpkin until combined.  Add chocolate chips if you want.

Spread batter into prepared pan. Add sprinkles at this time if you choose to.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. This recipe does not rise like a cake. So, no you did not do anything wrong.

This recipe makes a fudge type of a brownie. It does not make the cake type of brownie. But it is yummy and you don't feel guilty eating more than one!

Adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff recipe.

Applesauce

Our wonderful neighbors have surely blessed us with the invitation to any fruit from their apple and pear trees. So we filled several bushels!

Applesauce

13 pounds apples (used Granny Smith)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups water

Hot water canner

Large sauce pan or soup pot

Ladle

Funnel
Jar Lifter

Jars, lids, rims

Peeler and Knife / Apple Peeler Corer / Food Mill

Wash apples.

Peel and core apples if you don't have a food mill. You can use an apple peeler corer to make quick work.

Place apples in a very large pot with the water. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
Cook on high for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to medium for 35 minutes. Stirring often. If there are any remaining large pieces of apples remaining, you can use a potato masher to crush them.

Food mill directions: Cut apple into quarters. No need to remove peels or seeds. Yippie!!

Place apples in a very large pot with the water. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
Cook on high for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to medium for 35 minutes. Stirring often.
Run apples through a food mill with the apple screen in place. And out comes applesauce.

If you are new to Boiling-Water Bath Canning, I recommend reading my tutorial on this type of canning.

Get your jars ready. Jars should be clean, can run through the dishwasher or wash in hot soapy water. Place funnel on top of the jar and fill with hot applesauce, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Wipe rims of jars clean with warm wash cloth. Place hot lids on jars and tighten with rims.

Process in a boiling-water canner for 10 minutes. Remove jars with jar remover carefully. Place hot jars on level surface. I cover my counter top with a double layered kitchen towel and place jars on top. Using a hot pad or glove, check that the rims are tightened.

As the jars cool, you will hear a "ping" when the lid seals. Make sure all of your jars have sealed. They are sealed if the button in the middle of the lid in depressed. If you have any jars that have not sealed, you can reprocess them or store the jar in the refrigerator for use.

Makes 10-11 pints.

Please check with your local extension office for any changes due to altitude for times or temperatures. 

Above instructions are for elevation 1000 feet or below.