Fall Meets Spring

Halloween and pumpkin carving are huge at this house. And being a family that tries not to waste anything -- there are a lot of pumpkin seeds gathered when you carve seven, (or more), pumpkins.

Roasting seeds was on my to do list yesterday. And as I was laying out the pans I thought of drizzling the seeds with maple syrup. Not bathing, or soaking, or floating -- just a drizzle, before roasting. Well, they came out delicious. Here is the recipe. And yes, I used some of Framingham's 2010 Spring time finest.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Collect and rinse a cookie sheet worth of seeds. Don't dry the seeds, for they need to be wet at the start of roasting. What I do is remove them from the rinse bowl with a colander. And give the colander a good shake to get rid of excess water.

Spray the cookie sheet with a PAM like product. No oil or butter -- I personally don't need added calories.

Spread the pumpkin seeds on the tray.

Season with season salt, and be generous with the fresh ground pepper. Then drizzle with maple syrup. Don't worry if all the seeds aren't touched by the sweet goodness. When you stir the seeds the syrup will spread.

Pop in the oven. Set a timer for 8 minutes. And every 8 minutes until the seeds are toasted golden brown stir them so they don't burn. The roasting time will be effected by the number of seeds on the pan, and the amount of water left on the seeds at the start of roasting.

Enjoy!