Prepping pepitas for pigging out

Behold: my creation from KH's pumpkin carving party. A bunch of us gathered in her living room a few weeks before Halloween armed with knives, scoops, and paint, ready to turn innocent pumpkins into wicked-faced lanterns. I, for one, opted to go for something more cheerful—but let's not discuss how a cute little baby pumpkin face can become a sunken maw of horror when you neglect to throw it out, because that might make me cry. Let's just stick to talking about guts instead. And seeds. And pepitas.


At the party RBM and I took it upon ourselves to rescue the load of seeds hidden inside the enormous mound of discarded pulp on the carving table. As I obsessed over picking out every last one, RBM took charge as Head Pepita Chef, washing the slime and pulp away from each seed and spreading them out over a baking sheet to dry. After coating them with olive oil and salt, they went into the oven at 350 degrees to roast.

While we waited, we drank beer—pumpkin beer, of course.

Um, we also set off the smoke detector.
Sorry, KH.

No matter! By then the pepitas were charred and RBM proclaimed the pumpkin seeds roasted. So we turned off the oven, rescued them from the pan, and chowed down.

Excellent: there was plenty for everyone. Including these fellas.