Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Hi All! This is just a copy of a post that I did for my sisers' food blog but I thought you all would like it too!

We had some freaking huge pumpkins to carve this year, plus I made a dinner-in-a-pumpkin so we had a TON of seeds to roast. I did half salty and half sweet. The sweet are SO yummy. I got the recipe from a friend of mine. Here's a LINK to the recipe but I'll put it here too.

Sugar and Spice Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, rinsed and dried
6 tablespoons white sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Spread pumpkin seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet. Toast for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until dry and toasted. Larger seeds may take longer.
In a large bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons of white sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pumpkin seeds and sprinkle the remaining sugar over them. Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugar melts, about 45 seconds. Pour seeds into the bowl with the spiced sugar and stir until coated. Allow to cool before serving. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Savory Pumpkin Seeds

Happy Halloween!

Eerie Eyeball treats--Happy October!

I've made these several years in a row now, and they are pretty easy to make and fun to take to a fall/Halloween festivity--we wish we could be at your Halloween party this year Kathy!! The picture I posted is a not that great scan from the magazine I got the recipe from. I've made them other times as a yummy treat to give away other times of the year, by just dipping the balls in chocolate, and not making them into eyes.

Eyeballs

Makes 36 Prep 45 min Chill 2 hr

* 1 cup creamy peanut butter
* 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
* 2 to 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1 bag (12 oz) white chocolate chips
* 2 T solid vegetable shortening---I really detest vegetable shortening, but I do have to say that it helps quite a bit in this recipe, I've tried it without.

*1 tube each red white and green decorators frosting (I just make my own frosting--don't make a lot, you don't need very much.)
* 36 brown M&M's (If you can't find brown M&M's you can use brown Reeses pieces.)

1. Stir the peanut butter and butter in a medium bowl until smooth. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar until thick and smooth and well combined. (The mixture should be thick and easy to roll into balls.)
2. Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Shape mixture into 36 (or more) 1 inch balls. Place balls on prepared baking sheet and refrigerate about 1 hour or until firm. (Can speed this process up by using the freezer.)
3. Meanwhile melt the white chocolate with the vegetable shortening over a double boiler until smooth. Carefully drop chilled peanut butter balls into the chocolate to coat, and scoop them out with a fork, letting excess drip off through the tines (be careful not to stick the balls.) Return balls to wax paper-lined baking sheet; refrigerate until set.
4. Squeeze frostings into separate ziptop bags. Snip a very small corner from each bag. Pipe red frosting lines from center out for the veins. Pipe a dot of green frosting on top. Place the M&M's in the center and pipe a white line on ones side. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Heather's note: I have never piped the red veins on and they still really look like eyes, but if you have the time, go for it!!