Sometimes I worry I’m not instilling enough tradition into our family life. Yes, I am completely neurotic and over think pretty much everything. Especially when it comes to my family. We are of the laid-back Southern California family breed so we tend to go with the flow, take things as they come and not make a lot of plans. This doesn’t always work in favor of tradition, which in essence means doing the same thing again and again. What dawned on me the other day while carving pumpkins with the girls is that a tradition doesn’t necessarily have to be an event or a routine, a place or a whole trip. It can be as simple as food. Whenever my mom carved pumpkins she always did a few of the same things-carved detailed eyes and girly eyelashes on at least one of the pumpkins, used hairspray to remove the marker we drew on the pumpkin to guide our design and finally she always always always roasted pumpkin seeds. And so a tradition was born, simple as seeds. I didn’t even realize I had carried that tradition on until Elle started obsessing about keeping the seeds from her carving the other day. Oh yeah, that’s right-we roast them too. And we also use hairspray to remove Sharpie from a pumpkin of course. So what am I stressing about? There is tradition all around me. Here’s a few simple steps if you’d like to add one of ours to yours. Happy Halloween-xo
Step one-carve a pumpkin
Step two-separate the pulp from the seeds, clean seeds in a colander and pour onto a cookie sheet. Do not pat the seeds dry, otherwise they will stick together.
Step three-roast them in the oven at 300 degrees for 30 minutes to dry them out.
Step four-coat seeds lightly in olive oil
Step five-find some little ones who like getting their hands dirty and have them salt the seeds and mix them around until they are coated evenly in oil and salt. Then return them to the oven until golden and crisp, about 20 more minutes. I used flavored salts from my friends at Laguna Salt for a gourmet touch. For sweet seeds try a little sugar and cinnamon.
Step six-while you’re waiting for the seeds to crisp, pose adorably in front of your newly carved Frankenstein pumpkins.
Step seven-Enjoy! Serve warm or bag them up for snacks.
