Quisine and Quirks

So there is one great thing about having a ton of pumpkin guts…. lots of pumpkin seeds. Between the two pumpkins we carved, I was able to sort out 2.5 cups of seeds. What to do with the seeds? Hmmm….what to do? I know! We will roast them! What a marvelous idea? I bet you didn’t see that one coming.

I love traditional roasted pumpkin seeds, but this year I wanted to kick it up a notch. Thank you Emeril for that catchy phrase. So I used some cajun seasoning and ground ginger to make it a whole new type of fragrant roasted seed. The house smelled awesome as the hints of ginger wafted out of the oven. Mmmm…. Well give this a try and let me know what you think.

Cajun Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

2.5 cups of pumpkin seeds

1 tsp cajun seasoning of your choice (I used Slap Ya Mama)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp paprika

1.5 tsp of extra virgin olive oil

ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Pre heat oven to 350. Clean off your pumpkin seeds by rinsing them with water. Pat dry.

2. Combine all seeds, spices and olive oil into the bowl. Hold off on the black pepper for now. Mix thoroughly and coat evenly.

3. Cover the top of the mixture with ground black pepper. I ground enough pepper to cover the entire top of the seeds. Then mix.

4. Line a baking pan with foil. Spread the mixture across the pan. Roast for 350 for 30 min or until golden brown. Be sure to turn/stir the mixture every 10-15 minutes to ensure they don’t burn. Since seeds are all different, you may need to roast them for a little longer depending on how well you were able to pat them dry.

So I was a little bummed that we got a total of 4 trick or treaters last night. We have gobs of candy left over. In hindsight I should have spoiled those 4 ghouls with loads of sugar. I blame it on the rest of our street being “unfestive.” There were two houses giving out candy. Ours and a house across the street. Bummer… maybe I will be the crazy lady trying to pass out candy in the street next year. Ya, that will make the parents want to come on over. That was sarcasm by the way. I figured we would sit in some lawn chairs at the end of the drive way next year, dressed up and chugging beer. Trick or treater or not, that definitely would be highly entertaining.

Well, one thing that did not disappoint was our pumpkin carving. Believe it or not, I have never carved a pumpkin in my entire life. The bf introduced me to the basics of pumpkin carving. First, you had to pick out a pumpkin. Duh right? Well there is a little more to it. The way a pumpkin sits can affect your ability to carve it. Go figure… I hate to say it, but I suffer from pumpkin snobbery. Any disfigured or “warty” pumpkin is quickly  disregarded. To be frank, they just look diseased. Ick!

We explored a pumpkin patch at a local church. They had a wide selection. Tiny, big, warty, semi warty,etc. I like the baby pumpkins. I think they are very cute, but the bf said I needed a big one. (Cue the “that’s what she said” joke). So we picked out two monstrous sized pumpkins.

Aren’t they huge?

Then you have to clean out the pumpkin post first incision. Talk about a cavern of guts! Geez Louise! I quickly learned, the bigger the pumpkin, the more pumpkin guts you get to clean out.

Anyhow, I won’t bore you with all of the details of each and every step. I think our pumpkins turned out extremely well. I had to pat myself on the back. It was my first pumpkin, and it wasn’t too shabby. Mine is on the left. You would never guess that I broke the head off of the ghost on mine …. (don’t tell anyone, but a toothpick is holding it back together). The bf’s pumpkin looked awesome!

Ok now all lit up…

Alrighty, it is my bedtime. I will post my roasted pumpkin seed recipe sometime this weekend and my tribute to The Pioneer Woman. I get to meet her tomorrow. I am so excited to get my cookbook signed! Eek! I know… I am a dork. Well I better get going before I turn into a pumpkin.

Toodle- loo….

-Sassy Q

From the Qutesy Store to yours…. 

Dear Monday- You don’t really bring too many good things, but during football season, you’re not so bad. Now make me some football watching munchies!

Dear Pumpkin Patch- I love you. You always bring so much cheer to everyone that visits. I especially love the pallets of orange scattered across the horizon. What else screams fall more than a pumpkin patch of joy?

Dear Crock Pot- It’s finally feeling like fall. That means you will be called to duty quite a bit in the next couple of months. To get you warmed up, we will start with something simple tonight. A nice and easy chicken and dumplings. MMMM….yummy

Dear Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie- I can’t wait to make you tonight. You are going to be a welcome finish to our pumpkin carving fest. Oreo crust? Yes please.

Dear Work- I hate you. The end.

Dear Louisiana- Can I get a little break? I am tired of seeing your swamplands…

Dear New Outlet Mall- I am very surprised I have yet come to check out your splendor. You are so close, but so far at the same time. Maybe next time instead of being 15 min away, they will make you 5 min away. By then, I will only want you to be 2 min away. Demanding? Yes. Unreasonable? Never.

Dear Sunday Coupons- You are not living up to my expectations. Where are all of the good coupons? How many more Gillette coupons can a person have? I’m not that hairy.

Dear Halloween- I am very excited to hand out candy to the kiddies. It’s our first Halloween in our new home. Hopefully we will get many ghouls and goblins asking for candy.

Dear Friday- I will take some weekend college football over Monday night football any day. You don’t even need to bring munchies. Just get here as fast as you can. Channel your inner Speedy Gonzales if you can. Gracias.

I am a huge fan of decorating for the holidays. With this being our first Halloween in our new home, I thought it was only appropriate that we show our neighbors how we do it. Even though it may sound like I had a design in mind, I didn’t. I headed to the local Dollar Tree hoping they had something I could use. My shopping trip was very similar to rolling a 3 year old down the cookie aisle at the grocery store. I picked up one or two of everything. I left with a hodge podge of cutesy and gory: Glow in the dark skeletons, glow in the dark tombstones, caution/keep out tape, body parts, trick or treat buckets, and some other random knick knacks.Here is what the boyfriend and I conjured up.

I actually found these cute little jack-o-latern stakes at Michael’s. They were a steal at $1.25 a piece. I grabbed three that we ended up placing around our tree. The colors really popped against our black mulch.

I thought the glow in the dark stuff I bought would be scary and eerie looking at night. Little did I know, none of it would glow because our street lights are too bright. How creepy would glowing skeletons hanging from trees have been? Answer: Super creepy. It’s ok though because now the skeletons remind me of the Mexican Day of the Dead. We hung lots on our trees despite the fact that they do not glow. I think they look spiffy. Maybe next year I will paint them.

Would you want to walk up to a house like this to get candy? Only the brave will make the trip…. This design created by my bf, makes me giggle. While the other houses are all Halloween “Target” cute, we have dead body parts scattered in our yard. Just another reason why we stand out.

We shared the love with our inside decor as well. Believe it or not, these are little trick or treat buckets on our wrap around kitchen counter. Pretty nifty if I do say so myself.

Creepy crawlers for the coffee table….

Some bobble head fun….

And our entry way decor…

What did you do to spruce up your home for All Hallow’s Eve?