Dad's Pumpkin Seeds

One of my favorite things about Halloween is carving the pumpkins and making fresh home made pumpkin seeds. This was always my dad's job. My dad was quite an artist so we always had some "cool" looking pumpkins that he carved every year. My favorite was the cat he did of Paul Stanley from the rock band KISS.

Anyway, my dad LOVES pumpkin seeds. He eats them year round. We used to walk up to the little drug store on the corner just to get a pack of Indian Pumpkin Seeds. They are SO salty and SO good. They were also a nickle a pack back then too.

So when dad carved the pumpkins my job was to get all the pumpkin seeds out of the pumpkin goop so dad could make his good pumpkin seeds. My dad bought and carved lots and lots of pumpkins just for the seeds!

Here's how to make dad's pumpkin seeds:

Pull out all the goop from inside the pumpkin.
Separate the seeds from the goop.
Soak seeds in a bowl of water for a while (hm.. I guess a while is about 2 hours)
Throw salt and some garlic powder in the seed water mixture. (Do this when they first start soaking, mix it up a bit)
Heat oven to 250 degrees.
Place seeds flat on a large cookie sheet. Don't overlap them.
Salt them to your tasting. I like salty pumpkin seeds so I throw a ton of salt on them.
Bake til done. You have to check them. Cook for about 1/2 hour and then keep checking on them. You want the seed to be crisp. It'll depend on your oven as to how long it takes for them to get crispy.
ENJOY!