Even during the Year of Covid, nothing could stop New Yorkers from finding fun, interesting, and safe ways to celebrate Halloween. Especially those of us with little kids! We opted for a daytime play date in Central Park, hiding candies in plain sight, dotting the bottoms of tree trunks and low grassy slopes. When you’re six years old, dressing up and eating candy in the middle of the day is pretty much like winning the lottery, so coronavirus or not, these kids were thrilled…but mostly with rolling and rolling and rolling in the grass and mud in full costume. And of course, carving the pumpkin and enjoying the jack-o-lantern at night.

Now, what to do with the raw pumpkin seeds? The broad, cream colored seeds are quite healthy, packed with good things like magnesium, iron, and fiber. Google led me to all sorts of delicious recipes but I quickly realized I was seeking ways to roast up raw unshelled pumpkin seeds and not the smaller, green pepitas — basically, green pumpkin seeds you buy at the supermarket are inside the larger pumpkin seed shell. I figured I would keep it simple and go with sea salt and black pepper or jazz them up a bit. I stopped on a terrific post by Wholefully, which thoughtfully and methodically explains the entire oven roasting process and why using parchment paper in the oven is best, complete with six interesting flavors variations. Their sweet & spicy version stuck out to me, and that’s what just came out of the oven…almost briny from the sea salt, deeply sweet from the dark brown sugar, with just the right heat from the cayenne and black pepper … we can’t stop eating them! This is such an easy preparation that has bold flavors, you can snack on them while waiting for election results or add them to anything from your morning oatmeal to lunch salad. Try it!

Sweet & Spicy Pumpkin Seeds (Recipe from Wholefully)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of raw pumpkin seeds (guts removed, cleaned and towel dried)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Toss clean pumpkin seeds with olive oil, brown sugar, sea salt, cayenne pepper and black pepper, making sure to coat each seed well with the mixture.
3. Spread the seeds in one even layer on the prepared baking sheet.
4. Roast for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes during baking time. Pumpkin seeds are ready when they are golden brown. The seeds might be chewy right when they come out of the oven, but will crisp up nicely after cooling.