Baked pumpkin seeds

How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds

It's that time of year again! Time to get out and get ready for Halloween. I really enjoy this time of the year when all the tree leaves are changing colours and we get to participate in fun family traditions. 

One of my all time faves is carving the pumpkin. I like to leave it for the weekend before Halloween as I don't want to do it too early and have them rot out on the step. After we are done carving the pumpkin, I always enjoyed roasting the seeds and making a little snack out of them. 

Here is the way that I do it. Please share your way or secret family recipes with me.

Step One: Carve your Pumpkin

This is the fun part...carving the pumpkin! I had my little helper, Hunto (as he would say), helping me out. Help is a term used loosely here as he didn't really do too much but add the cuteness factor to the whole activity. 

He did try and help scoop out some of the pumpkin "brains" but after he tried to put the brains back into the pumpkin, he was a little counter-productive. He also didn't like getting his hands all squishy. His help was short lived once the knives came out any ways. I did the traditional pumpkin faces...nothing too fancy.

Step Two: Separate Seeds

After the pumpkins were carved, it was time to separate the seeds from the brains. 

This didn't take too long, but was tedious work. After the seeds were separated, I washed them in a strainer and let them drip dry for a few minutes after. Note: Don't try to dry them with paper towel...they just stick to the towel

Step Three: Season

There are lots of ways in which you can season your pumpkin seeds. I like mine a little salty. (Be sure to comment on your favourite pumpkin seed flavours you have tried) 

I added about 1/4 cup of oil, just enough to cover all the seeds. Then I added some Mott's Clamto Caesar salt and some rock salt. I would have normally used just regular seasoning salt, but I was out and the Caesar salt worked in a pinch. Plus I really like the rimmer salt any ways.

Step Four: Spread and Bake

At this point, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

Using a sheet of silicone parchment paper, I spread the seasoned seeds over a pan evenly.

I placed the seeds in the oven for about 15-17 minutes until they were slightly golden. After about 10 minutes in the oven, I could hear them start to sizzle. After the sizzling started, I checked them every minute or so just to make sure they weren't burning.

Step Five: Cool and Enjoy

When I was satisfied with the look of the seeds, I pulled them out of the oven. 

They didn't take long to cool and in 5 minutes after being pulled from the oven, we were enjoying our freshly baked pumpkin seeds!

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Work travels

The end of the road in Conne River Newfoundland

Last week I was very fortunate to be able to travel out to Conne River for a meeting with the Miawpukek First Nations about Climate Change. 

The meeting went great, but more than than, I got to explore a part of Newfoundland that I never seen before. First impressions: what a beautiful spot! Although I think the terrain and geography of the area is very similar to that of the Avalon and the area where I live, it is always nice to see other areas of the province and see how other people live. Conne River is a small rural community, but in some ways, they seem to be doing more than some of their larger, more urban counter parts. Case and point: Conne River has a sidewalk. Now a sidewalk may not seem like a big thing, but it can be. It encourages people to get outside and, get this, WALK! And everyone knows that a little exercise can go a long way. It also makes walkers feel safe when going out for their jont as they don't have to walk on the road. Now mind you, Conne River doens't have an extensive network of sidewalks in their community, but what they do have it better than nothing. 

Kudos to you Conne River!

Sidewalk in Conne River

New glasses!

Got me some new glasses and I am pretty happy with them too! 

I ordered my FREE pair of glasses from Clearly Contacts along with my contacts. The first pair that I ordered were really cute and I liked them a lot, but they were too small for my round face. So I called them up and told them that while I really liked my glasses, they didn't fit right. I assume that they have to deal with this all the time. I mean they sell glasses, on the internet,  and it's hard to try on glasses, on the internet. The support staff were super nice about it and offered to pay my return postage for my glasses. Then I picked out a new pair of glasses and ordered them over the phone (so I could still get the First Pair Free promotion). I did have to pay the S&H on the exchange pair (which was only $14ish dollars) and I waited a few days and Boom! There they were in my mail box yesterday! I think I actually like them a bit more than the first ones that I picked out anyways! They are a tiny bit snug on my temples, but I figure they will loosen up over time, either that or my face will have to shrink. But they aren't uncomfortable at all. I wore them all last night, and I was a bit cross-eyed by the end just getting used to my new Rx, but that is all normal.

I wish I could just keep getting free glasses! But I am happy to support Clearly Contacts and buy my next pair when it comes time...which may be sooner than later. I would love to build up a harem of glasses, one to match my every mood and style. I think my next task will be to build a little display shelf in my bathroom to display all my glasses (now I have 4 pairs, of which I really only wear 3). Stay tuned for that!

Maybe even some Rx sunglasses, or some clip on sun glasses. Yes maybe...

It's Monday...Again

So here we are. Back at Monday.

We had a great weekend for father's day weekend. It was kinda low key, but that't the way I like it. On Saturday  we mostly just lazed around the house until Jamie's friend Trevor invitied us over to his place for a BBQ...which was really a deep fried turkey.  We actullly never stayed long enough to eat the turkey cause little man was getting sleepy and cranky, but it was fun to get out and socialize with a different crowd.

Then Sunday for Father's Day we went out the bay (even further) to our friend's cabin out in Broad Cove. It's a nice little place, although it will need a lot of work to fix it up. We were hoping to plan a big Canada Day celebration/party out there, but judging by the amount of work that they have to do, I'm a little skeptical that it will be done in time.

After  short stop to the cabin, we kept trekking down to Northern Bay Sands. What a beautiful spot! Jamie and I had never been there, even though it's only like 40 minutes from the house. The sandy beach was really nice and there wasn't a lot of people there. We walked along the beach and at first Hunter didn't really like the sand in between his toes, but as we walked closer to the water where the sand was wetter and harder, he was ok. Until he fell. Wet sand up the face and down the pants. Poor feller. The rest of the day was spent trying to dust him off and make sure he never rubbed his eyes with his sandy hands. Oh my. But we made it through and he survived.

The rest of Father's day was spent just puttering around the yard and watering and weeding the garden. All in all, it was a wonderful day!

Fathers Day

Happy Fathers day to all the dads out there! It's a pretty special day to celebrate the men in our lives. In my case, I have a few men to celebrate in my life. First and foremost, the man who is top of my list is Jamie, the father of our wonderful little man Hunter. Now so might think that I should honor my own father first, but I believe that when you enter into a serious relationship with someone, your parents and other family then become the "outside" family and your husband and son become the "inside" family, if that makes sense.

So let me count the ways that I love Jamie and why he is a great dad:

He's involved with Hunter. He picks him up from daycare, takes him to dr appointments,reads him books and gives baths.He knows how to do things like change a bum, prepare bottles, and how and what to feed our son. This may sound like "well duh" but you would be surprised the amount of men who are absolutely clueless when it comes to this stuff. Jamie is well versed in all things Hunter.

He cares enough to not give Hunter everything. You might think "wait, what?" but when we were deciding to have a baby, we talked about what kind of parents we wanted to be and the kind of children we wanted to raise. We both agreed that we wanted to be disciplined and loving parents with well behaved children. This means that we don't give in to everything that our child wants, only what he needs. Boundaries and respect for parents goes a long way in creating well rounded children.

Also to this point, I would like to say that I often hear lots of people say that they want to give their children more than they had growing up. While this may be fine for some, I had a pretty good childhood and I don't think I was ever denied anything that I needed and I never had TVs in my room, video games, name brand clothes, or cell phones(I know it was a different times, but I survived). I don't feel a need to give Hunter "more" than I had when I had enough.

All in all, Hunter is a very luck boy to have a great dad like Jamie and I am luck to have them both!

After Jamie, I would also like to wish a happy fathers day to my dad Larry, my step-dad Jerry, my father-in-law Tommy and my step father-in-law Don. See, I said I had a lot of men in my life to celebrate!

Happy Fathers Day!

Friday Wine Day

As much as I love my job, I just love Friday's a little more. And as much as I love Friday, I just really love wine. Not the good stuff either. The cheap and dirty wine. If it comes out of the box, it's even better. (There really is good value in a box of wine which is important for all the low-budget wine drinkers out there).

Jamie picks up my wine from time to time and he always asks what kind I want. I reply...anything red. Now I do prefer Shiraz and some blends, but I will pretty much drink anything. I like to try new things. I was an ABC (anything but Cab) kinda girl but I think I have out grown that phase in my life. Cab is ok, and I will drink it, but I will drink all others before I delve into it.

I used to drink white too, but now I think its too prissy. And don't say it's not, cause it is. White wine goes well with yachts and country estates with show horses, of which I own not any. Ok, maybe that's a bit harsh and I have been known to drink a bottle of white after all the red is gone, but it's not my first choice.

Pictured here is a glass of red. Well it's not really a glass per se, it's really a metal of wine. This is because we like to drink out in the shop and I have wasted one too many glasses out there. Time to bring on the unbreakable kind of drinking tools!

I have also been collecting the corks from my bottles of wine. Do you know how hard it is to find wine that still uses real cork anymore? It's hard. Once I find one that still does, I will buy the crap out of it until I get board of it and need to try something new. Then the hunt is on again to find a corked wine. I don't know what I have saving them up for, some kind of crafty craft. I did make a cork board for my sister for Christmas last year out of all the corks I saved up, but now I need something new to do with them. I will keep my eyes out on Pintrest for some cool ideas.

And all of this to say that I'm not really an alcoholic or anything either. I just really enjoy my metal of wine on Friday's. Is that really so bad?

Beautiful flowers

I bought these flowers down the road from a neighbour. I told Jamie on the way down that I was only going to spend $20. But then I saw these flowers. They are beautiful. And they were also $15 at pot. Seeing as I needed 2 my 2 hangers outside the shop, I ended up scrounging for loonies in the truck to make up the extra $10 that wasn't in the budget.

They have really opened up an blossomed in the last few days with the warm weather and all.

They are just beautiful.