Pumpkin Seeds

I’ve often had good intentions to use up the flesh for a lovely pumpkin ravioli. However, the mangled mess left in the bowl doesn’t ever look very appetising, and I’m not sure that it would actually be suitable for such a dish. A friend mentioned roasting pumpkin seeds. This sounded ideal; here’s what we did.

Paprika and Cumin Spiced Pumpkin Seeds Ingredients

There are only four ingredients plus salt, which makes this so easy to do. You can adjust the below according to how many seeds you have. It’s not an exact science by any means!

• 170g pumpkin seeds
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 teaspoons of cumin
• 3 teaspoons of smoked paprika 
• Two pinches of salt 

Method

1. Retrieve you seeds and wash well as they’ll be very slimy
2. Dry thoroughly. We did this on kitchen paper, which we replaced after it got soaked through. We left over night but that’s not essential
3. Put the dried seeds into a mixing bowl. Then add all of the ingredients listed above and mix so that the seeds are completely coated
4. Put baking parchment onto a baking tray and spread the seeds
5. Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 180c (or 160c for a fan oven)

These make a great snack on their own, but I reckon they’d also work really well on an autumn/winter salad.

Looking for another very simple cooking idea? These three ingredient cheesy pigs in blankets are perfect.

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Halloween now

As soon as the children have gone back to school after summer, the pencil cases and uniforms on the supermarket shelves are replaced with tubs of sweets and Halloween costumes and accessories. Shops go to town with massive window displays and loads of fright night stock.

Showing off the trick or treating loot last year

Two out of three of my children are totally obsessed (the other is more about the sweets). They’ve literally been on count down since July and have ideas about their costumes weeks before!?! This enthusiasm has not come from me; I’ve always found the idea of trick or treating cringe. Thankfully, in our local area, people who are happy to have sweet-seeking ghouls, vampires and witches on their doorsteps make it extremely clear.

Despite not being a fan, like usual, I get swept away by the children’s’  enthusiasm. My eldest was invited to a Halloween party weeks ago and has a great TX Maxx Maleficent outfit lined up; I bought a vampire cape for one of my twins last month from Claire’s (which has a huge Halloween range #Ghoulpower) that we’ll be accessorising, and Very.co.uk came up trumps for my less enthusiastic daughter.

Picking out own at Garsons

Carving our haul

I do like the pumpkin carving though. Last year we went to Garsons to pick our own and it’s a great family activity. I can recommend pumpkin and amaretti ravioli to use up the scooped out flesh.

A Few Tips

• Gauge your child’s appetite for all things ghoulish – sometimes children can talk the talk but when confronted with lots of older children in scary costumes they can get very intimidated
• A small party can be the way to go to replace trick or treating for younger ones
• Similarly, instead of going trick or treating yourselves, decorate the house, get the kids to dress up and scare any visitors

Sofia (aged three here) scared the life out of visiting trick or treaters

• Pinterest is your friend for Halloween inspiration… from arts and crafts to decoration and party ideas
• If you are staying in, do stock up on treats (unless you are going to ignore all visitors)
• If trick or treating, only go to houses that have Halloween decorations: it saves embarrassment
• If not going the whole hog, a bit of baking or pumpkin carving can bridge the gap. Bakerdays has some great Halloween cake ideas

• Don’t spend a fortune on Halloween outfits. You can definitely accessorise to lessen the cost. My daughters’ white sheet ghost outfit last year was actually really frightening. Also charity shops usually have a lot of stuff in
• Halloween night movies with a PG rating: Maleficent, Hocus Pocus, Corpse Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Goosebumps, Casper, The Addams Family, Ghostbusters, Halloweentown… Feel free to post your favourites below.

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The shops have been full of sweets and costumes for ages; Sofia absolutely loves it and has been talking about it for some weeks due to the commercial onslaught (though she has been talking about her birthday, Christmas and Easter this week also).

As a cute witch two Halloweens ago

It definitely doesn’t seem to have much to do with the eve of the feast of All Hallows (or All Saints). My husband Matt loves Halloween, so in our house it does have a lot to do with sweets, trick or treaters and fancy dress costumes. Matt, I think, would have been a make-up artist in another life. He loves getting out the Snazaroo face paints to make up Sofia, so he goes to town at Halloween.

Sofia greeted trick or treaters at our door last year dressed as Samara from The Ring. Visitors were genuinely scared when they saw her. He painted her face, bought the wig, found the white sheets in a charity shop (and stained them) and even put the fake blood on her nails. I’m not completely convinced that it was suitable for a nearly four-year-old, but Sofia was delighted with the results and the reactions she got!

We’ll definitely be buying the pumpkins, outfits, and sweets for our trick or treating visitors again this year, but I’m still not totally sold on the whole idea.

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