Halloween Hits and Misses

So, on Halloween I showed you my hastily-put-together-but-still-super-awesome Halloween Ribbon Wreath.  Well, apparently that really got me in the Halloween mood.  As a result, I spent all of Halloween trying out new things.  Some worked, some not so much.

When my kids got home from school, we carved our pumpkins.  I got them all prepped, so I wouldn't have to scoop all the innards and waste time.  While scooping the innards, I decided that I was going to try roasting pumpkin seeds for the first time (I lied a little, I actually decided earlier in the day when I was coming up with a last minute Halloween dinner and searching recipes online.  I saw a tutorial from Betty Crocker.com on how to do it, so I figured I'd give it a try...confession over).  Anyway, I followed the directions to a T, yet they didn't turn out.  They still tasted good, but they were soggy and greasy.  A result of undercooking and using too much oil.  The next day, I decided that I would try to right my wrong by re-roasting them.  It almost worked.  I ended up cooking them a little too long, so they taste a little burnt.  However, I have two more pumpkins that we didn't carve (my girls decorated them with stickers), so I think I may just suck out their guts and try again.

Supplies: ripe pumpkin, knife, and bowl

 First, you'll want to cut your ripe pumpkin in half (or if your carving it, open your whole in the top).  Remove the guts, placing them in a bowl for later.

Just the pumpkin seeds.

 Next, you'll want to remove all the extra gunk from your seeds.  Betty crocker recommends leaving a very little because it adds flavor.

Ingredients: Fresh pumpkin seed, 1 TB veggie oil (I used olive oil), Kosher Salt

 Next, line a pan with aluminum foil (you don't have to do this, but it makes for easier clean-up).  Spread your oil all over the pan, then cover with the seeds in a single layer.  This is something I'll do differently next time.  I think I'll just spray with pan with cooking spray in an attempt to make them less oily/greasy.

This is what your pan should look like.

 Now, Betty Crocker says to cook them for 15-20 @ 300 degrees F.  As mentioned above, this wasn't long enough.  I read through a few allrecipes (I'm sorry, but I didn't save it, so I can't direct you to the original), and one suggested @325 for 25 minutes.  This would probably work better.  I tried a mix of the two and as I mentioned, it was too long.

Your roasted pumpkin seeds should be a nice golden color.  As you can see, mine didn't quite make it.

See these pumpkins.  We didn't carve them because my daughters decorated them
(quite well, I might add) with stickers. They will be my next test subjects.

Anyway, once we finished pumpkin decorating, I went on to our big festive dinner.  I made hot dog mummies, witch hat calzones, and bubbling cauldron cheese dip with bat wing dippers (not the most varied and exciting, but I had to go with things I knew my kids would eat).  They all turned out yummy and my kids ate them.  Unfortunately, we were in such a hurry to get dinner over with to go trick or treating that I forgot to take pictures.  However, let me say that I will definitely make the calzones and dip again.  I don't think I will do the mummies.  First of all they took a long time to make (having to make dough strips out of crescent rolls, and then wrapping them).  But most importantly I'm not too fond of the hot dog/crescent roll combo.

Lastly (once I got the kids out the door with their daddy), I made toilet roll eyes.  I heard about this from a friend on facebook.  You take a used roll of toilet paper, cut some eyes in them, place a glow stick inside, then hide them in a bush.  It creates the effect of having eyes watching trick or treaters from the bushes.  However, I don't know if it really worked. You be the judge.

All you need are empty toilet paper rolls and glow sticks

Cut some eye holes

Add your activated glow sticks

And hide them in your bushes.

As you can see from the picture, my flash went off and you could see the tp rolls.  I'm not sure how it looked to the trick or treaters because I had a steady stream and didn't have time to reexamine them as it got darker or take another picture without the flash.  I'm not sure if it worked, but I think I'll try it again next year anyway, just to make sure.

If you are interested in any of the other recipes that I found while attempting to come up with a dinner menu, you can see them on my Halloween Pinterest page.