November 29, 2021
November is coming to an end and fall is about to turn into winter, at least for people living on the north half of our planet. So what do you do with all those leftover pumpkins? You can make breads, pies, and soup with the fleshy part, but you're still left with those giant gobs of goopy seeds inside. The good news is, you can turn that goop into a tasty, crunchy snack: roasted pumpkin seeds. How? Rinse them under running water to rub off all the stringy fibers. Once the seeds are dry, have a grown-up heat the oven to 400 degrees, and spread the seeds on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake them for 15 minutes, then sprinkle them with whatever seasonings you like: salt, sugar, cinnamon, chili powder, a squirt of lime. Then you just have to decide what to do with the rest of that 80-pound pumpkin.
Wee ones: If you sprinkle a pumpkin seed with salt, then the next with sugar, then the 3rd with cinnamon, then start over with salt, then sugar, then cinnamon, then salt...what's next?
Little kids: If you scoop out 8 slippery pumpkin seeds but 3 of them squirt onto the floor, how many are left in your hand? Bonus: If you have 3 big pumpkins and each one has 200 seeds inside, how many seeds do you have for roasting?
Big kids: If you start roasting your seeds at 3:20 for 15 minutes, at what time do they finish? Bonus: If you want to roast 300 seeds and every pumpkin has 80 seeds, at least how many pumpkins will you need to scoop enough seeds?
