A Halloween/October 31st Mai Time Special

And a Recipe to Please the Sweet and the Spicy in Your Life

Good afternoon, friends! I’m dropping this week’s newsletter a little early into your inbox to wish you a Happy Halloween (for those who observe) and a Happy October 31st (for those who don’t)!

For those of you who do celebrate, you are probably preparing your bowls of candy for trick-or-treaters or putting the finishing touches on your (or your little ones’) costumes. We’ll be doing the same in the coming hours. Truthfully, I envy those parents who have costumes sorted weeks prior to this big night, and I aspire to be such a parent one day.

This year, I thought I’d attained my goal.

Granted, I handed over costume prep for my older children into their own care, so instead of conjuring up 6 outfits like in the days of old, I only had my two to figure out. This alone I thought would set me up for success. And we started off strong. By the first week of October, my daughter found an Anna (from Frozen) costume at a local consignment shop. I patted myself on the back—Halloween was weeks away and I was already halfway to my goal.

Later that night, my daughter modeled her new digs for the family and I asked my son, “Do you want to go over to the store and see if you can find a costume?”

He frowned and shook his head. “Nah, I’m good. I’m gonna be Spiderman this year, remember?” No, I didn’t remember because that conversation had never occurred.

“Are you sure?” I asked, thinking of the tattered costume that was at that moment stuffed into the bottom of our dress-up drawer upstairs. It had been in our family’s costume rotation for nearly a decade and looked it.

He waved me off with no concern at all, “Yeah, Mom, I’m sure.”

Turns out he wasn’t. Over the following weeks, his ideas kept changing from various super heroes to soccer stars till this morning as we stood at a smoothie shop chatting with the clerk, and his response to her “What are you going to be for Halloween” question was a shrug of his shoulders and a mumbled, “I don’t know.”

Defeated again.

For those of you who don’t partake in Halloween celebrations, no judgement here. My family were diehard Beggar’s Night adherents for many years, complete with eerie owl hoots and witches’ laughter playing through the open windows of our house. Every Halloween, I raced to get my costume on and my timid self out the door before my mom pulled out the album with its oozing green letters that read “Halloween Scares” and placed the record on the player beside the front door. Out on the sidewalk my brothers and I met up with our bedecked playmates, and we spent the next two hours weaving through the endless streets of our neighborhood with pillow cases in hand, gathering our trove of sweets.

Of course, when we got home, we had to spread the candy out on the living room floor and let my mom inspect it. “If it’s not in a sealed package, trash it,” Mom would say, meticulously scanning each of our mounds. “You know, people have found razor blades in popcorn balls before!” she exclaimed, shaking her head. “Honestly, people these days...” I didn’t know whether the threats were legit or not, but I always felt bad for the old folks who handed out the homemade treats with such innocent smiles, not knowing that all their hard work would land in the bottom of our kitchen trash can.

Somewhere during my late elementary years as I was aging out of trick-or-treating, my mom and dad joined a contingent of parents who decided to boycott Halloween altogether, along with Smurfs and Liz Claiborne. I was too old to really feel the loss of Halloween—dressing up in costumes had begun to feel kind of babyish—but I was too young to understand why we lost it at all. By the time my husband and I started our own family, we decided that there were traditions surrounding the season that we did not wish to participate in (scary costumes, horror flick marathons, nightmare-inducing lawn decorations) and some that we would like to keep. Like trick or treating, for example.

And carving pumpkins.

A few weeks ago as my two oldest and I were leaving a small market stand out in the country, my daughter pointed out the window and smiled. “Look at that,” she said. “That’s a sincere pumpkin patch.”

From the backseat I heard my son chime in, “The most sincere pumpkin patch I’ve ever seen.”

I chuckled. If you’ve never watched the “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” tv special, well, I’m sorry. It’s a classic well-deserving of your attention and devotion. I won’t go into the criteria for a “sincere pumpkin patch”—you’ll have to watch the show for a visual—but the fact that my 18 and 20-year-old tapped back into that time-worn memory warmed my heart.

Our crew out in a Sincere Pumpkin Patch scouting for pumpkins

Later that week we gathered our whole tribe and went back out to that patch so everyone could pick out their pumpkins to carve. We carted home our haul, put the Charlie Brown classic on the tv in the background, and got to work. Obviously, it’s a mess and utter chaos with six pumpkins being gutted on one’s dining room table, but this is how we make memories, isn’t it, friends?

While the children attended to their masterpieces, I combed through the mangled innards of their pumpkins looking for seeds. Long after everyone else had completed their projects, there I sat in my overlarge onesie, my hands covered in muck, separating the proverbial chaff from the wheat.

In the spirit of true transparency, I had to include this picture of me in my onesie, hard at work.

Why? Because our family are roasted pumpkin seed lovers. Truthfully, it goes beyond love at times. This year one of our children (I won’t mention names) ate an entire cereal bowl full of them in about 15 minutes and spent the following afternoon curled up in their bed suffering the aftermath. But eaten in appropriate amounts, they are an autumnal snack worth celebrating. So in the spirit of unity, for all you Halloween lovers and naysayers alike, I give you Mai’s Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds.

Photo by Clint Patterson on Unsplash

The above photo is, obviously, not my own. If you have followed my food photography from the beginning of my Substack career, you’ll know that at its best, it’s amateur, and at its worse, it’s comparable to the images a toddler might take after confiscating their parent’s phone. I’m working on it. But I’m using this beautiful work by Anshu A (see credit below) because I simply forgot to take pictures of my pumpkin seeds, and these looked close enough to the finished product that I went with it.

I chose to share this recipe today because it’s not occasion specific. Pumpkins will be populating market shelves for months to come so anytime you get around to mining for seeds, this recipe will be available to you. It’s simple (once you’ve done the grunt work of harvesting the seeds, that is) and oh so tasty.

Mai’s Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

2 c. cleaned and dried pumpkin seeds (I’m not too meticulous about the cleaning side of things here. Thirty seconds under the tap while your fingers swish them around will suffice. I don’t mind have a few pumpkin guts sticking to them. I think it gives flavor. But the drying part takes a bit more time. I like to spread my seeds out on cookie sheets and let them sit on the counter overnight. Even a second night on the counter wouldn’t be amiss. The drier they are, the crunchier your end product will be.)

2 tbsp. coconut oil (You certainly could use olive oil here if you so choose, but I like the buttery quality coconut oil gives them without using butter.)

1 1/2 tsp. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. cayenne (These seeds definitely have some bite to them, so if you want to lower the spice level, just use less cayenne.)

(Note: This recipe is easy to double and triple depending on how many seeds your pumpkin (or pumpkins) give you. No seed left behind, my friends!)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. If your sheet can’t fit all your seeds in a single layer, use another baking sheet as well.

Put the seeds in a large bowl. In a separate small dish, combine the oil, sugar, and seasonings by giving them a few seconds of vigorous stirring. Pour the mixture over your seeds and stir around till all seeds are covered. Spread seeds on prepared baking sheets and place in oven.

The cooking time is going to vary here, depending on the size of your seeds and how dried out they were prior to cooking. It could take anywhere from 20 minutes to 40 minutes, but I would check the seeds every 10 minutes or so, giving them a little stir around the sheet each time you do. They are ready to pull once they have a toasty, golden brown color. Or if you’re like my mother-in-law and prefer things on the burnt side, go for the char. Whatever strikes your fancy.

Once they’re ready, take them out of the oven and let cool before putting in a mason jar for storing. But chances are everyone will smell them baking (because they smell INCREDIBLE) and will probably eat them straight off the sheet before you can whisk them away for safekeeping. And that’s a good thing, friends; that’s a good thing.

Photo by Anshu A on Unsplash