Something Squirrelly this Way Comes

When I got to my brother and sis-in-law's place on Friday, F (sis in law) was in the middle of baking some pumpkin seeds. I said "oooh those smell good" and she told me that they had, in fact, saved some pumpkin guts for me to paw through for seeds. Wooh! So I sat down and starting sifting through pumpkin innards for seeds. I manged to get a good cereal bowl full of seeds out of it.

F did the basic cooking spray and salt for seasoning pumpkin seeds. I went the 'gourmet' route. I wanted olive oil but they didn't have any (I know! Who doesn't have olive oil?!!). After getting over my shock I, too, used the cooking spray and salt method. Along with chili powder (no cayenne pepper but they have dried ciltrano.. obviously they're in dire need of basic spice knowledge), dried rosemary, garlic powder (no garlic cloves *sigh*) and black pepper. Tossed the seeds about, resprayed with the cooking spray, added a touch more rosemary and into the oven they went.

We had learned through F's toasting that 45 mins at 350 degrees was much too long. So I set the timer for 35 minutes but ended taking them out around 30 minutes. I tossed the seeds twice during the cooking process. I took them out, set them on the stove to cool and we go to the store for groceries.

We get back and the peanut gallery (F and my folks) all make comments along the lines of "What's that smell?! Oh it's the ..pumpkin seeds." I tried them and thought they were pretty good, not the best I've made but good. My mom tried one and made a face, F never tried one, my dad tried a couple and just sort of shrugged at the taste and I don't believe my brother tried any (he was at work during the baking process).

On Saturday I'm eating some of my gourmet pumpkin seeds downstairs and F says, "What's that smell? Was someone using the vacuum cleaner?" You know that burnt, rubberish type smell your vacuum cleaner makes when something gets stuck in it and you have to stop the machine and pull out what's wrapped around the rollers? Yeah, that smell. My sis in law thought my pumpkin seeds smelled like that! Oy!

Funniest part though was that I misunderstood her. I thought she said bathroom cleaner. Imagine my horror when I realized she was talking about my pumpkin seeds and comparing their scent to Bathroom Cleaner!! For the rest of the weekend I referred to the seeds as my vacuum seeds. Told my dad that I would whip out the seeds on the plane this morning if the person next to me was bugging me. Fortunately for everyone around me, I had nobody sitting next to me.