Brined Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin seeds are pumkin seeds, right? Not if you brine them!! Here’s how to do it…
Step 1: Make a Brine
Bring 2 cups of water, the juice of a lemon, and 1/2 cup of salt to a boil. While that’s cooling, hollow out your pumpkin; get rid of the big chunks of flesh, but don’t worry too much if there are still some strings mixed in among your seeds–they’re extra flavor, baby!
Step 2: Kick ’em up and roast ’em up!
Soak the seeds in the brine for as long as you like (at least a half an hour). When you’ve brined to your heart’s desire, strain the seeds, toss them in a few tablespoons of olive oil or melted butter, add a pinch or two of cajun spices (like paprika, cayenne pepper, etc.), and some black pepper, and roast those babies in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes (or until they’re light golden brown and nice and crispy!). Yummers!
How about some ideas for Thanksgiving side dishes? Oak and I are hosting our first Thanksgiving! Yikes! Luckily Oak has mastered mashed potatoes, and I have to make green bean casserole (it’s not a thanksgiving to me without that!)
In my journeys around the internet, I came across a new food magazine, Chow. Have you heard of it? I signed up for a free issue, so I can mail it to you after I get it and take a look. Here’s the website : http://www.chowmag.com/
I checked out Chow at the bookstand the other day, and have to say I was not impressed. Their first issue was full of hot pictures, but no content! Personally, I like my magazines to be full of useful information and so many recipes that I just don’t have time to try them all, but this was not the case with Chow. Perhaps their next issue will be better, they are new and maybe still working out all the kinks…
For Thanksgiving I reccommend using Pomegranate! Pomegrante!!! I’ll post recipes soon…
Well, I will see how I like the magazine when it arrives. The website made me think it was going to be more about food products, drinks, and restaurants -not necessarily recipes. Sort of like “Lucky” magazine for the food industry – and for people that like eating, but not necessarily are passionate cooks. I’m sure though, that they desparately need you to write them some decent articles. Maybe this is a career opportunity? 🙂