I know Halloween is sort of over, but now it's time for the yummiest part of my Halloween traditions - pumpkins seeds!

When you're carving out your pumpkins, be sure to save those seeds. Get them mostly clean by separating them from the other pumpkin guts, then rinse them in the sink - I use a colander and just spray them down with water. Once they are clean, you can either refrigerate them (this is a nice option if you're tired from carving your pumpkin), or start cooking them! This recipe does take a while, so sometimes it's nice to not be up super late finishing your seeds.

You can make separate batches (especially when you carve a ton of pumpkins), and try out different seasonings. You can do plain salt, cinnamon sugar, or something more spicy, like cayenne and cumin (my favorite). I'm looking forward to trying some herbs at some point, too!

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Spread your seeds out in a layer on a cookie sheet.
Slowly, pour 1.5 tablespoons of melted butter over the seeds.
Sprinkle your seasonings over the seeds.
Use a spoon or spatula to mix the seeds around on the cookie sheet to get a more even coating on all the seeds. Gently shake the cookie sheet to distribute the layer of seeds again.
Repeat 3 and 4 until your seeds have your desired amount of seasoning.
Put the seeds in the oven for 1.5 hours, stirring around like step 4 every 20 minutes or so. Around an hour, you can start tasting your seeds for done-ness.
Once you're satisfied with your seeds, take them out, let them cool, and enjoy!

I've noticed that some ovens behave a bit differently than others. I've successfully made the seeds at 300 degrees instead (checking more frequently), and also scorched some because I didn't check often enough, even though the oven was only at 250.

What are your favorite spices for pumpkin seeds? I'm always up for exciting new flavors!

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween - now to figure out what i want to be for next year... :)