The best part of carving a jack-o-lantern for Halloween is the pumpkin seeds. My wife and I carved our pumpkins yesterday and ended up with three cups of big and plump pumpkin seeds. Probably non-coincidentally, my Joy of Cooking daily calendar had a recipe for preparing winter squash seeds. Based on that, here’s how I prepared my pumpkin seeds:

Pumpkin Seeds

Separate the seeds from the pumpkin innards and rinse, if desired. Toss the seeds with 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil per each cup of seeds. Spread the seeds out over a baking sheet and bake in a 250&deg F oven for about an hour and a half, stirring occasionally.

Once the seeds are dried out, you can either allow to cool and eat them or season them further and toast them in the oven at 350°.