Howdy Pardner!

This is my little boy all dressed up for Halloween last night. It was all we could do to keep that hat on his head for a couple of pics. He wanted to peel the straw out of it.

All in all, Halloween was a pretty good time. I got my pumpkin carved late but it came out really nicely and I'm a proud carving monkey.

The boys got out for a little trick or treating before the rain started up. Grady was a fireman and Sully was a cowboy. I didn't really dress up but I did throw on some surgical scrubs.

And then there was the awful story this morning about the 12 year old boy who was shot to death while trick or treating with his family. Some nutter fired something like 30 shots through the door with an assault rifle, hitting him, his brother and his father. He appears to have thought he was being robbed which, had it been true, he still went completely overboard in his response and would have been arrested anyway.

Pretty freaky when you think about it. But nothing bad happened out here and both boys were out cold pretty early given all the candy they were able to consume and all the generalized craziness of the evening.

It was a good Halloween. Even if it didn't really feel like Halloween at all.

Me Loves the Pumpkin Seeds

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I absolutely love pumpkin seeds. The salty crunchiness of them just does it for me.

And it is always one of the highlights of the Halloween season for me. Carve your pumpkin, save and clean those seeds, dry them out a bit and get them ready for some oiling up and seasoning.

I tried something new tonight and ran four different flavors. Regular salt, jamaican seasoned salt, garlic and salt and, finally, cumin with a tiny bit of salt. I haven't had cumin too often and didn't really know what to expect but damned if they aren't fantastic. Its a complex kind of flavor that's hard to describe aside from good.

I'm eating some right now and its hard to stop eating them to type. If you've got a pile of seeds that you aren't sure what to do with, make yourself a batch and try some of them with cumin and salt and you'll be amazed how tasty and addictive they are.

Oh yeah, quick recipe? Melt some butter or use canola oil to lube up them seeds, season them and spread them out on a baking sheet (I covered mine in foil to make clean up way easier) and put them in a 300 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Mine ended up going until almost 55 minutes but I likes them crispy.

Dig in and enjoy them warm or let them cool off and enjoy them with a cold beer and some of that American football.

PS. Grady was a pirate and Sully was a football player for Halloween, the cuteness was beyond fathoming. Don't believe me? Check them out. Halloween was fun, once it got going. Nande was a serious pain in the ass, of course. But we got a good crowd, had a good time overall and I'm glad its behind us for another year.

[Update: I always seem to forget this until its almost too late. Pumpkin seeds are fairly high in an amino acid called Arginine. Arginine causes me to get fever blisters. Only heavy dosing of Lysine, another amino acid, can counteract the Arginine. That and Abreva and I'm battling to keep the angry little blisters from taking over the right side of my lip. So far the battle is going my way but the war isn't over yet. Abreva, by the way, kicks all kinds of ass!]