Flavored Pumpkin Seeds

Last year, Dan, Mark, and Adrienne decided to carve pumpkins at our house in San Diego. Since they had TONS of seeds leftover, I decided to make seeds. This year, I wanted to recreate the seeds I made from last year, and make new ones!

My friend Lindsay and I decided to go to the pumpkin patch and buy HUGE pumpkins. Then, we de-seeded them. After cleaning the pumpkin, we washed the seeds to rid them of any goop.

Then, the real fun began. We raided her spice cabinet to come up with flavor profiles. We decided to do some sweet, some spicy, and some savory. We seperated all our seeds into four bowls, and flavored them from there.

I wanted to re-create my seeds from last year, so I added garlic powder, onion powder, olive oil, and salt and pepper. I made sure that they stayed in the oven long enough so they were extra crunchy.

Then, we started on the other flavors. For the next batch, we added cinnamon, sugar, and apple pie spice to the bowl. We baked these until the sugar caramelized on the seeds.

After, we decided to go spicy! We added cayenne pepper and salt to the next batch and baked them. These were super spicy!

Lindsay and I weren't sure of what to do with the last bowl. Then, she had the genius idea of adding Parmesan cheese to the seeds! The salty-ness and cheesy-ness of the parmesan was the perfect compliment to the savory flavor of the seeds!



All of these seeds were SO ADDICTING! I couldn't stop eating them! YUM!!!

40 Clove Garlic Chicken

Even before purchasing my french oven, I saw Ina Garten make 40 Clove Garlic Chicken on her show. I've wanted to make it for a few years now. Last week, I saw the perfect opportunity! Instead of Ina's recipe, I decided to use Nigella Lawson's because it seemed a bit lighter.

I went to Trader Joe's and bought scallions, thyme, four heads of garlic, vermouth, par-baked bread, green beans, mushrooms, and a chicken that was already cut up. I started by browning the chicken in my french oven. Then, I removed the chicken,  and added the thyme and green onions to the oil in the oven. Then, I threw in half of the cloves of garlic, then added the chicken back in, and then topped with more garlic and thyme.  Then, I seasoned with salt and pepper. Then, I put the lid on, and the baked the french oven in a 350 degree oven for 1.5 hours.

While the chicken was cooking, I cleaned and cut the green beans and mushrooms.  I chose to cut the green beans and  mushrooms in half and to saute them together. The last time I made this side, I didn't boil the green beans first, so some came out really soggy and some were undercooked. I made sure to boil them so they were all even.

While the green beans were boiling, I cooked the mushrooms with olive oil.  I only let the green beans boil for a few minutes because I wanted them to stay crisp. After they were done boiling, I added the green beans to the browned mushrooms.

After the chicken was finished, I put the par-baked bread in the oven to crisp up. After 8 minutes,  I pulled the bread out, sliced it, and then plated the food. I made sure to scoop extra sauce on top of the chicken so that you could dip your bread in the sauce. When I put the chicken into the oven, there was only a bit of olive oil and two tablespoons of vermouth in the pan. When I pulled it out, all the juices had accumulated in the bottom of the pan. I couldn't believe how much sauce there was! YUM!

I had one happy Scott at the end of the meal.