It's Fall!

Living in Santa Barbara I am often told we don't have real seasons here but I beg to differ. Fall may be more subtle here and often we can get unexpected days of summer heat but our weather gets cooler, our leaves change, the air smells crisper. Today we are awaiting a bit of rain and it's the first day in a long time I'm wearing a chunky sweater. No better day to have a little Fall blog round up.

I don't get very creative with my nails in terms of nail art although I like unusual colors so I already had this bright orange and adding the jack-o-lantern face was super easy using a black nail pen from the drugstore. I'm so happy with how this looks, isn't it cute?

My first ever blog post almost two years ago was about roasted pumpkin seeds. Roasting pumpkin seeds is an annual tradition in my house. Last year I decided to revamp my roasted pumpkin seed post. It has since become my most popular post. Some of my posts only get a few hits put this one has THOUSANDS. It's also my most pinned picture on Pinterest. Around this time of year people start to come up to me ask ask for the recipe, and no wonder...the recipe is the BEST! See it here.

My sweet daughter/model

A few days ago I made these awesome candy corn rice krispie treats.  The best part about them is that the yellow tastes like lemon and the orange like orange (and the snozzberries taste like snozzberries....sorry, couldn't resist a little Veruca Salt here.)  Anyway, I love citrus desserts.

 

 Here is the recipe I used.  Rice Krispie treats recipe  The only thing I changed is using the larger portion for both the orange and the yellow.  I actually thought I would use a little more yellow, it got thin here and there.  Another tip is that it was very hard to shape the colors into the cake pan without making a sticky mess and almost ruining my manicure!  I used wax paper to press the colors into shape and that worked well. 


I finally made earring to match my best selling bracelets (in the manicure picture above.)



See them for sale here

We still have more pumpkin carving and lots of school activities this week.  And looking forward to trick or treating on Thursday.

Hope you are all having a lovely week!

The BEST Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

We are fast approaching my one year blog anniversary and one of my first posts was to share my Roasted Pumpkin Seeds recipe. I didn't even have a camera, I used my iPhone for the picture. I decided to share this excellent recipe again with updated pictures.

I love to roast pumpkin seeds to share with friends. These seeds are so good that my son's Kindergarten teacher finds me every year around this time to beg for seeds and my son is in the 4th grade now!

I'm lucky enough to get loads of seeds from the pumpkin carving party we go to every year. I never use exact measurements, depending on the amount of seeds you might be using tablespoon-fulls of the first 4 ingredients, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a few dashes of cayenne. I have tried to list ingredients in order of volume (in other words much more Worcestershire sauce than cayenne pepper.)

 

 

Ingredients:

low sodium Worcestershire sauce

kosher salt

ground cumin

brown sugar

cinnamon

cayenne pepper

Remove pumpkin seeds from pumpkin, straining them out by hand is easiest to separate them from the pumpkin "guts." Remove as much of the guts as you can, but don't worry if you can't get it all. DO NOT RINSE THE SEEDS, this will add flavor (and save time!) Mix pumpkin seeds and all of the ingredients above in a bowl.

Layer thinly on a cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven at 300. If you have a convection oven, use the convection setting. Stir every 10 minutes or so to keep the seeds from sticking to each other and to help them dry out and roast evenly. I like my seeds a bit crunchy but not overly roasted. Keep checking and stirring until they are roasted to your liking. 
 

 

 

 

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Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, work in progress and a moment of Self Realization

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

 

Every year I roast pumpkin seeds to share with friends and although I always go back to a few core ingredients I have never made them the same way twice.  This year I hit the pumpkin seed jackpot...3 gallon bags of seeds brought home from a pumpkin carving party.  Because of the large amount of seeds I had, my recipe changed once again and I think these are the best ever.  There are no measurements here...you'll need to follow your instincts and dip your finger in to test the flavor before you roast.  I have tried to list ingredients in order of volume (in other words much more Worcestershire sauce than cayenne pepper.)

Ingredients

low sodium Worcestershire sauce

kosher salt

ground cumin

brown sugar

cinnamon

cayenne pepper

Remove pumpkin seeds from pumpkin, straining them out by hard is easiest to separate them from the pumpkin "guts."  Remove as much of the guts as you can, but don;t worry if .  DO NOT RINSE THE SEEDS.  This will add a lot of flavor.  Add all the ingredients above to the pumpkin seeds to taste.  Depending on the amount of seeds you might be using tablespoon-fulls of the first 4 ingredients, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a few dashes of cayenne.  

Layer thinly on a cookie sheet.  Bake in preheated oven at 300.  If you have a convection oven, use the convection setting.  Stir every 10 minutes or so to keep the seeds from sticking to each other and to roast them evenly.  I like my seeds a bit crunchy but not overly roasted.  Keep checking and stirring until the are roasted to your liking.

A work in progress

A moment of self realization

 
Today I was in my Bikram Yoga class and the instructor said something that really resonated with me.  She was telling us that instead of thinking about all the things about ourselves we see as negatives; I'm too fat, I'm too skinny, I'm too old, I don't earn enough, drive the right car, etc, we need to realize who we are.  We are not defined by these things that can consume so much of our thoughts and energy.  What matters is how we feel about ourselves.  Our real selves, not our shape or bank accounts.

It made me think about this blog and my art and all of creative endeavors.  Instead of worrying about being untrained or not as talented as someone else, instead of worrying if what I have to say is relevant or wondering why in the world anyone would even care, instead of being embarrassed or self conscious about what I see as my shortcomings, I am going to be daring and and creative and ARTISTIC.  I'm going to embrace this blog and share what makes me happy and I'm not going to worry about how it is perceived or received.  And I might even dare tell people I have a blog!