Pumpkin Seeds!

The Family Home Evening went really well. It helped that the morning of, one of the co-chairs called and said, "What would you think about adding pumpkin carving to the activity?" Then she volunteered to make pumpkin bars. Like I would say no to that! I sent an e-mail to the communications committee so they could tell everyone what was going on and to bring carving knives and patterns. The FHE committee was to provide the pumpkins.

I arrived about a half hour early to help set up tables and chairs, and hang out with the FHE co-chairs and other early comers, who are all awesome people. I decided I wasn't nervous about leading a discussion, even though I hadn't prepared anything. I had watched most of the talks, took notes, and prayed during the Conference, so if I couldn't at least keep up informed commentary or talk about the lessons I liked then it would be more than a little pathetic.

We set up a huge circle of chairs that ended up being too small (there were at least 60 people there by the end), but I walked around the outside and didn't say much. I told everyone that I didn't prepare any kind of lesson, because we'd listened to Conference talks for two days, and I didn't think we needed another one. I opened it up to the group to talk about the lessons they like, and when the silence between raised hands got uncomfortable, I'd say helpful things like, "Hey, there are a lot of us here, and half of us don't know each other, so if you say something goofy it's no big deal." (I really hope that to be true, because I have said some embarrassing things in Sunday School that I hope people don't remember.) The discussion went on about half and hour. I thought we reached a good stopping point when two people shared their testimonies, so I added my own and thanked everyone for coming and for their thoughts. I think it went well, and a couple of people even came up to me later to tell me they thought it had, too.

Then we dug into the pumpkins. Well, I didn't, but a lot of people did. It didn't take me long to realize that with at least 10 pumpkins being carved there would be a lot of seeds possibly going to waste. I asked four people if I could have their seeds and they said, "Have at it." So, I grabbed some large paper cups, stuck my hand in the goo, and "harvested" two 12 oz. cups full! Pretty much spent most of the evening doing that. I'd feel guilty or silly, but it's still easy to chat while doing it, so I still met and caught up with a lot of people.

About 9pm, I had been at the church 2 and-a-half hours and was ready to go home. Two people were still carving pumpkins and more were standing around and talking, so I couldn't clean up fully. I tried not to be annoyed. Fortunately, another member of the committee offered to stay to clean up so I could go home. I thought it was awfully nice of him.

When I arrived home, I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees, washed off the seeds in the first cup, spread them on a cookie sheet, daubed some oil and salt on them, and stuck them in the oven. I checked them every ten minutes for an hour, but they didn't seem to be cooking. Well... turns out I accidently turned off the oven at some point when I turned off the timer. I would be embarassed, but I don't use my oven often, and on my mom's oven the heat and the timer are turned off with the same button. My oven doesn't work the same way. Now I know. I turned the heat back on -- it had cooled to 169 -- and within 15 minutes the seeds were ready! The second pan of seeds took far less time :)

The best part? When I went to bed that night, my house still smelled like warm, roasted pumpkin seeds.

I took a jar to work today. Golly, they are tastey! They are one of my favorite Fall treats.

Autumn is officially here as far as I'm concerned, and I couldn't be more happy about it!