Alex Asacker is a freelancer living in Toronto's West End. 
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
The change of seasons is remarkable for reminding us about foods we’d nearly forgotten. I only toast pumpkin seeds once a year. This year, the weekend before Halloween I had a surprise visit from my Parisian friend Fiona. To my surprise neither Fee nor Paul had ever carved a pumpkin! After making our jack-o-lanterns, which came out pretty well for a pair of rookies, I set aside the seeds for toasting.
I let them dry overnight and then divided them into two pans. In one pan I covered the seeds in olive oil and in the other I used butter. I sprinkled a fair amount of salt into both pans and toasted them in the oven for about an hour at 130C. Both batches were delicious, crispy and salty. As I grabbed a handful, warm from the oven, I was reminded of the fresh crisp (chip) stand at the farmer’s market. Thinking about all of the different seasonings used to flavour the crisps made me wish I had some garlic salt, or paprika to add to the seeds. Well, there’s always next year.
