the photo is from last year, but the recipe has become an annual tradition. in fact, the lady sparkler just said that she wanted to go out and buy another round of pumpkins just for the seeds.

Ingredients (per cup of pumpkin seeds)

• 1 Tablespoon Canola Oil
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Thoroughly wash the pumkin seeds.
3. Cover seeds with oil, mix well.
4. Spread oiled seeds in a single layer onto ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Sprinkle desired amount of salt and garlic on seeds.
6. Place cookie sheet in preheated oven until dry and browned, usually 45 to 55 minutes. Stir and shake in 10 minute intervals to prevent clumping and burning.

our neighborhood takes halloween very seriously.

kids flock in from all around the city. streets are shut down to make room for the hordes. there is even a certifiable street-to-street rivalry to see who’s going to throw the biggest block party.

sparklet spent her first real Halloween — last year didn’t count for obvious reasons — over on hobart street where every house was open for trick-or-treaters, at least one in every three houses was decorated, and one house even had a fully scripted halloween performance (“haunted hobart street has talent!”) with scheduled showings at 7 and 9pm.

unfortunately, sparklet’s wasn’t doing so well.

it’s officially 7 to 10 days after her first year vaccinations, which is when all the nasty side effects are supposed to kick in — and boy are they kicking in. she made a good run at trick or treating, but just didn’t make it very far before the crankiness consumed her.

she did, however, get her first real lick of candy — eg. not through a wrapper or cardboard box — a cherry dum-dum lollipop which mommy dutifully unwrapped for her.

she made it through three of four licks before she took it out of her mouth … by the wrong end … got her hands all sticky … got the lollipop stuck to her hands … and spent 30 seconds trying to toss it on the ground, to absolutely no avail.

priceless.