Last night I celebrated Diwali with friends and had some of the most amazing, most delicious, most flavourful Indian food I have ever eaten in my life.  I resolved privately to myself that I would never cook again until I’ve learned how to cook Indian.

You think I’m kidding? Ha! I’ve registered to take an Indian cooking class through Get Cooking.  The class is led by local food blog celebrity Michelle Peters-Jones, and I am prepared to learn how to cook, “from bhajis and chutneys to saffron pilaf and curried goat“. At least I’ll learn some basics in one night. Then to perfect the technique will have to practice, practice, practice.  If I need private tutoring, I know just the people to call.

Anyway, my resolve to not cook ever again had to be shelved, because I got in the mood to make a batch of chili. So I made a batch of chili.

Then I got a call asking for help from my Mom, who was recently gifted a Kindle, and she needed some tutoring about setting it up and getting “books on it” and stuff. So I headed to Mom’s. And there, on the kitchen counter, was a gigantic orange pumpkin, just waiting to be carved into something frightening.

I asked if I could take the seeds, and I was welcome to them. I just had to fish them out.

I forgot how icky pumpkin guts are. But, my desire for home roasted pumpkin seeds gave me the drive, the determination, the iron clad stomach, to dig in and scoop out pumpkin guts and seeds.

Once the guts were extracted, I sorted through goop to remove the seeds. Then I removed the stubborn stringy pumpkin bits, until nothing was left in the colander except slimy seeds.

I dried these off as best I could, plopped my little friends in an old margarine container and zipped home, blew through the door, rummaged around in cupboard for a cookie sheet, added a bit of canola oil to the seeds (still in the container), gave them a swish, added some salt, tossed on the cookie sheet, gave them an extra swirl for good measure and slid them into a 350F oven.

They roasted in there for about 45 minutes until a nice golden brown (as you see in the picture). I added a bit more salt, because roasting pumpkin seeds is NOT an exact science.

And my friends, after a pumpkin seed eating fest, have finally sated my twice-a-decade craving for home roasted pumpkin seeds.