"FryDay" recipe: Salted Pumpkin Seeds and Pumpkin Walnut Bread!

Before I get to the good stuff, I wanted to let you know why this is 2 days early. Well you see, my Nana is in the hospital and rumor has it she's not doing so well so I'll be leaving for the weekend to go see her. So here's Friday's post early and I will probably not get to post again until Monday as I will be gone. I hope you all have a terrific weekend! See you on Monday...

Pumpkin Walnut Bread & Salted Pumpkin Seeds
DAY 1 OF SEEDS, PUMPKIN PREP:
You will need 1 pie pumpkin, a couple of helpers, a sharp knife, trash can, bowls, a cheese grater, a strainer, and some salt.
Cut the pumpkin into 6ths or 8ths so it's easy to handle. Have your helpers clean the seeds and goo out. Throw the stringy goo away and put the larger of the seeds in a pile or a strainer basket. If you have a 3 year old they will probably try to eat the seeds whole and slimy. This will not hurt them, but may gross you out. Or maybe this is only MY 3 year old? Peel the dark orange shell off the outsides of the pumpkin chunks with the knife. Only go about a milimeter deep. You just want to get the outside off and not waste alot of the meat. Hand the peeled chunks to another helper to rinse off and grate with the cheese grater.
Have another helper gently rinse the seeds in the strainer so they don't go down the drain, and then put the rinsed seeds in a clean bowl. Pour in a LOT of salt on the seeds, about half as much salt as there are seeds. Run the tap until the water is hot and fill the salt/seeds bowl to where the water covers the seeds. Set this bowl in a warm safe place to soak overnight.
If you are baking your bread at a later date, put the grated pumpkin in a freezer bag and freeze. Will stay good in the freezer for a month or two. Thaw an hour before baking - also a good time to take the butter out to soften too. If you are baking it right away, proceed to bread recipe.

DAYS 2 & 3 OF SEEDS:
After soaking them in saltwater overnight, drain the seeds through a strainer and then spread on a paper towel for a bit to drain some more.
RAW- Change to a fresh dry paper towel after about an hour and leave on the paper towel to dry again overnight in a warm dry place. Leave them drying for about a week.
ROASTED- Spread drained seeds evenly on a lightly oiled baking sheet that has sides. Bake in the oven at 250 degrees for about an hour until they start to brown, stirring them with a pancake turner every 10-15 minutes. Remove and cool. Enjoy. Store in a dry place.



Pumpkin Walnut Bread Recipe
2 2/3 C. Sugar
2/3 C.  Butter (softened)
3 C. grated Pumpkin (can substitute all or part grated zucchini if you don't have enough pumpkin)
2/3 C. Water
4 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
3 1/3 C all-purpose Flour
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. ground Cloves
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1+ C. chopped Walnuts (or Pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line with aluminum foil and/or grease & sugar bottoms and sides of 2 large or 3 medium loaf pans.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Stir in pumpkin, water, eggs and vanilla.
In seprate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and baking powder. Mix well. Add to wet ingredients and mix well. Mix in nuts.
Pour into pans. Bake until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean- about an hour and 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes before removing from pans. Cool almost completely before attempting to slice. If bread is still hot it will not slice pretty. Lukewarm is okay.
Will store in refrigerator in a ziplock or saran wrap for up to 10 days. Will store in freezer for a month or two- wrap in foil and then put into a gallon ziplock bag and then in freezer. If you baked it in foil lined pans, just wrap the existing foil up and over the top and stick the whole thing in a ziplock in the freezer.
Althoug seriously you're gonna smell it baking and that will be the end of your thoughts of freezing some for later. Seriously. It will be gobbled up faster than you can say "Pumpkin Walnut Bread!" ;)