recipe: spicy roasted pumpkin seeds

after the carving up & roasting a pumpkin for my pumpkin muffin puree, i had a little treasure trove of seeds left. i went with the spicy roasted pumpkin seeds recipe from Natasha Sanz Caballero -- they came out crispy and spicy, exactly what you'd hope for. considering they were almost zero effort, they were a great lil snack. 

photo from Natasha Sanz Caballero

ingredient list:
- 2 cups pumpkin seeds
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (decrease this if you don't love spicy)
- 1/2 tsp Spanish paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt  

to make: 
preheat oven to 350 degrees F. heat olive oil in small pan, and add the spices. mix well. add the pumpkin seeds and stir to coat, cooking over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. 

transfer the seeds to a baking dish or cookie sheet, spread out in a thin layer, and roast for about 15 minutes. serve at room temp.

chesterfield restaurant

with granny living in Rochester right now, we all decided to do a meet up in Utica for a lil 89th birthday lunch. we went to Chesterfield's, an old (60+ year old) italian restaurant. lunch menu was a few pastas (all homemade), salads and sandwiches. aaand a burger special for lunch, bingo! it was the antipasto burger, which was roasted red peppers, onion, mozzarella, capicola, and garlic mayo on a fresh baked bun. i thought it was ciabatta at first and got a little nervous (i hate when it's hard to tear through the bun and the burger squishes out), but mmmmm hell yes it was a super soft, fresh baked bread with a lil parm.

this burger was a total mouth party. the burger was loosely packed, juicy as hell, which went so well with the fresh fixins and soft bun... they all blended together and partied nicely. and they cook to order when they cook to order - it actually came out at a perfect medium rare. i had no expectations, but am happy report it was one of the better burgers i've had in a while. 7.5 *******~.