The Return of Old Pumpkin Guts

As Halloween approaches I start counting the days before I pick up a pumpkin.  Not that I can carve anything that looks good since I am so terrible at anything artlike I only do this so I can roast the seeds. Yes, they are cheaper to just buy at the store, but there is not much fun in that.  This year's pumpkin had a good amount of seeds so I will have some treats for a few days.

I only salt my seeds, nothing fancy here. Good stuff.  As tradition dictates I did this while listening to The Great Old Pumpkin as podcasted on Escapepod.

Last weekend I made a batch of giardinera. This is the second time I've made this.  I didn't take any notes when I made it last time (of course) so I don't know the exact amount of things I used then to see what was different between batches. Leading up to making this I tried to find the pickling spice I used last time, but no luck there so I ended up using the same pickling spice as when I made dill pickles earlier this year.  I wasn't sure how it would work out here since I've never had giardinera made with cloves and cinnamon and some of the other random things. The last time I made this I thought the cauliflower tasted a little weird from the pickling spice since commercial giardinera doesn't use pickling spices, and that is what I am used to eating.

To make the giardinera I dissolved about a half tablespoon of sugar, 3 tablespoons of salt, and 2 tablespoons of pickling spices in about 4 cups of hot water.  I poured this over the cut up vegetables (a smallish head of cauliflower, a few carrots, a few stalks of celery, several cloves of garlic, and some peeled pearl onions).  I steeped the vegetables for a few minutes and then added an equal volume of white vinegar.  After it all cooled I packed it up into jars and stored them in my refrigerator.  This weekend I tried some after the jars had set for a week. Turns out the spices give the vegetables flavor beyond just salt and vinegar. Imagine that. Success! What I made follows a recipe I got from a guy named Skip who ran a website called northend dot com many many years ago.