For years and years and years ... and years ... I made roasted pumpkin seeds from the pumpkins the family carved for Halloween the same ol' basic way: rinse, spread on a cookies sheet, salt, bake at 350 degrees til crispy. Then I found this recipe in the recipe-focused newspaper insert, Relish. I'll never go back to plain pumpkin seeds again. The best part: picking through the bowl of seeds to find the ones with the biggest glops of crunchy, salty sweetness to pop into your mouth before someone else nabs them. Here's my slightly altered version:

2 cups rinsed pumpkin seeds

2 tablespoons melted butter

4 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil. Spread seeds in one layer on pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven; turn oven temperature up to 350 degrees. Toss seeds with melted butter, then sprinkle with brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Toss to coat well. Bake for 15 minutes or until crispy, tossing (and scraping gooey sugary stuff from foil) occasionally during baking. Cool before eating or you'll burn the heck outta your mouth.

Yields 2 cups of seeds.