Last weekend, my family and I went to Casola Farms, an apple orchard in Marlboro, New Jersey. After the long drive, we arrived to find out that the over-crowed apple farm, had depleted their apple supply! Devastated, we knew we couldn’t come home empty handed. So, we decided it would be fun as a family to carve pumpkins and roast pumpkin seeds! Little did we know, A LOT of work would have to be done! We picked two large pumpkins, and then four smaller ones (for decoration). We picked the biggest pumpkins we could find, made sure they weren’t rotten, and was en route home!

Once we arrived home, my dad began to cut open the pumpkins removing all of the seeds and placing them on to a cookie sheet. My Mom took them inside and cleaned them while I continued to clean out the inside of the pumpkin with my little cousins and sister. We moved onto the next pumpkin, and repeated the previously stated steps. Once both pumpkins were cleaned my dad began to carve the pumpkins with an extremely sharp knife. While he continued to carve the pumpkins, I went inside and seasoned the pumpkin seeds. We made half of them savory and the other half of them sweet. On the sweet pumpkin seeds, we sprinkled melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nut meg and rolled the seeds around on the parchment paper. On the savory seeds, we sprinkled cumin, cayenne pepper, and chill pepper. Once my father finished carving the pumpkins, and the seeds finished roasting we did what we always do on Sunday evenings: we cooked our pasta and meatballs! This week however, we changed it up and made ricotta raviolis!

Quality time with family is one of the most important things to living a successful and healthy life. I’m not going to lie and say that my family and I have quality time every week, because we do not. We are lucky to have quality time every other week or every three weeks due to sports, school work, our jobs, and other extracurricular activities. As a result of my family and I’s lack of quality time, I can not bed explain how grateful my peers should be if their families are together every night for dinner. I genially can not wait for Sunday dinners when everyone is home and able to just hang out. Whether it be talking, eating, or watching TV, all time spent together, is quality time. Of course the delicious food is just a plus!

My day made me realize once again how much time is spent taking whole foods, and converting them into other products. For example, making bread and cake out of eggs. Food is a huge part in my family, and I love the time we spend in the kitchen daily.