Okay, so now every day for the entire week, I'll be cutting up pumpkins and baking them, mashing them, and using them! Why waste those lovely specimens? Here's the two that are the hardest for me to cut up:
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| Cat in the Moon - My first "elaborate" pumpkin carving. It was so fun to make! |
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| Larry the Cucumber - carved by Christianna. Is that adorable or what? |
So, what to do with all of those pumpkins? There are hosts of pumpkin recipes available on the internet. What I do first, is cut up the pumpkin into very large pieces and roast them in the oven. I cut off all of the edges and the parts that were carved and exposed to the air for a couple of days while the pumpkin sat on the porch, making them brown. It's just not appetizing, and I'm one of those picky people with anything that might be slightly old. So - cut it up into large chunks and place them on a baking pan, peel and all. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes at 350*F. At this point you can use some of the pumpkin flesh to eat straight with butter, salt & pepper. YUM! Or you can scrape all of the flesh off and process it in a sturdy blender or food processor. The resulting product is the same as what you get when you buy a can of pumpkin. Except it's WAY fresher, and you get the satisfaction of not wasting all of those pumpkins!
The pumpkin puree itself can be used for all of your holiday recipes like pumpkin pies. You can keep it fresh in your fridge for 10 days, or put it into freezer bags or containers and use it all winter long. Here is what we made last night:
Pumpkin Corn Chowder - it was so so yummy! Everyone loved it!
Here's another one I want to try - cinnamon baked pumpkin.Yummy! I will do this with the next pumpkin "victim" -
Baked pumpkin donuts - do these look delicious or what??
Baked pumpkin pudding pie - wow, that sounds wonderful!
There are lots and lots of things you can do - pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread - the choices are endless really. Just google "pumpkin recipes" and you'll have an entire season's worth of choices!
Have fun with your pumpkins!
