Monday, November 06, 2006

This year was Emma's first "real" Halloween where she went trick-or-treating and everything, so we got a pumpkin and did the whole carving thing. She had a blast, especially pulling the seeds out of the inside and then roasting them in the oven. (And eating them.)



However, every year that I've had a jack-o-lantern for Halloween I've felt guilty for getting a pumpkin, carving it, and then just having it sit on the step until it goes bad. Pumpkins are food, after all, and it seemed like a waste. (I feel somewhat the same way about Christmas trees, but that's a story for another time...) This year, I decided to do something about it.



In addition to our jack-o-lantern, I also bought three of the little pie pumpkins from the grocery store. On November 1, I spent the better part of the day baking pumpkin and pureeing it to put in the freezer.



I now have 12-pies-worth of pumpkin in the freezer, (in two-cup portions), one baked pie (which I made yesterday), and a dish of roasted seeds. I also made a batch of orange-cranberry relish to put in the freezer, because cranberries were on sale at the grocery store last week.

The three pie pumpkins made six cups of puree (three pies), and the jack-o-lantern made 20 cups of puree (ten pies) . The jack-o-lantern had much paler flesh and lost more water after baking than the pie pumpkins, and it'll be interesting how the flavor differs. The pie I made yesterday was from the Jack-o-Lantern, and while it was good, it didn't have quite as much flavor as the canned pumpkin that I'm used to. The texture was the same as commercial pumpkin, though, which I was glad to see. I'm thinking that a bit more spices next time will compensate for the blander pumpkin. I'm hopeful that the pie pumpkins will have a stronger pumpkin flavor.

Overall, I'm pleased with this experiment, my first time making pie from a raw pumpkin. Using the pie pumpkins was ridiculously easy. Cut in half, bake cut-side down at 350 F for an hour, slip the meat from the skins, whiz in the food processor, freeze. The jack-o-lantern was slightly more problematic, since it had to be cut up, baked in batches, and wanted to dry out in the oven so had to be covered. Because it was bigger and had to drain longer, it also was much more of an undertaking. But I now have enough filling for an entire winter's worth (and then some) of Shaun's favorite pie, and I don't have to buy canned pumpkin anymore! Not that it's expensive, but it's so much more satisfying to have done it myself.....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love roasting the small sugar pumpkins and making stuff with them. I've never been satisfied with the taste of carving pumpkins, though. Even their seeds seem flavorless.

rustyconc said...

Mmmm... think I'd best come visit!

R

PS Did you hear about the serial-murdering fiber artist? She skeined her victims alive! Ha.

Anonymous said...

That's the way to do it! It's not so much about the cost, but about getting a better product.

cyndy said...

Yum! You can even make a nice soup from the puree! If you can get them, Kakai Pumpkins are the best for roasting the seed (dark green and hull less)

Anonymous said...

You might want to make pumpkin butter. It is great on toast! If you put everything in a crockpot and just let it cook a long time, it is very easy! I have a chest freezer so I just put the finished butter into canning jars meant for the freezer but you could also can it.

Also, one of the food blogs I read had a great sounding pumpkin cheesecake. If you want the recipe, let me know and I will find the link!

Love your blog! Your work is exquisite!

Anonymous said...

Emma is such a cutie pie! (AG has that same shirt.)

Great work with the pumpkin. I always wanted to try that and see how it turned out. Good job.

Anonymous said...

Homemade Pumpkin Facial Masque (2 recipes)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup fresh cooked pumpkin, drained, cooled, no skin
1 egg white whipped
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp ground oats (oatmeal)
2 tbsp plain yogurt
dash of fresh lemon juice
pinch of nutmeg

or

Ingredients:
1/2 cup fresh cooked pumpkin, drained, cooled, no skin
1 tbs oats (oatmeal)
1 tbs honey
1/2 tsp olive oil (or any oil you have on hand)
pinch of nutmeg
squirt of lemon juice

Mix all of the ingredients together to form a thick like consistency. Adjust the ingredients if needed, add more oats to make it thicker or add more liquid to thin it out. Apply this mixture to your clean face and neck, leave on for 5-10 minutes. Use tissues to gently remove the bulk of it, then rinse with warm water followed by a cool water rinse, gently pat skin dry.

PJ said...

What an awesome pumpkin story...we are sad every year to see our Jack get old and wrinkled! What a grand idea!