I've been dealing with pumpkins today. Its been on my to do list, and I actually had a Saturday with nothing else huge planned, and no where else to be.
Woot Woot!
I really got some stuff done!
Here are a few shots from my pumpkin goodness.
These baby sweet pumpkins grew in our gardens this year. So cute and delish.
This picture shows me separating the seeds from the pulp. I also cut each pumpkin in half for roasting.
I did the seeds first, as I knew they would take the longest. I rinsed them and threw them into a pot, covered it with water, dumped in some salt and set the pot on to boil. Once boiling, I set the timer for 10 minutes.
After ten minutes, these morsels were ready to dry. So I got out my trusty paper towel roll and evenly spread out the seeds. They dried for about 10 minutes (only because I had some other things going on and they just had to wait on me!!)
Next comes the seasonings! I used 4 T. of melted butter, 2 t. of seasoning salt (I used natures seasoning), and 1 T. of Worcestershire sauce. Mixed it up real good.
Spread out on pans. The seeds on the left came from store bought carving pumpkins and are a little larger. The ones on the right are my baby pumpkins from the garden.
Pop them into the oven at 250 degrees for 1-2 hours. I stir mine every 15-30 minutes to ensure even drying.
When they stop looking "wet" and look nice and toasted, they are done!!
Now, try not to eat them all in one setting!
I also wanted to make some pumpkin puree for some recipes and pies so I roasted the halves as well today. Cut in half, brushed on the pulp side with butter (generously) and stuck in oven at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until a fork easily stick through the skins.
Here they are after the fact. Nice and toasted looking. You can even see my fork pricks in the bottom left one!
Because I don't have a third hand, I couldn't take pictures of the next part. I peeled the skins off each side of pumpkin. Some sides I had to scrape with a spoon, others the skin fell right off. I stuck the pulp from two sides into the food processor and blended it all up! You could use an emersion blender, a regular blender, or a food mill for this as well.
The pic on the right shows the purty puree!
So what am I doing with this puree!?!? Freezing most of it for later use.....but one cup went towards these lovely!
Oh. My. Word.
So good. Can't stop eating them.
Also, Ms. Mavis Butterfield helped me out with how to make pumpkin pie spice.......
As for the larger pumpkins, they were decorated in great suspense for the greatest night in the history of candy ever. In the words of K-man.
3 comments:
Um yes, thank you. I will be making those muffins ASAP.
I made Andrew some pumpkin applesauce yesterday with some leftover pumpkin puree that wasn't quite a cup. It was so yummy!
Those jack-o-lanterns are amazing!
So glad you got your pictures up and going again! What a fun project. The pumpkins are AMAZING. :)
You can use the guts, too, to make pumpkin gut bread:
2 cups of fresh pumpkin guts (the stringy part separated from the seeds)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg
3 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Use your fingers and a pair of scissors to separate the pumpkin guts, making sure they’ll be able to mix well into the batter.
Combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar in large mixing bowl. Add eggs, water, oil and pumpkin. Stir until blended. Add nuts. Mix well. Pour into two 9×5″ loaf pans. Bake 1 hour. Cool slightly and take out of pans to let cool on a rack.
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