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The Kitchen Table

Pumpkins

Country Sunflower

11 years ago

We had a pretty good crop of pumpkins.. and gave all but about 6 of them away... What to do with pumpkins.. make pie? Make pumpkin bread? Soup? So, I started to peel a pumpkin .. I did not get far.. the arthritis in my hands kept screaming NO NO NO.. Well Larry came upstairs and saw me struggling to peel.. told me to just stop and come for a ride with him..

We went to town, and he ran into the store to get a cabbage, and also came out with a case of canned pumpkin... !!! He told me that there was no need of my working so hard when for just a few dollars and a nice ride in the country to town is a whole lot nicer.. and this way we can much better enjoy our time together.. while reminding me we aren't 25 anymore and need to just concentrate on having a good time and enjoying what is left of our lives...

Gotta love a man like that !! I am so lucky to have met him...

Just had to share that tidbit of joy with y'all..

Carolyn

Comments (4)

sheilajoyce_gw
11 years ago
Our son loves stew cooked in a pumpkin. Cut a lid for the pumpkin just like a jack o lantern lid. Clean the insides of the pumpkin, and make your favorite beef stew. When the stew is about half done, put the pumpkin into a baking dish with sides, pour the stew into the pumpkin, place the lid on it, and finish cooking it in the oven (325-350). The pumpkin will cook too, so when you serve the stew, spoon out a little pumpkin too.
azzalea
11 years ago
Here's a tip for the future. A friend (a food writer) told me last time she made pumpkin soup, instead of roasting the pumpkin in the oven as the recipe called for, she cut one in half, rubbed the pumpkin with the spices called for in the soup (you could use the spices for your pumpkin bread), wrapped half in saran, and microwaved it 7 minutes. She said it was perfect, and separating from the shell. She just easily scooped out pureed pumpkin. So 14 minutes took care of the entire pumpkin.
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Did you look inside? Is there anything in the puree you use that isn't in the pumpkin? Is the pumpkin in chunks? What makes it different? If it's just pumpkin, yes, you can use it. Use your food processor or blender to puree it, or a potato ricer or masher. The only issue is that if it's not closely packed, you'll have less pumpkin than in a same sized can of puree, and you'll loose more to the dishes by pureeing it yourself. It should still work fine, but you might need to adjust the volume/moisture of your recipe a little.
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Trader Joe’s carries Pumpkin Butter in the fall. People rave about it. I bought some last year and didn’t care for it. To me it tasted more like pumpkin pie spice and not enough like pumpkin. I love apple butter and it was nothing like it. The consistency was too thin, also, more like a sauce: it would slide right off whatever you put it on. I was on a local gardening forum and someone was talking about making her own pumpkin butter from the pumpkins she grew. It looked so much better and thicker than the Trader Joe’s version that it got me thinking in that vein of how to use my pie pumpkins. (I buy a couple to use on my porch for Halloween, then eat them after. The first year I did this, it was so thin it was good only for soup.) She’s the one that cooked it down in the slow cooker to make it thicker after roasting. Using it in quickbread is far more likely than in any other form. I had a pumpkin cinnamon scone a few weeks ago that was really tasty.
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OklaMoni
11 years ago
Azzalea, I like your solution. Sounds so easy. ;)

Moni
azzalea
11 years ago
I haven't actually tried it myself, but especially for someone with 'free' garden pumpkins, it would be worth a shot. Friend said the shell got hard--her young son immediately took it to use with his toy trucks (not sure exactly how--a hill? garage?.

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