Food, Glorious Food (chapter 8)

Chapter 8: Pumpkin

I'm sure you all knew this one was coming, right?!
Last November I made pumpkin puree for the first time. Using just one large pumpkin (a 40-pounder), I made enough puree to fill 10 containers, which was enough for 20 pumpkin pies. And over the last 12 months, I've made lots of pumpkin pies and pumpkin cheesecakes with my homemade puree.
I've heard that smaller pumpkins are sweeter, so this year I chose three smaller pumpkins to make the puree with. They each weighed between approximately 20-25 pounds. I processed one pumpkin a day, for 3 days. Have you ever made your own puree? It's rather simple, but time-consuming. Each pumpkin needs to be washed, cut in half, and the seeds and pulp need to be removed. Then cut the pumpkin into medium-sized chunks, put face down on a cookie sheet, and pour a 1/2 inch of standing water into the pan. Bake the chunks of pumpkin at 375* for 1 hour. Remove the pumpkin from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Pull the skin off (it comes off easily at this point), and put the flesh in a food processor. Puree the flesh, then pour into a wire-mesh collander for about a half hour to drain the excess liquid. Put 3 cups into a blender with 1/2 cup sugar, and blend until sugar is dissolved. Then I pour the amount in quart-size freezer ziploc bags. Each filled freezer bag is the equivalent of a 29 oz. can--but the homemade pumpkin is cheaper and yummier than the store-bought canned pumpkin!!! The three pumpkins took me about 12 hours total to process, from start to end, but the finished product was a rewarding 20 containers of puree, which is enough for 40 pumpkin pies!
With this year's puree, I'm going to do more than just make pies and cheesecakes, because I'm discovering a whole new world of recipes that include pumpkin! Since I'm on a roll of making new recipes and making new soups, I decided to try the Curried Pumpkin Soup first. I loved it! Unfortunately, the rest of my family hated it. But, at least I can say I did it (and I will never make it again)!
Everything else on my list of "new" recipes sounds delicious, though! Instead of typing out the recipes for each one (especially since I haven't tried them yet), I'm just going to link you to them! I'm looking forward to trying out all of these during the upcoming year! Seriously, who knew you could do so much with pumpkin?!!

for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, click HERE

for Pumpkin Pancakes, click HERE

for Pumpkin Poptarts, click HERE

for Pumpkin Bread, click HERE

for Pumpkin Pie Bars, click HERE

for Pumpkin Butter, click HERE

for Maple Pumpkin Custard, click HERE

for 4-Layer Pumpkin Cake, click HERE

for Pumpkin Roll, click HERE

Happy Pumpkin Eating!! I know we will!!!