Processing Pumpkin: Three Tasty Treats

One of the most wonderful things about fall is pumpkins.  Just looking at them makes me smile.  Their gorgeous orange color, the variety of sizes, shapes and textures.  Add to their aesthetic qualities the fact that the pumpkin is infinitely useful, nutritious and delicious and that is cause for celebration.  So, during this week, we celebrated the pumpkin.

Our first pumpkin of this season was a $1.79 pie pumpkin from Linda Fraley's market which we turned from a lovely orange globe into a variety of tasty treats.  We began by slicing our pie pumpkin in half and scooping out the seeds. 

S8 wasn't thrilled about this part of the job.

After slicing the pumpkin we put it, cut side down, on a baking sheet and baked it for about 90 minutes at 350 degrees.  The key is baking until the pumpkin is tender.  The rind should just peel right off and the pumpkin should mash with a fork.

Here's our cooked pumpkin.

We ended up with four cups of cooked pumpkin and a bunch of seeds.

H11 and S8 make 2 cups of our cooked pumpkin into our favorite pumpkin cookies.

You can find the recipe for our First Sign of Fall Pumpkin Cookies on my blog.
H11 took the pumpkin seeds and made them into a salty snack.

First she got all the pumpkin goo off the seeds and dried the seeds overnight.

Then she boiled them in salty water for 8 minutes.  Finally, she microwaved the seeds in oil until the seeds were lightly toasted and crispy.  She stirred the seeds every minute to make sure they didn't stick or burn.

We'd recommend you follow the directions here to make your own pumpkin seeds.  There are shorter methods for microwaving pumpkin seeds and we'll be trying those next time.

Finally, we made the first pumpkin pie of the season.  I'll decide tomorrow whether to post the recipe.  The pie is still warm and while the taste is good, the texture is a bit off.  I'll pass a final verdict on it's shareability after the pie has had a night to rest.