Attempts at Domestication

I acquired several small "pie" pumkins just before Halloween. I carved two or three to put out on the porch, but the other 15 or so just sat in the house. So I decided to take some action.

I cut the top off the first one, scoop out all the muck and guck, cut the thing into pieces...now what? I guess I'll bake some and boil some and see what works best.

I fill one baking sheet, put them in the oven, fill one pot with water, put them in the water. Then start on another pumkin...and another...and another. My wrist is getting pretty tired by this time. Finally the pumpkins in the water are all soft, so I take them out, and scoop the "meat" off the skins - somehow I forget they are hot. The forgetting doesn't last long. A little cold water later, and I'm back at it.

The pumkin in the oven finally seems soft enough. Scoop out the meat from the skins (this time I wait until they've cooled). And on and on it goes - I like the boiling method best - until I have just 4 pumpkins left, and decide they are just going to have to rot.

Next, I need to blend up the "meat" to the consistancy of baby food. To do this, I plop some in the blender and turn it on to puree. The blades just wizz around, and don't really do much to the pumpkin goo. Now what? Well, I have a hand potato masher. So I begin mashing, and mashing, and mashing. It works pretty well. Now that its pretty mashed, I can make it even smoother by using an electric hand mixer. After several minutes of whipping that mixer around through the pumpkin, I decide its good enough.

Now what do I do with it? I have enough pumkin to make two dozen pumkin pies. Who can eat 24 pumkin pies? So I freeze it. Seven baggies full later my little project is finished.

With Thanksgiving coming I can now use ONE of those baggies to make three pies. I think we'll be eating pumkin pies and pumkin cookies long after Easter has come and gone.

Come on over.

- Chel