Pumpkins are Ready!

[Dee]

I have been cooking up some of the pumpkins and making bread and pumpkins bars to put in the freezer. So far I've made 14 loaves of bread and frozen 13. I kept 1 out for us to eat now.

 

I've made 2 large pans of bars. I took a pan of bars to the Harvest Supper at the preschool. They were so well liked I didn't get any leftovers brought home. The other pan we've had a couple pieces each but have probably put 25-30 bars in the freezer.

 

I am taking a break from pumpkins for a couple of days but will make more of something later.

 

DH loves pumpkin pie but says the pies from fresh pumpkin don't taste as good as canned pumpkin, so no pies out of my fresh ones.

 

Anyone got some good recipes for pumpkin, other than bread and bars, that would freeze well that they'd like to share?

 

Who else is cooking pumpkins?

[Christy]

Cooking and dehydrating them. And the seeds as they are good against prostate problems for the male people in our household.

The dog lurves cooked pumpkin and looks cross-eyed at the countertop in the kitchen when she watches me work.

[gofish]

 

By Deanna Duke

Tags: recipes, fall recipes, pumpkin, rosemary, seasonal food, grilling, The Crunchy Chicken

My backyard grown sugar pie pumpkins are finally ripening up in spite of the steady rains we've been experiencing here in the Pacific Northwest. A few of the pumpkins ended up being somewhat small and weren't worth the effort to process into pumpkin puree. So, what to do with these little guys? I wanted to do something new and, not having grilled pumpkins before, I was quite excited to give it a try.

 

During grilling, the sugars in the pumpkin caramelize. The combination of sweet and salty, coupled with crisp rosemary, will give you a different way of thinking about pumpkin. After trying this, you just might find yourself dreaming of expanding your pumpkin patch next year.

 

Make sure you use sugar pie pumpkins or the equivalent for this recipe — you really don't want to eat a jack-o-lantern type pumpkin as they are stringy. If you aren't growing your own sugar pie pumpkins you should be seeing them available in stores and farmers markets this month or, better yet, make a fun trip out of it and head out to a U-pick pumpkin farm. Don't forget to pick up a few extra for making your own pumpkin puree for pies and breads later in the year.

 

Ingredients:

Sugar pie pumpkins (preferably on the small side)

Olive oil

Fresh rosemary, chopped

Sea salt

 

1. Heat grill to medium-high.

 

2. Wash and cut the pumpkins vertically into 3/4 inch slices. Remove the seeds and stringy parts. Brush both sides of each slice liberally with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt and rosemary.

 

3. Place the slices on the grill for about 5 minutes a side or until dark grill marks appear. Turn and grill the other side until you can easily pierce the pumpkin slice with a fork. You want to make sure that the pumpkin is tender.

 

4. Since some of the salt tends to fall off during the grilling process, serve with a small dish of additional sea salt.

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Relish/Grilled-Pumpkin-With-Rosemary-And-Sea-Salt-Recipe.aspx#ixzz1ay8iyBPH

[Jeepers]

No one in my family will eat pumpkin pie so every Thanksgiving I make what I call Pumpkin Cheesecake. They love it. I do use store bought canned pumpkin and an already made pie shell. But you can make your own. I use an electric mixer but you can also use a wire whisk. This makes a lot of pie filling so get/make the biggest pie shell you can find. If you make your own graham cracker crust a rectangle pan would work too. I assume it would freeze. I've never had enough left over to try.

 

Jeeper's Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

4 oz. Philly Cream Cheese (softened)

1 Tab. Milk

1 Tab. Sugar

1 1/2 C. Cool Whip

1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust

1 C. Cold Milk

2 Pk. Vanilla Pudding (Instant)

1 Can Pumpkin (16 oz.)

1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/4 tsp. Ground Cloves

 

MIX: cream cheese, 1 Tab. milk and sugar in large bowl. Blend with mixer. Add 1 1/2 cups of cool whip and beat until smooth. Spread evenly on bottom of pie crust. Set aside.

 

MIX: 1 cup of milk and pudding packages. Beat with mixer until thick. Stir in pumpkin and spices. Blend well. Spread over cream cheese layer. Spread rest of cool whip on top if desired.

 

Refrigerate for 4 hours until set.

[Christy]

Don't believe for a moment it tastes as good as it sounds. Please send slice of pie (or two) to examine and be sure.

 

It DOES sound good.

[Jeepers]

Oh that's okay, I'll eat some and let ya know!

 

It's very good and very rich. A special treat dessert. A little goes a long way.

[Ghost of City Life]

We have 10 pumkins ready for carving and cooking. We usually carve all the pumpkins on the 30th, put them on display until after trick or treater's come around on Halloween and then chop 'em up and cook them in the pressure cooker until soft. Then peel and run 'em throught the blender until smooth, cool, portion for all of our recipes and freeze. All of our recipes are based on 2 Cups of pumpkin so that makes it easy. We just finished up the pumkin from last year so it deffinately lasts, but we love it and eat it all.

 

Personally I think that pumpkin pie with our "fresh" pumpkin is MUCH better that the canned stuff. Both are delicious though.

[Pixie]

some exellent ideas!

[sassenach]

Fresh would be nicer of course but used canned pumpkin to make some cookies the other day. They turned out pretty good from a recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook.

Right now I have this big squash I need to cook up. I could quarter it and still have a most generous serving , so I was trying to think up more things to do with it once it is simply baked through after I eat some with a dinner this week. The fried recipe above,top is likely something I may try.

I saw absolutely no pumpkins at our market. I am sure local farmers who had their crops ruined completely by weather this year took very serious hits. Our area lost most of its crops that had a very bad start to begin with so I can see why they would be scarce but I still saw some huge pumpkins someone had stolen from somebodys home yard area and broken on the road to the store as it was. They were really big ones too. "nice, huh? " I felt bad for the folks who went to all the trouble to have a big jack o lantern in the first place.