pumpkin time

We planted a pumpkin in our garden. Well, we actually planted 5 pumpkins, but only one germinated. We picked it a few weeks ago and it has been sitting pretty in our dining room, but it was time to do something with it. After much reading on the Internet I learned how to make pumpkin puree.

First, we start with our lovely pumpkin:


Next, I cut the pumpkin and took out the seeds and stringy innards. I saved about 20 seeds. We'll use these next year. As you can see, this pumpkin's insides weren't very orange, they were more white.


I placed the pumpkin half on a cookie sheet with some water and baked it for about an hour or more. This is the pumpkin after I took it out of the oven. It was very, very hot! It sat there for a while until I could pick it up to move it.


Next, I used a spoon to scoop out all the meat from the pumpkin into a strainer. I was really amazed at the amount of water in the pumpkin. After it drained for a while, I used a hand held blender and pureed it.


Today I took the puree and made a pie out of it. I got about 6-8 cups of puree from this pumpkin. I'm not exactly sure how much, but there is a lot. Half is in the freezer and half in the fridge. I'll be making pumpkin recipes for a while! I love pumpkin. And this one is my own pumpkin. I'm very happy and excited about the fruits of my garden!