Cooking With Fresh Pumpkins

Since we are approaching fall and Halloween, pumpkins are everywhere. Use this easy way to make your own pumpkin puree.

For a whole pumpkin, stab it with a knife to create steam vents.

For a Jack-O-Lantern (less than 2 days cut), put his eyes, nose, and mouth back in where they came out. They need not fit tight.

Then cook the pumpkin whole in the microwave or in the oven until tender, like cooking a squash. Be sure to set it on a dish as it will weep juice.

Cut the pumpkin into pieces, cull the seeds, and rake the meat off the rind with a spoon. The peel comes off very easy now. Drop the meat into the blender to puree.

I like to make pumpkin pie with mine. So I put the eggs and milk into the blender first, then add pumpkin until smooth and creamy. Zip in the last ingredients and spices until well blended then freeze in a quart Ziploc bag. When I am ready to bake pumpkin pie, all I have to do is put the mix into the pie shell and bake. Sure saves time on Thanksgiving morning. (Or when that teenager comes in and announces that he must have a baked item tomorrow morning.)

By Jeannie from Okeene, OK

Answers:

Cooking With Fresh Pumpkins

Great idea for storing. I've been saving containers all summer in anticipation of the pureed pumpkin visiting my freezer in the coming weeks. (10/26/2007)

By Tim

Cooking With Fresh Pumpkins

I'm from Australia, and we use pumpkin regularly as a vegetable. It is delicious roasted - very sweet and yummy with roast meals. It is very nice boiled, or microwaved and then mashed with a little butter, and very nice also eaten mashed with potatoes. My mum used to dish this up as 'yellow potato'. It is a very nice vegetable, but one which I understand that Americans don't eat as a veggie. To cook, peel and cut into pieces or boil with skin on or roast with skin on and remove skin. Thanks. (10/26/2007)

By Julie Faint