Pumpkin

Since Bug has been insisting that he needs pumpkin pie for Halloween (not sure where that one came from...probably morphed jack-o-lanterns into pie. Oh well, we can have pie for Halloween AND Thanksgiving.), we found a nice little sugar pumpkin at Farmer's Market last Thursday. Then, on Saturday, Mama took the stem off, cut the pumpkin in half, scraped out the seeds (a grapefruit spoon was a godsend), put the halves cut side down on a cookie sheet, baked them until they were soft at 350°F (an hour or so), scraped the pumpkin out of the shell, and pureed it in a blender.

Meanwhile, while the pumpkin baked, we worked on extracting the seeds from the pulp so we could roast them. I had help...very enthusiastic...for about the first dozen seeds or so.

After the little lost interests, Mom finished sorting seeds. Once the pumpkin was out of the oven, I tossed the seeds with 2 tsp. olive oil, a little salt, and some chili powder, spread them on a baking sheet and roasted them for 45 minutes at 300°F. The end result was this:

Five cups of pumpkin puree in five Ziploc baggies destined for the freezer to become pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, or whatever we fancy. There was a little over a cup left, but we decided to season it with a little brown sugar, a little cinnamon, some freshly ground nutmeg, and a bit of ginger and had it for a bedtime snack while the seeds roasted. Also a delicious bowl of roasted pumpkin seeds that we have been snacking on since then!