Who Wants Pumpkin Pie?

That is the question I may be asking all winter! Some friends gave us a GIANT pumpkin! It weighed more than my 6 year old, and was not much shorter than my 2 year old! It sat in my kitchen floor for a couple of weeks. I finally worked up the willpower to get started on it. I knew it would be an all day process. I cut into it at 10:00 am and finished rinsing the last dish at midnight. Jonathan and I took turns working on it. There was some sit and wait time, but the project took over my kitchen for 14 hours!

How do you prepare that much pumpkin? In pieces. Slowly. With lots of patience.

Step 1: Cut and seed the pumpkin. I did this in stages. We only cut up what we could fit in the oven. It took six batches to get it all roasted.

Step 2: Place in a roasting pan coated with vegetable oil. We had a large and a small pan. So we were able to do quite a bit in each batch.

Step 3: Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 60-90 minutes. A small batch in one roaster takes about 60 minutes. With both pans we needed up to 90 minutes. You want the pumpkin to be soft through to the skin.

Step 4: Remove from pan and cool. (If I was just doing one small pumpkin or a butternut squash, I would let it cool in the pan; but I wanted to get the next batch in the oven!) It took about an hour to be cool enough to pick up.






Step 5: Scrape the flesh from the rind. I used my Pampered Chef Scoop Loop to both seed the pumpkin and scrape the flesh out. It worked much better than anything I have tried before!




Step 6: Place the flesh in the food processor and puree.














Step 7: Place the pureed pumpkin in a strainer lined with flour sack cloth or other similar lint-free cloth.








Step 8: Squeeze as much water as you can from the pumpkin.

Step 9: Measure and bag the pumpkin. We did some 1 cup bags and some 2 cup bags because those are the measurements the recipes I use call for. Package the pumpkin according to the way you think you will use it.

Step 10: Freeze!

What did we end up with? 27 cups of pumpkin puree! My pie recipe calls for 1 cup of pumpkin. A batch of pumpkin bread (2 loaves) takes two cups. The soup recipe I found takes 2 cups. We still have 4 winter squash in our own garden that we need to process. We will have our fill of pumpkin pies, cakes, breads, cookies, and more!

My Monday Munchies - Our Favorite Potatoes!

Today's recipe is one of our favorites! Jonathan maintains a good sized garden in our backyard. We have 2 4x8 beds of potato plants (about 70 plants!) He recently brought in the first harvest of potatoes and we cooked them up for dinner.

What you need: 

A couple lbs of potatoes, diced (I had about 6 cups diced)*

1-2 large onions (if you like a lot of onion, do 2)

6 cloves of garlic (we really like garlic, if you do not like a lot of garlic I would do 4 cloves)

1 stick of butter

1-2 cups of fresh chopped herbs

Salt and Pepper

 1. Chop your potatoes and onions.

2. Melt the butter over medium heat. (You can use your favorite oil if you want. We have used olive oil before. We just prefer the taste of butter. If you use oil, heat it until it sizzles when you put the garlic in. I usually test it with a wooden spoon first.)

3. Press your garlic into the butter. (You can mince it, but I prefer my Pampered Chef garlic press!) Saute the garlic for a minute to flavor the butter.

4. Pour in the potatoes and onions. Cover and let sit on medium heat for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes start to soften. 

5. While the potatoes cook, chop your fresh herbs. I used basil, oregano, thyme, and chives. I ended up with over two cups. I really don't think you can have too much!

6. Stir, and then continue to cook uncovered until the potatoes are the desired tenderness and starting to brown.

7. Add your fresh herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Toss and let cook for another minute or two.

These are very flavorful potatoes. They take about 30 minutes. I always make enough to have leftovers for breakfast!

*Don't use store bought Russet Potatoes. That is all I had on hand one day, so I diced them and cooked them up. No amount of seasoning and butter helped those potatoes! I love Russets for baked potatoes and mashed potatoes; but this recipe just needs a different texture of potato. The Russets did not hold the flavor like a red new potato, Yukon Gold, or fingerlings. Pick a good potato and you will get the best results!