I know strange title, but before I get to my pumpkin thoughts I thought I'd mention school.  School started yesterday.  I was nice and since we had grandparents staying with us, I only had dd do two classes.  So today she had to catch up on three more classes, it was a heavy work load, but she accomplished a lot and I'm proud of her.  I was going to post about what she is studying but she did that on her blog, so you can go check it out there.  She's on my friend list, Sharla88.

By the way, my dd is home again.  She was gone for two whole weeks.  We missed her quite a bit and at the same time were very glad that she was able to spend time with family.  She had several adventures, met new people and grew closer to her cousins and aunt and uncle.  I can't thank said aunt and uncle enough  for their generosity and protection from difficult situations.  I love you guys!!!!!! 

Now, on to pumpkins.  I have always liked to bake and if I can do it from scratch I try and do so.  Pumpkin is one of those things that for whatever reason intimidated me.  No LONGER!  I'm not sure why.  I had tried cooking with real pumpkin some last year and felt it took too long to peel and cook and so on.  This year after reading online and talking with a vendor at the Farmers Market I've tried two ways to cook pumpkin, (this is mainly for baking mind you), and  both were tremendously easy.  They are a bit time consuming, however you don't have to spend time slaving over it, just prep and put on to cook and then when done, process. 

Cooking method number 1: Wash (always), cut, remove guts and seeds (set seeds aside to roast for family), cut into wedges or chunks and put into the slow cooker.  (The first pumpkin I did was a small sugar pie pumkin, so it fit in my slow cooker perfectly), add one cup water, set on high and cook for about three hours.  Take out and let cool until you can handle it and scoop out cooked flesh.  I then processed it in the food processor and set it in a coffee filter lined sieve to drain excess fluid.  I then used it as you would canned pumpkin.  It made great bread and I sold lots of it at the Farmers Market!

Cooking method number 2:  Using a large "field" pumpkin, wash, cut, in half lengthwise,  remove seeds and yuck, remember: save seeds to roast!, Set on a cookie sheet with a high lip to catch fluids, I covered mine with foil first, lay pumpkin halves on cookie sheet cut side down, (I used two cookie sheets), cover with foil and bake at 400 for about an hour to an hour and a half.  Take out, drain some of the juice into the sink, let cool.  I ended up cutting into sections for easier handling and then just scooping out the flesh and putting in ziplock bags for use tomorrow morning.  I will then process them in the food processor and use as above. 

I challange you, if you have never cooked a pumpkin before to do this.  It is fun, it is easy, it is satisfying especially with the kids.  Let the pumkin cool enough for them to help scoop out the flesh.  It smells great, it feels good to make something wholesome.  You can make so many things with this, from soups to stews to cakes, cookies, muffins, pies, breads etc....

If you take the challange, please leave me a comment and let me know how it went.

Blessings to you all.