Pumpkin, Pumpkin and more Pumpkin - Recipes

Pick a Pumpkin…Any Pumpkin.

Safeway has large (ugly) pumpkins on sale this week for $5.99 or if you’re heading out to the pumpkin patch this weekend grab an extra pumpkin. We’re not making pumpkin pie, although you won’t miss it when we’re done, so you don’t need a “pie” pumpkin. Any ‘ol ugly big pumpkin will do.

Start by scooping out the seeds. Then hack the pumpkin up into manageable pieces. Using a melon baller or just a good spoon, scrape out all the stringy bits and toss them. Rub the Pumpkin skin with a bit of olive oil or a sprits of Pam spray.

Arrange on to several cookie sheets and roast at 400 for 20 min’s. Turn off the oven and leave the pumpkins in for another hour.

Meanwhile, rinse the seeds in a colander several times picking out all the orange bits left clinging on for dear life. Scrub dry on a towel, this helps remove some of the slime and will help the seasoning adhere. Once dry, place in a roasting pan.

Mix the following:

2 tbsp melted butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp chili powder

Sprinkle of salt

Combine the mix with the pumpkin seeds and roast at 375 for 10-15 min’s. Watch them closely because of the sugar they can burn easily.

(Sorry, no picture of these, I forgot before we devowered them all!)

Once the pumpkin is cool enough to work with, you can peel off the skins, they should come off very easily but a little nudge with a knife can help if needed. Smash up the pumpkin pulp and toss it into a few zip top bags for use later.

If you kiddo’s are like mine and were helping with each step they could and were chomping at the bit to get to the pumpkin, cut it into long rectangles, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar or drizzle with agave nectar and then cinnamon, stick a popsicle stick in it and let them go to town on a Pumpkin pop.

I froze several of these the same way on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and they’ll have them as desert popsicles another time.

Yum!

Later we’re making:

Pumpkin Brown Sugar Body Scrub

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Mashed Pumpkin for a side dish

Pumpkin cookies/whoopee pies

5 min. Pumpkin coffee cake

Pumpkin pie ice cream.

All of that from just our one big pumpkin. Did you get yours yet? Come on, Can’t wait! Trust me, I’ve already been using the body scrub and had a coffee cake yesterday. They’re both divine in their own way. Here’s a sneek preview of the coffee cake:

You make it in a coffee mug in the microwave! How great is that!