Week 9 - PUMPKIN TIME!

I had to be a bit creative this week since I wasn't home on Sunday.  I traveled to NJ and decided to have 2 of my favorite people help me bake for my blog this week.

I wanted to use the pumpkins we picked at the farm now that Halloween was over and I didn't want them to go bad. This weekend was my small window to bake pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread from scratch!!!

Here are the 2 recipes we used:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/mrs-siggs-fresh-pumpkin-pie/detail.aspx
http://www.pickyourown.org/pumpkinbread.php

I used the biggest pumpkin we had and prepped it first. It is best to cut your pumpkin up into smaller pieces before cooking.

We used two big pots and filled them both with water. We then submerged the pumpkin in the water and boiled it until it was soft.  Once it was soft, we scraped the pumpkin flesh from the rind of the pumpkin.

We had a TON of pumpkin to use!!!

After mixing all the ingredients together we poured it into the pie crust.  I wasn't sure how it would come out when I saw this:

We followed the exact directions for baking - bake for 10 minutes at 450 and then reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for another 40 minutes. We checked it with a toothpick and it was perfect. We let the pie cool overnight and it was ready to go today!  I tried it this morning and man was it good!!!  This recipe is definitely a keeper!

We made 2 pumpkin pies and still had pumpkin puree left, so we decided to make pumpkin bread too.

We decided to make regular pumpkin bread with no additions but I have made it with chocolate chips before as well.

This came out really good too!!!

Last but not least, I decided to cook the pumpkin seeds which I have never done before.  After pulling them out of the pumpkin I cleaned them and made sure I got all of the pumpkin string off of them.

Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and put the seeds on the cookie sheet in a single layer.  Sprinkle with salt and cook for 10 minutes at 325. Take the seeds out of the oven and toss so that all seeds are covered in the cooking spray. Cook for another 15 minutes.  Just be sure they don't get to burnt. You want them to be golden brown. Eat and enjoy!!  These were a really good treat!!

 Due to traveling today I don't have a main course to share. I hope you enjoy these fun pumpkin recipes. We definitely had fun baking yesterday!!!!  These recipes are fun and don't require a ton of work!  I look forward to cooking pumpkin pie every year!!!!  Until next time...