back to basics: cooking pumpkin

It's that time of year again....pumpkin time! 

Jordyn and I are lucky enough to have an endless supply of pumpkins, seeing as we have a pumpkin patch on our farm!  I have a serious love for pumpkin muffins...so they'll be making an appearance tomorrow!

Cooking pumpkin is easy-peasy, and it's always nice to cook a bunch up to pop in the freezer for later in the year!

Cooked Pumpkin

All you need: -pumpkin (I used a Sugar pumpkin...they're great for baking!)

                     -glass baking dish

                     -water

Directions:

1)  Cut your pumpkin in half.  You can cut it into even smaller pieces, which will help it cook faster.

2)  Use a spoon to scoop out the insides.  All of the seeds and inner pulp should be removed. (Keep the seeds for roasting later!)

3)  Place your pumpkin slices in a glass baking dish, filled with about a 1/4 inch of water.

4)  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately an hour....checking every so often to see if it's done.  You want a fork to easily poke into the pumpkin, but be careful not to cook it into a mush.  

Be sure to check your water level as its cooking....you never want it to completely dry up!

**And very important: if you do add more water, be sure to add HOT WATER! Especially if the baking dish is nearly dry, adding cold water will cause it to crack...not good.**

You can see my fork marks from testing if the pumpkin was done!

To remove the pumpkin from its skin, I just used a spoon to scrap it off!

Once all of the skin is removed, you can dice up your pumpkin and mash it.  If you want an even smoother texture, you can use a blender! (I popped mine in our magic bullet using the largest cup, and it worked so well!).

You want your pumpkin to be quite thick, so if it's too watery you can always strain it over a fine mesh strainer (or on cheesecloth) to get rid of some of the liquid!

Happy October!

p.s. ♥ kelsey