Luckily, my cousin loves to cook and use pumpkin and has a few great recipes to share. She helped me determine the best way to cook (and store) a 30 lb monstrosity, and was the source of two of the recipes included. So for the curious, here is a play by play of Me vs. The Pumpkin.The first job was to wash the pumpkin of the little remaining dirt and collected dust. This wasn't a simple task, as the pumpkin didn't actually fit inside the kitchen sink (see above). We make do with what we have. I rinsed one side, then turned the pumpkin and repeated, and we were off to the races!
After washing the pumpkin, I carved out the top with the handle, just as if I were preparing for a Halloween pre-jack-o-lantern lobotomy. After I could get my knife inside, I began slicing the pumpkin up into 2-3" wedges and dug out the insides. Of course, I saved the guts so I could cook the seeds later.All in all, I obtained 11 massive wedges - now the difficulty was how to cook them. There was no way I was going to boil them: I wasn't interested in standing over a hot stove all day nor was I interested in losing any flavor to the water. I found my microwave could cook 1 cut-up
wedge in 20 minutes, and it retained a bright orange color. I could also fit up to three wedges on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour at 300 F, that resulted in a darker color. After cooking a grand total of 4 wedges with these methods I called up my cousin. "Buy a plastic turkey bag" she said. I was able to crowd the remaining 7 wedges inside the turkey bag, balance it precariously on the small cooking tray, then forget about it while they all cooked at 300 F for 1.5 hours. I should have done that at the start!After cooking, the flesh was soft enough for me to dig it out with a
spoon - and in some cases, peel the skin right off. I then proceeded to puree the pumpkin with my handy immersion blender. (One day I will write an article on how much I love my immersion blender). It made quick work of the very soft pumpkin and I was soon scrambling to find containers in which to fit 25 cups of pumpkin purée.The obvious solution was to use as much as possible by cooking as quickly as possible. So I immediately used 2 cups to make pumpkin muffins. But it turns out 2 cups makes > 3 dozen muffins - and I really didn't think my family of two could eat 450 muffins before they spoiled. Good thing I could give some away! These were delicious, and everybody I shared them with loved them. I am counting on making many more with the remaining pumpkin purée stored in my freezer.
My next bright idea was to experiment with cream of pumpkin soup for dinner. I used up 2 cups making a variant with a can of evaporated milk and bullion, and it wasn't bad, but needs a bit more work before I publish the recipe. Craig wouldn't even taste it though - which leads me to believe that it doesn't matter what I do with the recipe, he's decided he doesn't want anything to do with pumpkin soup. Guess that leaves us with more muffins!After that, I made a pumpkin dessert roll - pumpkin cake rolled up in cream cheese frosting: cant' go wrong! It was delicious and evaporated at a family party; but it only used up 3/4 cup pumpkin.
Finally, I rinsed and roasted the pumpkin seeds. Nearly 2 cups of raw seeds baked up nicely, and since Craig won't eat them, it meant more for me. Hurray!
After a full day of cooking, not even 20% of my pumpkin was used. I put the remainder in the freezer, and started brainstorming on who I could share it with. So far, I've pawned 2.5 cups off on my sister and 5 cups on my cousin (who took the first pumpkin and gave me the help. I hope she'll continue to do so!)
As for the remaining squash in our storage, we've made it through one acorn squash and three spaghetti squash. Again, the spaghetti squash were all used for quick and dirty meals on nights when I was too tired to think of anything else - they are very practical and easy to prepare if you have jars of spaghetti sauce. The acorn squash was nearly as easy - much easier than the pumpkin to prepare, certainly - but that's likely because it was 15x smaller. This one Craig and I ate right out of the shell, loaded with butter and sugar. It was delicious!
All that remains to be experimented with are several buttercup and carnival squash. Expect that update soon!
Recipes for Winter Squash Update:
-----Fabulous Pumpkin Muffins-----
| 1 c. butter | 4 c. flour |
| 2 c. sugar | 1 t. cloves |
| 2 eggs | 2 t. allspice |
| 1 T. vanilla | 1 T. cinnamon |
| 2 c. finely pumpkin purée | 2 t. baking soda |
Mix together the first five (wet) ingredients, and blend well. In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining (dry) ingredients. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and mix until just moistened. Distribute the batter in muffin cups and bake at 400 F for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes ~ 3.5 dozen.-----Pumpkin Cake Roll-----
Rather than copying and pasting content, I'll just direct you to two of the best recipes on Allrecipes.com, which is where I was told to find them. Don't let the multi-step process fool you into thinking this is a difficult dessert to make - on the contrary it was VERY easy and relatively quick.
Pumpkin Roll II
Libby's Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Filling
-----Roasted Pumpkin Seeds-----
2 c. raw pumpkin seeds, rinsed thoroughly
2 T. butter
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 t. salt
1/2 t. garlic salt
Mix together butter, sauce, salt, and garlic salt in a small bowl. Microwave on medium until the butter is completely melted. Whisk the ingredients together, then add the pumpkin seeds and coat liberally. Scoop the seeds onto a cookie sheet and spread out until you have one layer, then cook at 250 F for 1 hour.
-----Sweet Acorn Squash-----
1 acorn squash, cut in half and de-seeded
4 T. butter
6 T. maple syrup*
Microwave the squash on high for 12 minutes, turning several times to ensure even cooking. Remove the squash, and put 2 T. butter and 3 T maple syrup in each half. Place the halves in the oven on 'broil' (~ 6" under the elements) for 2 minutes until the butter melts and the syrup begins to caramelize. Remove and serve hot.
*You may substitute brown sugar, apricot jam, or any other appropriate sugar laden flavorful sweetener you desire. Brown sugar appears to be commonly used, but I liked mine with apricot-cranberry jam, and Craig enjoyed his with maple syrup.
