One of my favorite things about Fall is all the pumpkins that are ready to be picked and used for decorating, carving and baking! This year was the first year my father-in-law planted a pumpkin patch out in our garden. With the so called "pumpkin shortage" there apparently was this year I was very happy he planted them. My husband said we should sell them to our friends to make some money! We weren't sure how well the pumpkins would do but we ended up actually having a REAL pumpkin patch! My FIL thought we would get more pumpkins then we did but I picked 20 pumpkins!!! TWENTY PUMPKINS! I think that's a pretty good year, especially being our first year planting them. So what do you do with that many pumpkins?!?!
Our growing pumpkins!
The perfect pumpkins for carving! I picked four of them of course (one for me, one for my husband and one for each dog!) The dogs are so ready to get their pumpkins carved in this picture, ha ha!
Now what to do with all these pumpkins? I gave a couple away but with the rest of them I'm going to use them for baking! I have many pumpkin recipes that I've used in the past and new ones I want to try (cupcakes, cheesecake, bread, muffins, pancakes, etc) and using fresh pumpkin is suppose to be the best. Of course all these recipes will be coming up in the next couple months so stay tuned. As for now, it's pumpkin carving time and the main reason I love carving pumpkins is roasting the pumpkin seeds!! And I am NOT is short supply of those this year, remember 20 pumpkins! This week I sat down and cleaned out our four pumpkins and turned them into jack-o-lanterns. Dave took a look at them and asked me "Where's the happy one?" Jack-o-lanterns aren't happy, their suppose to be scary! Although I think two of them look more scared then scary.
Now making pumpkins seeds take a little more. I divide the seeds into one bowl and put all the pulp in a garbage bowl. Pumpkin seeds are extremely slipper suckers so beware! Once I have all the seeds out for all the pumpkins I'll soak them in a large bowl of water and squish the pulp to pull away from the seeds. I then put the seeds in a large colander and rinse with water a few times until the seeds are completely clean. Once clean I usually soak in salt water for a while then drain, season as desired and put them in the oven for roasting. I usually just coat my seeds with some extra virgin olive oil (evoo) and salt. This year I have two recipes I used this year that I got off allrecipes.com.
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Toss seeds in a bowl with the melted butter and salt. Spread the seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown; stir occasionally.
Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
- 1 1/2 tablespoons margarine, melted
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon garlic salt
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds
Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Combine the margarine, salt, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce and pumpkin seeds. Mix thoroughly and place in shallow baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
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