Pumpkins!

We were given a number of pumpkins, not all the same variety, and I have been finding different ways to use them.

Some, of course, became jack-o-lanterns.

Some I turned into "Cream of Fresh Vegetable Soup".  The recipe I use is in an old Soups and Stews Betty Crocker cookbook, but an identical version is online here (in a harder-to-read form, no handy chart).  Note:  when it says to only put part of the recipe in the blender at a time, it is NOT kidding:  when you blend hot liquids, the cool air that gets blended in expands rapidly...and sends the liquid upward in a big, hot SPLOOSH!!!

I baked two pumpkin pies, which didn't last long in our house.

I also froze something like fourteen quarts of mashed pumpkin.

And I still have four pumpkins left, plus there are two oblong pumpkins that may be squash hybrids, which my husband wants to cook up himself.

I found that the easiest way to deal with pumpkins en masse was to cut them in half from top to bottom, scoop out the seeds and strings, and bake them cut side down on cookie sheets, about 1.5 hours at 350 degrees. My cookie sheets are longer ones (they hold 15 cookies, not 12), so I was able to get two halves on each cookie sheet, and two sheets in the oven at a time.

Then, after the pumpkin is good and baked, scoop the flesh out of the skins, and mash it up.

I did puree some pumpkin that I peeled, cut into one-inch chunks, and cooked by simmering in water; I found that I needed to add a little extra water to the chunks for our blender to handle them.  (See the above note on SPLOOSH!!!, which applies here as well, if the pumpkin chunks are hot.)

I found that the easiest way to salvage the seeds for toasting was to put the pumpkin innards into a large bowl of water, pick out the strings first (instead of the seeds), and then get the seeds.

Cutting up the pumpkins was the hardest part; part of the time I used a dull hatchet, but it takes some very firm whacks, and my aim is not always the best, and there were bits of pumpkin flying all over the kitchen.  Otherwise, I used a long, serrated knife to halve the pumpkins.