Fall and Pumpkins!

Well this is my Favorite season! Fall has all the good stuff. The change of temperature, falling of the leaves, Thanksgiving, and my all time fav Halloween!

I was in the market this week and what do my eyes land on but sugar pumpkins!!! If you ever see them pick one up they are great for making anything that calls for "canned pumpkin". They are sweeter than your average jack o lantern pumpkins. I only use the sweet sugar pumpkins for cooking. I usually buy a few and steam them and put the puree in bags and freeze them. This way I can have fresh pumpkin pie/cheesecake/muffins really anything that takes pumpkin all year.

So today I thought I would share with you the simple steps of processing the pumpkin to use in any recipe that calls for "canned pumpkin".

These are my two beauties that I brought home! :) (I think I need to go and get a few more before they are all gone)
So to start all you need is a knife, spoon, steamer (either a plug in one or a steamer pot on the stove works fine) and some time.

Wash off your pumpkins so we don't have any dirt on them.

Then cut it in half and scoop out the guts. (if you want you can save the seeds and cook them up as a nice snack after)

Cut the pumpkin into small slices and pop it skin and all into the steamer. It took two steamers full for this pumpkin. I set my steamer for 40-45 min. This is pretty simple isn't it :)

Then you want to let the cooked pumpkin cool off and when that is done just take a spoon and scoop the meat off the skin and plop it in a bowl.

Doesn't it look good! And believe me it smells so good in the house right now :) It's so simple you will wonder why you bought canned pumpkin in the first place! Each pumpkin makes (depending on size) approximately two or so pies worth of pumpkin

Mmmm...now the only thing I have to figure out is what am I going to make with the pumpkin first :) 

Happy cooking everyone!