Pumpkin - Notthatlucas style

When it's cold outside, it's time to cook up a pumpkin and start baking.

These are the last two pumpkins from our garden. We decided to cook the big one on the left - it was big enough that we had to cook it in two shifts. 

(Note the ice scraper - Mrs Notthat found it in the minivan hidden in a place no mortal would ever find it, although she claims it was in plain view. We have not needed it since she found it since it has warmed slightly, although it is pretty rainy.) 

We cook our pumpkins a bit differently than anything I have found on the web or in a cookbook. We leave the skin on, cut it up into chunks, and boil it until soft. (Of course we save the seeds - those we boil in garlic salted water, let dry out, coat with a small amount of olive oil and a bit more garlic salt and cayenne pepper, and then roast them for a few minutes. Oh my those are good.) 

The second picture shows the process of taking the cooked pumpkin from the pot, using a blender to puree it, and then the final product.

Well, actually, the last picture shows the final products - a loaf of absurdly healthy pumpkin bread for Mrs Notthat and a batch of vaguely healthy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, some with bonus cocoa and peppermint.

We now have LOTS of pumpkin to play with. We will freeze some and sneak some in other foods (like pasta sauce and chili and such - you can't really taste it but it packs a lot of vitamins and fiber for the more finicky ones).

We've only got one more homegrown pumpkin to cook, but I suspect we will end up with a few others as people get tired of them sitting on their front porch and Mrs snags them. 

Sometimes she even asks first!

That's it - move along...

PS: Of course I'm kidding! She almost never asks.