The time has come, and as promised, I begin my praise of the glories of pumpkins. Near the beginning of September, I made pumpkin muffins, gave some to my neighbors, and ate more than I should’ve myself. It was made from a can, not from a garden… pumpkin season hadn’t officially arrived. But now…
My tiny girl saw the pumpkins at the grocery store. “Wallermellons?” “No, honey, pumpkins.” “Wan’ it?”
So we came home with a pumpkin. And I got an education.
1) Pumpkins are fun and also messy. It is always advisable to have multiple spoons, multiple bowls, and an assistant. Having a computer in close proximity is not necessarily a good idea.:
2) When you carve a Jack O’Lantern, you’re left without much “meat” to play with. “Good meat” on the right, “brains” on the left:
However, you do get plenty of seeds:
3) Success #1: I took the seeds, washed them thoroughly, and tossed them with a light coating of olive oil, Worcestershire, and salt. They went into the broiler (on Low) until they were toasted. Mmmmm…:
4) The instructions online said to take a whole pumpkin, quarter it, and put it in the oven to bake at 375 deg. for 1-1.5 hours. Well, I didn’t have a whole pumpkin to play with at this point, so into the oven this went:
And what came out looked like coffee grounds (entirely unworthy of a picture, a blackened mess). Yes, a seasoned cook (haha) would’ve checked on the pumpkin in the oven, but said cook was also reading a very engrossing novel and forgot about the pumpkin. At least the house smelled yummy.
5) Success #2: It’s incredibly early in the season, and a Jack O’Lantern made now won’t make it ’til Halloween, especially if it stays this warm and wet outside. I made an “unholy” Jack, to keep the ants out and hopefully keep the rot to a minimum. We’ll see how he does!
More pumpkins next time!
Tags: Pumpkins
