I am so far behind at this point that I figure I'm either late for this round, or really early for the next one.. but I promised myself I'd keep plodding along, so here I am.
Sucker for punishment, perhaps -- but at least caught up, is caught up.. regardless of the time frame.. so I'll just carry on where I left off..
Every year we decide that we're going to get pumpkins and do a massive roast of pumpkin seeds, since everybody loves them so much. We'd been buying the bulk barn variety, but we just find them SO salty, that making our own seemed to make much more sense.
We were watching the sale sheets, and just happened to notice that pumpkins were on sale 2 for $5 ~ What a great opportunity to Pumpkin seed to our heart's content!
So Caelly and I headed out.. and who did we bump into but our eldest daughter Caryn! We picked out 8 pumpkins in varying sizes. To be fair, Caelly picked most of them. Caryn and I were amused to watch the enthusiasm unfold.
One poor specimen committed suicide on the grocery store floor.. OOPS!
Back at home, we've got the first batch in. Caelly cut them in half, and I got them cleaned out and put the first batch in the oven. Caelly started on the pie shells.
All in all it took us all weekend to get all of the pumpkin baked, pureed, and prepared for the freezer, and it was days more before James had all of the seeds roasted at long last.
Unfortunately by the time we got to that point we were no longer taking pictures, but just glad that the pumpkins were DONE.
There were seeds of many different flavours, and James felt bad that we'd spent all weekend killing pumpkins so he could have the seeds.. but we had fun doing it.. and he's worth it!
We also have some 50+ packages of pumpkin puree in the freezer for future use.. lots of work but SO worth it :)
Apparently I am a waste of pumpkin though since it is a bad thing to have that many pumpkins and not carve at least one for Hallowe'en. We were however gearing up for a trip to Vancouver and weren't sure if we would be here for Halloween so *that* seemed like a waste.. ah well perspectives, right?
Sucker for punishment, perhaps -- but at least caught up, is caught up.. regardless of the time frame.. so I'll just carry on where I left off..
Every year we decide that we're going to get pumpkins and do a massive roast of pumpkin seeds, since everybody loves them so much. We'd been buying the bulk barn variety, but we just find them SO salty, that making our own seemed to make much more sense.
We were watching the sale sheets, and just happened to notice that pumpkins were on sale 2 for $5 ~ What a great opportunity to Pumpkin seed to our heart's content!
So Caelly and I headed out.. and who did we bump into but our eldest daughter Caryn! We picked out 8 pumpkins in varying sizes. To be fair, Caelly picked most of them. Caryn and I were amused to watch the enthusiasm unfold.
One poor specimen committed suicide on the grocery store floor.. OOPS!
Back at home, we've got the first batch in. Caelly cut them in half, and I got them cleaned out and put the first batch in the oven. Caelly started on the pie shells.
Pumpkin Guts!
The most time consuming part is picking the seeds out of the goop!
Ready to be seasoned and baked!
The pie shells came out looking great!
The first pair of pies came out looking a little on the well done side,
but the next 2 were much better.
Unfortunately by the time we got to that point we were no longer taking pictures, but just glad that the pumpkins were DONE.
There were seeds of many different flavours, and James felt bad that we'd spent all weekend killing pumpkins so he could have the seeds.. but we had fun doing it.. and he's worth it!
We also have some 50+ packages of pumpkin puree in the freezer for future use.. lots of work but SO worth it :)
Apparently I am a waste of pumpkin though since it is a bad thing to have that many pumpkins and not carve at least one for Hallowe'en. We were however gearing up for a trip to Vancouver and weren't sure if we would be here for Halloween so *that* seemed like a waste.. ah well perspectives, right?
5 comments:
Nothing better than home made pumpkin pies. They taste so much better than canned filling. The seeds though time consuming are so much healthier.
I like to brine my seeds before roasting them. Perhaps those Bulk Barn ones would be more appreciated by me. Must try them out as my seeds are almost all gone now.
I remember reading about your brining process Yabut! I haven't tried that yet, though this mass project managed to afford the hubby-unit many different renditions and flavours to try.
We even broke out the Epicure and got creative with a few of them. :)
I'd never really done anything with pumpkin before a few years ago.. someone told me that you could only make pie from a smaller pie pumpkin.. but then In true "me" fashion I decided to try it..
In that first batch, I used the puree for a variety of breads, and muffins mainly, and had also mixed a little with mashed potatoes during a particularly touchy phase post-gastric bypass when mashed potatoes were one of the few things that "worked" and I was trying to make them taste like anything else..
This time around we made pies and put the rest in the freezer.. not ONE person noticed anything untoward about the pies and all were shocked when we stated they were ginormous jack-o-lanterns and not baby pie pumpkins..
So.. ya just never know til you try it :)
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