versitile pumpkin.

So over the past few days we've had a little educational lesson on the many uses of pumpkins. I got it in my little pea brain that I should actually use some of the pumpkins that I have around the house rather than letting them collect dust for the next month. Anyway, I found a great site on how to cook a pumpkin so that was our first step. I let Jacob help me scoop out the inside goop. (Sorry, no pictures here - way too messy for me to step back to capture the moment.) Once the insides were scooped and in a strainer, I then set off to cook the pumpkin. If I had only known how easy it was, I would have done it years ago. Chop the sucker up, place it in a little water and micro for 20 minutes. It was great. I set the microwave to cook and left to go pick up Elizabeth at school. When I got back, I had a cooked pumpkin and the house smelled like fall.

We got back home and scooped out the cooked pumpkin, slapped it in the Cuisinart and pureed the heck out of it! All set to cook with!

The following day we did another pumpkin and the kids helped me separate the seeds out so that we could roast them. They thought it was so much fun because it was "soooooo gross"!

My first item to whip up with this new found freshness was Shelley's pumpkin muffins. OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Let me tell you, these guys were de-lic-ious!!!! The kids loved them so much that they wanted to share them with their friends, so. we made batched for both Elizabeth and AJ's classes. They were a hit there too!

And if that wasn't enough pumpkin for you, we also made pumpkin soup and pumpkin cheesecake (the BEST I have ever tasted!). Unfortunately, I was unable to get a picture of the cheesecake before it was devoured! Ha!

Who knew that pumpkin would be such a big hit in this house!?