COOKING PUMPKINS

Last year Mickey & I tried cooking the pumpkin to use it for baking.  We had a terrible time and when we were finished it was a lot of work and did not taste good at all.  At my bible study Tuesday night I asked the gals if they'd like to have my pumpkins and immediately 2 of them told me I should cook them and make puree to cook with.  SO......with their instructions we decided to give it another try.

First Mickey cut the top off, and cut it into 3 pieces. 

  Then I took the pieces and cleaned out the pulp and seeds.



Mickey cut the large cleaned sections into these smaller pieces ......

So we could boil them.  It took about 45 minutes until they were soft. 

Then we dumped the first pan full into the sink and let them cool as we began boiling another pan full.  This food grinder that we used to puree was my mother's and has to be probably 50 years old and it works like a charm!!!  They don't make appliances like they use to.

Mickey is using the food processor as I am peeling the skins off and handing them to him.

This is what the wonderful result looks like as we puree each pan full.

Four pan fulls later here is our finished product, ready for the freezer and to be used for delicious pumpkin breads and I might even try a pie, although I'm not a very good pie baker.  We ended up with these five 3 cup containers and the one 2 cup or a total of 17 cups of pumpkin.  Thelma told me pumpkin was selling for $2.50 a can this year and this would be equivalent to 11 cans or $27.50.

Thanks Thelma & Betty for encouraging me to take the time and effort to prepare this!!!

When I bake the first item I'll let you know if the final results are good.  I'm believing they are going to be great!!!