Pumpkin Goods

I had some fun with pumpkin a few months ago. While others carved up pumpkins for jack-'o'-lanterns, I carved one up and roasted it, pureed and froze it. It was then ready to use in pumpkin pie - I made the filling from scratch but bought a crust - pie crust is one challenge I'm not up to yet. I took the finished project to Thanksgiving dinner with my class/officemates, and though I couldn't taste much of a difference, some of my classmates said it tasted a lot better than canned filling.

True Pumpkin Pie Filling
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger*
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
3 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 can (12 oz each) evaporated milk (I used sweetened, but you probably want to use unsweetened so that you can have more control over the sugar level... the recipe doesn't differentiate)

Mix all of the ingredients well in a blender or food processor. Pour into a pie shell (this makes enough for two pies) and bake at 425 degrees for the first 15 minutes, then turn the heat down 350 degrees. Continue to bake for another 45 to 60 minutes.
To get pureed pumpkin:
Get a smallish pie pumpkin and chop it in half. Scrape out the seeds and pulp with a big spoon (you can wash and save the seeds for roasting). Put each half flesh down in a large baking dish filled with an inch or two of water and cover with foil. Roast for... a while. I don't remember the exact time but it was between 45 to 60 minutes - until you can pierce the skin and underlying flesh easily with a sharp knife. Take the pumpkin out of the oven, uncover and let cool. Scrape the flesh off of the skin (sometimes the skin will just peel off if done well enough). Puree the pumpkin in a food processor, portion and freeze in an airtight container or use right away. Voila!

I used this website as a guide - it's web decor is a little simplistic, but it looks like baking, not html , is their strong point and I don't have a problem with that.

* I like using fresh ginger, which is really easy to get in a fine texture if you peel and then freeze the whole root, and use the fine side of a box grater or microplane to shave off what you need.

Winter Work

Oh I've been bad about writing, haven't I? The quarter ended on a very busy note, putting in abstracts, finishing up labs, finding a good stopping point for research... well, I never found a good stopping point, so I'm in the office today after two weeks in California with the fam.

I got a lot of cooking in, notably some awesome pumpkin baked goods made from real pumpkin that I roasted myself, not the canned "pumpkin" which is most often random winter squash such as butternut (not that there is anything wrong with it). I've got pictures and recipes and all that but time to write up a post is hard to come by at the moment. I'll put it up eventually, the pumpkin pie and the pumpkin-cranberry-almond bread were definitely a hit.

I'm teaching next quarter! Like, in six days. Whoa. I'm the TA for 120 little Weather 101 students... stay tuned to see how that goes!