Two Big Pumpkins

[Turquesa]

There are two big pumpkins on my kitchen counter that we never got around to carving for Halloween. I know that like other forms of winter squash, pumpkins have a pretty long shelf life. But how long? And could you please provide some recipes or ideas? I'm at a loss of what to do with them and with two tiny children, I don't have a lot of time to cook.

[somegirl99]

Honestly, I'm not sure I'd bother with cooking up the squash part of it...the pumpkins grown for jack-o-lanterns are not all that great for eating.

However, what I would do is cut them open, take out the seeds, clean them, and dry-roast them in the oven (that is assuming you like them).

[caiesmommy]

I don't understand this whole thing about not wating them. We never got around to carving ours so I cut it open. Scooped out the stringy flesh. Then washed and roasted the seeds. Then I cut the pumpkin into fairly large pieces and boiled the pieces in a small amount of water(you could steam) then scooped the "meat" away. Then mashed it up. My kids we're eating it right like that..LOVED IT! And I added some to minestroni soup and made these yummy pumpkin bread into muffins
http://elise.com/recipes/archives/00...pkin_bread.php

Everyone gobbled them up and I've still got a ton of pumpkin in the freezer...I plan every year now not to actually carve the pumpkin so I can do this

[Jelinifer]

I made this soup last month with a jack o' lantern pumpkin and it came out great:

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2007/10...nd-scones.html

The only difference I made was instead of peeling it raw and boiling, I cut it into pieces after scooping out the seeds and stringy stuff and roasted it in the oven at 425 degrees until it was soft.... much easier to peel after that

[caiesmommy]

Originally Posted by Jelinifer

I made this soup last month with a jack o' lantern pumpkin and it came out great:

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/2007/10...nd-scones.html

The only difference I made was instead of peeling it raw and boiling, I cut it into pieces after scooping out the seeds and stringy stuff and roasted it in the oven at 425 degrees until it was soft.... much easier to peel after that

I tried roasting it and it just seemed to take FOREVER..and I had to keep adding water...It prob seemed to be taking forever b/c I have a small oven and was only able to roast a bit at a time

[Jelinifer]

Originally Posted by caiesmommy

I tried roasting it and it just seemed to take FOREVER..and I had to keep adding water...It prob seemed to be taking forever b/c I have a small oven and was only able to roast a bit at a time

I never added water.... I just hacked the pumpkin into a few big pieces and threw them in the oven... and checked every 30 min. until I could poke a fork through them pretty easily.... it took me a little over an hour in standard sized electric-run oven.

[catnip]

My favorite thing to do with the big carving pumpkins is to roast them, mash them up and use as a burrito filling.

[Turquesa]

Great ideas! Thanks!

[eepster]

They aren't bad unless they have soft mushy spots or start growing mold. That pretty much won't happen for months and months if they are stored well and the skin isn't broken.

I find the quality and flavor of jack-o-lantern pumpkins to be highly variable. Some a fabulous, most are passable, a few are tough and pithy. You won't know for sure till you open them, but generally small smooth ones are good and large one with deep grooves are poor.

After scooping out the goo and seeds, washing the seeds and roasting the seeds, I like to cut the flesh into large chunks, peel the skin of with a potato peeler (though it is easier to remove the skin after cooking, I dislike handling the chunks when they are hot and fragile,) and microwave them in a cover dish with just a bit of extra water till soft, i then puree the flesh (I leave the water in the cooking container.) Once you have pureed pumpkin flesh, it can be used in any recipe that calls for either canned pumpkin or pureed squash. You can even serve it like mashed sweet potatoes.

The puree will keep for quite a while in the freezer.

[chi_mama]

I cut mine up into slices and steam them then scoop out the flesh and freeze it into 1 C portions. Here are a couple of recipes we've liked this year.
pumkin and black bean soup
pumpkin brownies
I also like to add pumpkin puree to spaghetti sauce and most types of soups, oatmeal (with maple syrup and cinnamon), and as a pasta sauce. Fresh pumpkin puree has a mild taste so it's really easy to add to things. You can also use it like apple sauce to replace oil in most baking recipes... but it's best if you squeeze all the extra moisture out of the puree (I use cheese cloth) first.
I agree that you can defineatly use the large pumpkins. Sometimes they need to be pureed to get rid of the stringy texture but otherwise they're prety good for everything but pie.
oh and we've kept pumkins in the cool garage for 6 or 7 months before.