Good morning!

Another weekend over! It was busy so I did not get a chance to post but the good news is I got a lot done outside. My husband did some work replacing our deck and I managed to fertilize and lime our lawn in preparation for the long winter slumber. I also got started painting the new fence our neighbour put up this summer. In fact I have to do a bit more of that today as the sun is shining ;)

The best news however, is that it is fall and that means fresh pumpkins! I found sugar pumpkins at one of our local grocery stores (Thrifty's) and I was floored to see them. I have been looking for some ever since we came to the Island 7 years ago and finally found the health food store would occasionally have some .. but NEVER any grocery stores ... maybe all my whining over the years has finally paid off ... heh anyway I bought 3 and I may go back for more while they are available ... I plan to process and freeze those babies so I can use my OWN pumpkin puree rather than canned ... not that there is anything wrong with canned per se ... but real pumpkin makes the BEST pie EVER imo ;)

Just as an aside ... a jack-o-lantern pumpkin is NOT a sugar (pie) pumpkin. A sugar pumpkin, also called a pie pumpkin, is much smaller ... about 6" high and maybe 8" in diameter ... the ones I have seen are relatively smooth skinned and the flesh is sweeter and less stringy, much more suited to cooking than your run of the mill pumpkin ... as I have soo often lectured my grocery store's produce manager when he tried to sell me a 10 ton tough, tasteless stringy jack-o-lantern for my fall pie baking of all things ... sheesh

Fresh pumpkin puree is easy to do and it freezes really well in a ziploc for use later in the year when pumpkins are not available.

I generally cut my pumpkins in half and pull out all the seeds and stringy bits. I then cut the halves into smaller chunks, pop them into my dutch oven with about an inch of water and then steam them until tender over low heat adding more water if necessary. When they are tender I drain the remaining water and cool the pumpkin. Once cool it's pretty easy to scoop the flesh into a large bowl and to discard the remaining bit of peel. I smash the pumpkin with my fork, some recipes tell you to throw it in a food processor and puree it but I have never found that to be necessary or beneficial. I store the pumpkin in 2c servings in freezer proof ziploc bags.

An alternative method is to cut the pumpkins and clean as above then place cut side down on a cookie sheet and bake at 300' until tender. I've never tried this method so this year I might try it with one of my pumpkins to see if there is any flavour enhancement baking over steaming.

IA