10.24.2011

Cooking with Pumpkin

At the pumpkin farm a couple weeks back I bought a small pumpkin specifically for me to cook and eat. The kids thought I was crazy and they were a little sad when they saw me pull out the biggest knife I have and cut that pumpkin in half and proceed to put it in the oven. I told them their gourds were safe and that put them at ease. :)

I've had this little thought in the back of my head for a while that I should use more pumpkin when I cook/bake. It's so good for you and yummy too. I'm not talking about making a lot of pumpkin pies either - just straight pumpkin. 

Last week I made pumpkin pancakes and they were so yummy!! Everyone loved them. Good I thought, there's one idea that worked. I also tried adding some pumpkin to the kids macaroni and cheese. It kind of worked. I added too much pumpkin and they weren't quite sure why they didn't like it as much, but they still ate it. Easy fix - next time not as much pumpkin.

I'm always looking for ways to try and make a dish healthier and this works for me. I need to come up with some more ways to incorporate this great food into things. 

Oh, and by the way the pumpkin that I cooked in the over didn't turn out as good as I had planned. I think I'll stick to buying the canned pumpkin. I was considering putting pumpkins in the garden next year, but I don't think I will. Canned pumpkin is nice because the kind I buy doesn't have anything added to it, just pumpkin. We'll stick with that.

Oh, and we are growing gourds in the garden next year!! Ella's so excited.

3 comments:

Grandma and Grandpa said...

Very interesting what you did with the pumpkin. Cute about the kids relief when they were informed their gourds were safe. It is always nice to experiment because you never call tell what might work. I can see your reasoning sticking with canned pumpkin.

FYI
Vicki says you make a really good
pumpkin pie and she is very fussy about her pumpkin pie because she just really really loves pumpkin.

Vicki has been putting in late hours. She has been staying late these last few nights because they are having some kind of "Christmas Season" kick off tomorrow with regional people in attendance. I know that she will want to read about your pumpkin experiments as soon as she gets a chance.

I think I finally figured out how to let people know that my facebook page is not Ryan's. I decided to put a picture of the "Old Guy" in mine that way they will know it's not Ryan.

JoEllen said...

mmmm... pumpkin.

there's a scar on my forearm from a burn i got last year and every time i see it i think, "hey, i should bake pumpkin slices again!" lol.

Anonymous said...

The pictures of the dinosaurs and worms are very good.My Goddaughter likes bugs and worms and reptiles...not dolls.So cute.Loved the pictures of the spider webs you used for decorating the house.However,in our house the spider webs are REAL.And they are almost that big.Hope the bats leave after Halloween.
The pumpkin is an awesome ides but I think I will keep getting my healthy pumpkin in the form of pie.

Uncle Bob and Aunt Jill