A few weeks ago the boys and I spent the day at a pumpkin patch. The boys had a blast all day feeding goats, going down the long slides and riding on the zip lines over and over.
I may or may not have let the boys talk me into riding the zip line one time. I may or may not have smacked myself right into the landing pad at the end of the line.
Of course one of the highlights of the day was riding on the hay wagon out to the field to pick a pumpkin. All of the boys were determined to pick THE BIGGEST pumpkin. Asa’s pumpkin was SO big, he had to borrow a wagon to get it to our van.
Malachi (the cowboy) decided to snuggle with the pumpkin on the way to the van
and Elias decided that since Asa was offering…
his pumpkin could take a ride too.
Needless to say, the pumpkins they picked are too big to fit into my oven. So much for all of my great plans to bake them and turn them into pies and other great treats. I decided I’d have to keep my eyes out for a great pumpkin deal at the store.
Guess What?!?!?
Yesterday I was at Wal-mart and saw a few scraggly pumpkins in the produce section marked down to $.33 a pound. Cool. I grabbed one.
Guess What?!?!?
When the gal rang up my pumpkin…it came up to $.01. She asked someone what she did wrong and the manager said, “Oh no. That’s right. We’re just trying to get rid of them.”
So I said, “I’ll be right back.”
She waited for me while I went and grabbed three more pumpkins (the rest were a little squishy).
Check out my four-penny purchase!
Now I can make all the yummy fall pumpkin recipes I’ve been wanting to make!
And…I’m going to go look through Amy’s big list of Pumpkin Recipes to see which ones look good!
What are your favorite pumpkin recipes?
I love Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares (Martha Stewart) and this fall I’ve been making lots of pumpkin goodies! I tried a King Arthur Flour pumpkin muffin recipe last night. I got a super cute fall leaf/pumpkin silicone muffin pan at Walmart for 1/2 off to make them in. My 5 year old LOVED them! I’ve also been experimenting with a Pumpkin coffee drink and made Pumpkin Waffles (recipe from Smitten Kitchen) and pancakes.
As a homeschool project, we picked a pumpkin and roasted the seeds and the pumpkin last week. Now I have some puree in my freezer ready to go….looking forward to more pumpkin treats!
Too big to fit in your oven? I cut mine into pieces! I also left mine face up, though my pumpkin ended up kind of watery, and face down would help them drain somewhat. Happy pumpkining! :>)
I agree! My son has a HUGE pumpkin, and since he’s not even 2 years old, we didn’t carve it. He loves it anyway. I’m hacking that thing up and baking away. :)
Yeah I would cut them up into a million pieces…but I’m telling you these pumpkins are BIG. I may attempt it but I’m not sure my knife could handle it. :) Plus, at these point the pumpkins are getting squishy. They were great decorations though!
just push the point through to the hollow middle and you should be able to slice right through it! just cut out the squishy parts and cook the firm ones :-)
I love pumpkin!
We grew some last year- what a blast to go pick your own!!!
And I’m with Lenetta- hack those babies up and bake ’em! ;-)
i am really looking forward to make recipes with pumpkin but really i never gave it a try. But this time i wanna give it a try.
Just wanted to share this yummy pumpkin muffin recipe I made last week (came from pinchmysalt.com)
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins with Cranberries and Walnuts
2 1/2 C. whole wheat flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
2 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 C. pumpkin puree (I use canned)
2 T. oil
3/4 C. honey
2 eggs
2/3 C. buttermilk
1 t. vanilla
1/2 C. sweetened dried cranberries (like Craisins)
1/2 C. chopped walnuts
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a standard size 12 cup muffin tin (I use cooking spray).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice; set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, oil, honey, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir together until just combined. Fold in the cranberries and walnuts.
5. Divide batter evenly between 12 standard sized muffin cups. Bake 20-23 minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven. Muffins are done when they spring back lightly to the touch or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
k.
Forgot to add that I used fresh ground wheat and they came out great!
I will so have to try your recipes. I love pumpkin!
I think I might be stopping by walmart tonight, just to check it out!
Going to a pumpkin patch is an awesome way to make memories with your children. I still look back when my girls were young and our trips to the farm or pumpkin patch in Autumn (sans zip line…lol). Thanks also for the GREAT recipe and delicious ideas for baking tasty treats with the leftover pumpkins now available!
Please excuse this silly question, but I’ve always been told that orange pumpkins are good for decorating, but not for eating. The eating pumpkins are the white “sugar” pumpkins…is this wrong?
Well, it obviously is wrong or you wouldn’t be eating orange pumpkins!
You learn something new every day!
I didn’t read all the posts so hopefully I’m not repeating anyone.
I learned a lot about diverse pumpkins this year! The big orange ones that are often used for carving are NOT the ones to buy to cook down. Even the small “pie” pumpkins pale in comparison others.
This year my husband decided he wanted me to try using different kinds of pumpkins seeing as they had a dozen kinds grown locally at the front of our grocery store.
They all had descriptions about them so my research began. The conclusion is that the greenish/tanish ones that look sunk in the middle are THE BEST to use. While the outside leaves something to be desired, the inside…oh the inside! It is so fragrant and rich! The flesh is shades deeper than the cliché pumpkin. And the best part to me is that the stringiness on the inside is much drier, making the whole mess of picking out seeds MUCH more enjoyable. In fact the consistancy of the pumpkin meat after cooking is less stringy as well.
I would slice up the pumpkins and arrange them best I could trying to have the skin on top. I haven’t researched it yet but I’m suspicious that the vitamins also found in the outer layers cooks down into the meat. I cook them on 300* for however long it takes to get soft, a few hours. But they need very little attendance.
Then pull them out, let them cool enough to be handled and scoop out the meat. I heard there was a shortage of canned pumpkin this year, so I cooked down a bunch of pumpkins this year in case people need them come thanksgiving. I use a fresh/natural recipe from allrecipes.com that has honey and cream.
Now I have been cooking down pumpkins for years and have 2 special sieves that are shaped like cones with wooden type things to work the juice out of the pumpkins. However, this type of pumpkin needs no working. Just purée it like you normally would. So easy!
I wanted to buy pumpkins to bottle, like I did last year (I have a pressure canner), so I went to Walmart on Monday to get some. And the other Walmart, and every other grocery store in town. There was not a single pumpkin to be found. Luckily, my mom was able to find some at a farmer’s stand for $.50/piece, so I can still use some.
Great find on the pumpkins. Pumpkin pancakes are making it on my list too!
The link for how to bake a pumpkin doesn’t work.