Time To Bake Some Pumpkins

Well, it is that time of year again and Fall is upon us.  My family and I love this time of year.  We go to Fall Festivals, pumpkin searching, nature walks, apple picking and we like to do some canning.  This past weekend we bought some cooking pumpkins because the boys asked if you could eat a pumpkin.  I told them that you could but you needed to buy a smaller cooking pumpkin.  They were very excited so last night we cleaned out our pumpkins.  I cut off the tops of the pumpkins and then cut the pumpkins in half to scoop out the goop inside.  We saved the seeds because the boys remembered that we saved the seeds last year and baked them.  I remember that none of us really liked them but the boys were so excited about baking them this year we did it anyhow.

All cleaned out!

 Once the pumpkins were all cleaned out I washed them up real well.  Afterwards, I put the halves in glass baking dishes and baked them at 325 degrees for 50 minutes.

G enjoyed helping me clean up the kitchen but he found out that sweeping up the pumpkin goop was not a real good idea!

Meanwhile, I washed up all of the seeds and put them on a towel to dry a bit.  Since none of us liked the seeds salted last year I tried something different this year.  I put the seeds in a bowl and used a tiny bit of olive oil, just enough to coat the seeds.  I then sprinkled them with brown sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice.  Once the pumpkins were done baking I lowered the oven temperature to 325 degrees and spread the pumpkin seeds into one layer on a baking sheet then baked them for about 20 minutes.  They smelled good and their flavor was real good too.  However, the boys and I still did not like them because the outer part of the seed was just too hard to eat.

The pumpkins looked pretty much the same when they were cooked as when they were raw except that the skins were darker in color after they were baked.

 Once the pumpkins cooled a bit I cut them into quarters and scraped the pumpkin pulp off of the skin and put the pulp in a bowl.  As I was doing that G took the potato masher and mashed up the pumpkin pulp. 

 Once we measured it out we had enough for two loaves of pumpkin bread and at least one pumpkin pie.  Of course I did not have any light cream because I did not read the recipe earlier in the day so the pumpkin pie will have to wait until today so that I can go to the grocery store.  The boys were cooperating very well and were actually happily taking turns putting in each of the ingredients.  Once the ingredients were in the bowl M would lock the mixer in place and G would turn it on while I supervised.  It is amazing how something so simple can be so exciting for kids.  Once we were done mixing I put the loaves of bread in the oven and began the clean up.  I know that G loves to help clean up in the kitchen so that he can play in the water but sometimes that just makes for even more of a mess.  I decided to turn the television on and put in one of the old Scooby Doo DVDs so they watched that and played with their toy barn.  I was then able to clean up the disaster in the kitchen.

We were able to make the two loaves of pumpkin bread and they turned out so good!  The boys were disappointed when they realized that the bread was not going to be done until bedtime and would not be cool enough to eat but I promised them a piece at breakfast this morning.  Our Firefighter had to work yesterday so he can have some pumpkin bread for breakfast too!

I love how good the baking smells in the house in the Fall!!  Some apple cider would have topped off the evening but we were out.  That gives us another reason to go back to the apple farm this week!