Playing With Pumpkin

I bought a pumpkin at Aldi a few weeks back.  It was a nice big pumpkin that had a nice carving side on one side.   However, things were just busy.   That jack-o-lantern never got carved.  

So here it is, November 1st, and I look down at my kitchen floor and realize that I still have a pumpkin.   You know I hate to let anything go to waste, so I started looking back through some things I had pinned and began deciding what I was going to *do* with this huge pumpkin.

While I looked and decided, my three year old was busy happily fishing the seeds and guts out of the thing.

Then I washed off the seeds and set them aside to dry.  I will roast them tomorrow.

Then I cut the pumpkin in half down the center and laid it down on a baking sheet and baked it for about 1 1/2 hours.

After it cooled, I began peeling the skin off and pureeing.  I also chunked up a small amount to try roasting with some herbs.  Savory pumpkin sounds interesting.  I'll let you know how that goes.

My small amount of pumpkin chunks and enormous bowl of pumpkin puree.

With the pureed pumpkin, I made up a double batch of pumpkin butter.  I enjoyed the apple butter I made last year on toast, so I'm hoping I will like this one as well.  Pumpkin is new to me.

While I was at it (and hungry apparently), I mixed up a batch of these pumpkin cheesecake muffins.  I also had some cream cheese I had taken out the freezer and then didn't use, so I figured it was meant to be.

The ones on pinterest look much better, but mine still tasted great!

After all of that was done, I still had a bunch of pumpkin puree left.   I filled two quart sized freezer bags to freeze, and then I filled another small container to keep in the fridge.   I'm thinking pumpkin pancakes over the weekend!

I can thaw out the frozen ones later on and make bread or more cheesecake muffins or anything.  Pumpkin soup also sounds intriguing.  Since this was a large pumpkin and not a small sweet pie pumpkin, I will not be going the pie route as I would have to add a LOT of extra sugar.

I said today to some friends that I didn't think I wanted to see another pumpkin for a very long time, but you know if I find them marked down ridiculously cheap at Aldi, I'll probably grab another. ;)