A pumpkin adventure by means of stove and oven

It all began when I was pleasantly surprised by four perky sugar pumpkins at the landing of our stairs a couple of weeks ago, courageously brought home by Dan, who happens to work next to a preferred farmer's market of mine. I came upon a recipe for homemade pumpkin pureé that I found on Annie's Eats and had been dying to try a season without that canned stuff, for once. It was messy, dangerous, and I broke a good knife of ours trying to get the tops off the little suckers (as if I'd never made a damn Jack-O-Lantern before). But it was so worth it. Just from cooking two of the four pumpkins, I had made about 8 cups of golden pumpkin mush, bound for many tasty goodies for ME! And you too, of course. I was able to box it up in some tupperware and freeze it to hold on to it for a couple of months. Below are pictures from my weekend playing with pumpkin (except for the pureé pics; those are from last week :)




























Pumpkin cream sauce adapted from Streaming Gourmet: have it with thick spaghetti, rigatoni or penne. You'll be suprised how the tastes of pumpkin and parmesan mix so well. Like pasta alfredo, it's best fresh and not leftover. Next time I want to add a bit of pancetta to add a bacony kick.





Chocolate-chip Pumpkin Muffins from angry chicken: these are a must-try AND MUST EAT. The recipe incorporate whole-wheat flour, which I try to use in all my baked goods. Make-time is very fast and they bake in 20 minutes. Instead of using two eggs and two egg-whites, I just used three eggs (I HATE wasting perfectly good egg yolks!) I think I have to leave them in the oven a little longer next time... The ones I made are doughy, but the flavor is intense.