My laziness got the better of me, and the other night, we did not carve a single pumpkin. We did not get a single trick-or-treater. We did not watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. I was able to convince a friend to take home one of the pumpkins, but I still have a huge pumpkin sitting in my foyer that I don’t know what to do with. At first, I figured I could puree it and use it to make a pumpkin cheesecake (recipe forthcoming) for Thanksgiving, or give it to John to use in the bread maker and bake a pumpkin gingerbread loaf, or even use it to make pumpkin ice cream. But alas, while doing some research online to figure out how to turn fresh pumpkin into the canned variety (which so many of these recipes call for), to my dismay, I discovered that a carving pumpkin used for jack-o’-lanterns (also called a field pumpkin) is not the same thing as a sugar pumpkin, which is darker and squatter and whose sweeter flesh is more suitable for baking. Ugh. Now I’m stuck and clueless with this field pumpkin. Besides roasting the seeds, does anyone have any idea what I can do with this thing? John suggested leaving it in a corner of our yard and taking a photo of it every day for a year and posting in on a site we’d start called shrinkingpumpkin.com, but I know laziness will overtake us once again, and the photo-taking will soon cease, and we’ll just have a rotten, ugly gourd in our yard. So any other suggestions, anyone?
Feeling my way through food, tasting my way through life. Supporter of the culinary and literary arts—food and words are my creative portals, the means through which I connect with others. Go ahead and leap—come feel and taste with me.
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6 Responses to what do i do with all this pumpkin?
heesoo November 2, 2010
What to Do With Your Carved Pumpkin After Halloween Pumpkin
Of course, if you already carved it as a jack-o-lantern, here are some do's and don't's for your carved pumpkin:
Do:
1. Put it in the compost heap – it will make good fertilizer
2. Bury it in the garden – it will decay quickly and enrich the soil
3. Wash, dry and save the seeds to plant next year (they will grow!)
4. Wash and roast the seeds – they make good eating.
5. Dump it in the trash, if you haven't got a garden
Don't:
1. Use it as a door stop
2. Keep it indoors: it will rot and stain the floor
3. Put it in the attic for next Halloween
4. Attempt to eat it or cook with it.
5. Use it in cold fusion experiments (pumpkinfusion has been disproven ).
heesoo November 2, 2010
I suggest roasting them… roasted pumpkin seeds are delicious
the Blind Cook November 2, 2010
heesoo: I guess your #4 in the "Don'ts" list rules out our attempts at cooking. We shall try anyway. I like the storing in the attic till next Halloween. And yes, we will have to try roasting pumpkin seeds.
Maire Snetting November 29, 2010
I've invited the whole family to ours this xmas for a big dinner, so the roast is pretty central to that.. I found a bunch of ideas at this roast recipe site, but cant seem to decide on anyone – there's too many to choose from! It's fun planning such a big xmas meal though!