It’s the Great…

Pumpkin!!!  Great, cheap pumpkins!  Getcher unwanted November 1st pumpkins while they last.  Last year, they were actually FREE ourside our local supermarket.  This year, they’re up to 49 cents, an increase of more than a zillion percent.

But still pretty cheap.

That’s some goooood local eatin’ all winter long…

An older Italian couple, maybe in their early 70s, were walking by as I was tossing six of these in my cart.  They did a double-take after they passed  me.  The woman turned and asked, “What do you DO with those???”  Like I was loading up the cart with big orange boulders.  Very, very strange.  I told her we COOK with them, but in my head, I was saying “REALLY?!?!”  Thinking of all the amazing Italian things you can do with a pumpkin…

The easiest thing to do with a pumpkin (works for ANY squash!):

• coop and hollow it out
• Face down in the oven at ANY temperature:  low is best, like around 300 or less.  Spray the pan.  Use a pan with sides because there WILL be liquid in the pan when it’s done – sometimes, quite a lot.
• When it’s soft, take it out.
• Mash it, freeze it, use it in challah… whatever you want!  If freezing, measure and freeze in standard 2-cup bags or containers so you won’t have to measure it or “guesstimate” later on when it’s rock-solid.  (I’m learning from experience here!!!)

Much later-on postscript:

Four sad, hollowed-out pumpkin shells later…

… eleven two-cup baggies of pumpkin mush richer!!!

(I labelled the white pumpkin separately for experimentation purposes)