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This weekend I thought about working on my research projects that are all due in another couple weeks. I really did think about it. And then I decided after doing a bit of reading and writing some paragraphs that I would be far more productive in cooking rather than paper-writing. So I decided to cook all weekend:
Acorn squash mashed up with some leftover spaghetti meat sauce (super good)
Split Pea Soup (delicious double batch- though it doesn't look like much!)
Applesauce Cinnamon Muffins (they were pretty bland)
Pumpkin Pancakes (see note next to Muffins)
I also made eggnog, which apparently tasted quite good (I don't drink eggnog myself, but I felt compelled to make some. And then forgot the obligatory photograph. Ah well).
And then there was the pumpkin:
I wasn't sure exactly what to do with the pumpkin that was given to me (a present for us at work, and now that Halloween is over there's no need for pumpkins- so I decided to keep it for myself). But then I found this post at A Veggie Venture about how to roast a whole pumpkin!
At first it wouldn't fit in my little oven. So I had to take out one rack and move another rack down as far as it would go. In the process of doing so, I got a little bit too close to the heat of the oven, and accidentally set my oven mitt on fire. Nothing a little energetic beating of mitt against oven door can't fix! Once I'd gotten the flame out of my mitt, I successfully maneuvered the pumpkin so that it rested on it's side.
One hour later, the pumpkin was a little burned on one side, but the knife cut right through as smoothly as butter, just like the directions promised!
As I had pulled the pumpkin out of the oven, however, it was a little slippery because it had been coated lightly in olive oil before being put in the oven. This resulted in my dear heavy pumpkin sliding right out of my oven-mitted hands (oven mitts were having a tough day yesterday), landing on the floor with a bang and waking up my sister in the next room over. But by some miracle it did not break open everywhere, and I was able to slice it open easily, scoop out the seeds, remove the skin, cut off the burnt patches, and salvage huge amounts of my pumpkin! It was a messy and lengthy process but well worth the effort:
I am excited to make lots of food with my excessive amounts of pumpkin. But I must admit, I'm rather at a loss as to what I should make! I think I will be putting about half of this in the food processor so that I can have pureed pumpkin to use in baking, but perhaps the other half I will use for cooking- I imagine mashed pumpkin would be tasty, or pumpkin roasted with some other vegetables... at any rate, I've got lots of the stuff to play around with. If anyone has any suggestions of great recipes I would love to hear them!
