Check those pumpkins!

   Usually during this time of year, you can find pumpkins sitting just about everywhere in the Little Bayou House.  Yep, as seasonal decorations or foodstuffs, you cannot beat a pumpkin.  In fact, they are pretty good for you...not to mention quite tasty.  Like I said, you can normally find pumpkins in just about every nook and cranny...not just for Halloween but throughout the winter.  They are one of those fine things that can last for months just sitting in a cool, dry place....usually.

  Supposedly, there is somewhat of a shortage of pumpkins this year.  Whether this is true or just more media hype is yet to be seen.  Mark found plenty of pumpkins at the store so actually bought dozens!  He had two large (Jack-o-lantern style) ones and three bags of assorted pie pumpkins and the Jack-be-little sort.  I was elated to get them!  Thinking I had plenty of time to let them sit before processing them for food, the pumpkins were set in pretty baskets, on old crocks or simply on a mat on the floor.  In other words, I decorated for fall.   That "plenty of time" was a joke.  Within two days, the smaller pumpkins started rotting.  Ugh!  I began checking all of them every day and would process any that were showing signs of pumpkin rot.  I am now down to the final two pumpkins.  One was processed today and the other will most likely be done tomorrow.   Waste not, want not.

  Folks, if you are like me and actually use your pumpkins as food, you best keep a watchful eye on them.  It seems that this shortage may just have something to do with the rot.  I have a tendency to think the things were put in cold storage for a while before being put out in the stores.  Then, when they started to warm to natural temperatures, rot set in and they started to mold.  Trust me when I say that a rotted pumpkin is not a pretty sight (nor smell) no matter what fancy decorations you have around it. Keep check on your pumpkins, folks! 

What?

  Back in July, I planted some pumpkin seeds that I had saved from last Halloween.  Mark came home from the grocery store with some tiny Jack-be-nimble miniature pumpkins and since I thought they were just so stinking cute, I saved the seeds. These were the small pumpkins that were about the size of a baseball.  By planting them, I had the grand idea that the arbors would soon be covered with vines and the tiny pumpkins. How cute would that be?  I would have instant Halloween decorations! All I would have to do to make the arbors gorgeous would be to add lights!

  Well, grand ideas sometimes never come to fruition.  The seeds sat dormant.  Not one sprout broke the ground.  I was disappointed but just figured that the pumpkins were some sort of hybrid and the seeds were not meant to sprout.  I forgot about the pumpkins and planted other crops.  The garden did well and about a month ago, I noticed some "squashy" looking seedlings coming up in the planter boxes.  I supposed that I had inadvertently dropped some seeds.  Well, if squash wanted to grow in the planter boxes, so be it.  I tended the little plants but they never grew into the healthy plants that I imagined they should be.  Instead, they vined.

  This evening, I had to start giggling when out walking in the garden. My "squash" were not squash at all!  It seems that those miniature pumpkin seeds just took several months to sprout. But, then again, these were not the baseball sized pumpkins that I had planted.  Each of these pumpkins were about the size of a quarter!   My Jack-be-nimble pumpkins were far too wee to be miniatures by others' standards!  

  I am pleased with the find of the teeny-tiny pumpkins in my garden and hope to save the seeds from these.  Imagine how adorable it would be to grow hundreds of perfect coin-sized pumpkins!  Why, we could all decorate dollhouses with them!  Perhaps haunted dollhouses for Halloween would make use of the wee pumpkins since I cannot imagine how many it would take to make a pie!

Pumpkin Time!

Some of my poor Halloween pumpkins have now become the future makings of Thanksgiving pies! This is one of the first years that I did not carve my pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns so I have the option of leaving them sit for quite some time before having to do anything with them. They will just hang around in pumpkin form until I decide that more pies, muffins, bread or pumpkin butter is needed! That is one of the great things about things of this nature..they do not go bad in just a few days! Keep them cool and free of bumps and bruises and pumpkins will sit on the floor in the kitchen or pantry for months and be just as good as the day they were picked from the vine.

Today, however, Son decided it was a pumpkin muffin sort of day. It was quite cold out so running the oven sounded like a good idea to me! He started whacking at one of the larger pumpkins. After cutting that one up into workable pieces, he immediately grabbed one of the smaller ones and started hacking at it. Wait! I warned him that two pumpkins sure would be a lot of pulp once we got it all cooked. He just made some comment about really liking pumpkin muffins and that we could always make pumpkin butter. Ummmm ...yeah..but still that was going to be a LOT of pumpkin pulp! The pieces all went into the pot and need I mention here that we had to make two cookings using my large canner pot! The pumpkin merrily bubbled away in the large pot until it was tender..then the first batch was lifted out and the second went in the same boiling water. Two HUGE pots of pumpkin chunks were soon waiting to be pureed!

When I prepare the pumpkins for pies and such, I never even peel them. I used to...then I watched one of those cooking shows (back when I had a TV!) and the chef just pureed the entire thing (sans the seeds). So since then..no peeling! I figured that I should definitely try to be more like those professional chefs! Anyway..no peeling made it a lot easier on me..(Those TV chefs are sure smart!). I plopped all of those pumpkin chunks into the blender and let it do its job! This took probably an hour or more as it took me filling that blender about two dozen times to get all that pumpkin pureed! Finally, though, it was done and I had the prettiest bowl of nice thick pumpkin pulp!

Those two pumpkins made an enormous amount of puree! Two gallon bags were filled for the freezer, one gallon jug was placed in the refrigerator to be used in making the pumpkin butter and a quart was used to make some delicious pumpkin muffins. That still left a gallon jug of juice that I had strained from the pulp. How in the world will I ever use this stuff? It just seemed far to good to toss! I am quite sure that something delightful can be created from pumpkin juice..I just have to ponder on it and then do a bit of experimenting! All in all, after roasting the seeds, I only had the stems to toss in the compost pile! And to think...I still have four more large pumpkins sitting on my kitchen floor...wow!..that is a lot of pumpkin muffins!

Pumpkin Butter!

What do you do with all those leftover Halloween pumpkins? If you are in my house, you cook them! Of course, the first to be cooked would be any that were carved into Jack-O-Lanterns but those that were left whole can wait a bit..a long bit. Pumpkins without any blemishes will keep for months when kept cool and dry. Today was pumpkin cooking day at the house. My son cut the washed pumpkin in chunks and then it was cooked in boiling water until tender. Now I am one that does not waste a lot of food so I do not even peel the pumpkin..if the peels are tender enough all of it is run through the blender until pureed. Of course, you do have to add either water or juice as it is blended but in the end all I usually have to toss is the stem and stringy mess from the inside. Once this was done, it was time to decide just how to use all of this goodness! Today's decision led to some delicious Pumpkin Butter! It is made on the same order as Apple Butter and is most tasty on homemade biscuits or toast!

Pumpkin Butter

8 cups pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)

5 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

2 teaspoons ground allspice

2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

In a large pot, mix all ingredients together and heat over medium heat. Stir constantly until bubbly and thick. Depending on how thick your puree is to start with determines just how long you need to cook the pumpkin butter. To test for thickness, run the spoon through the center of the mixture..if the gap does not immediately close in on itself, it is thick enough! Just make sure to stir constantly so it does not scorch. If you do not want to stir constantly, you can use a slow cooker and stir occasionally until the desired thickness is reached. This can then either be sealed in hot, sterile canning jars following recommended directions (usually hot water bath method) or placed in freezer containers and frozen. It may be refrigerated for up to a month and frozen for up to a year.