Pumpkin Puree & Cookies

I used our longest knife to cut my two pie pumpkins. Then, scraped out the seeds & guts with an ice cream scoop into a colander -- where I could later wash the seeds for roasting.

Preheat the oven to 350* & place the pumpkin, cut side down, on a lightly oiled pan with an inch of water. Tent with foil and cook for about an hour - until very tender.






Let the pumpkin cool a bit before scooping out the flesh into the food processor. Puree the pumpkin with just enough water to keep it moving.


This was the first time I've roasted a pumpkin, and was inspired to do so by Melissa because of this post at Cooking Delights. It was much easier than I thought -- the toughest part was cracking the pumpkin. Next time, I may just drop it on the sidewalk & wash him up before cooking....









I'm so glad I did this because you just can't beat the taste of fresh pumpkin in recipes. Sure, a can of pumpkin is fine in a pinch -- but why not make it fresh and freeze it so that you can have it all year long?

My 2 small pumpkins yielded: a half jar pumpkin seeds, two 1 cup baggies of puree in the freezer, plus enough puree to make a batch of 'Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies' from VwaV, pg. 198.



For these, I skipped the walnuts & flaxseeds, and added extra oatmeal to compensate. They were really good, and I'm planning to make them again for our next road trip because they don't fall apart & are chewy, aren't too sweet, and compared to other cookies - are healthful.

We are looking forward to Art's parents visiting us this week, and I'll have my camera and cookbooks out, but I'll be away from my computer until Saturday. Have a great week, and I look forward to checking in with you!