Pumpkins

Last week the grocery store had all their pumpkins, regardless of size on sale for $1. So, I bought 10 of them. Last night and today I have been processing them. The method I use, ensures nothing goes to waste.

First, I wash them well, and remove the stem and bottom part of the pumpkin from where the pumpkin blossom formed. Then, I cut them into chunks and scoop out the insides where the seeds and stringy stuff is. The chunks I put into a stock pot to boil until tender. After they are tender, I remove from the pot, drain (saving the water) and let cool. After cooling, scoop out the meat part from the peeling part.

The meat part is now ready for pumpkin pie, bread or any other recipe requiring pumpkin. Remember though, this is just pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix (there is a difference, as the spices and such are not added).

Now, separate the stringy stuff from the seeds. Wash the seeds well, removing any pumpkin stuck to them.

By now the water you boiled them in should be cool, so you can either can it, or freeze it. This water gives a nice kick to soups or even for mashed potatoes--just use it like you would chicken stock.

The remaining peel and stringy stuff (if it has a "technical name" I don't know what it is) goes to the chickens and ducks.

The seeds are then roasted. This is how I have done my first batch of seeds-(per my husbands request.)First, I boiled the seeds in apple juice for 10 minutes. Then I drained them off, and mixed in a bowl some melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and sea salt. Lightly oil a cookie sheet, and put in the oven at 275 degrees and roasted until done--took mine about 20 minutes-you want them roasted and dry, not sticky.

See, nothing went to waste-The birds love what is left if you don't have chickens, we even reuse the water for soup stock-it contains loves of the vitamens that boiled off.

A good way to recycle your halloween pumpkin is to wait until the day of to carve it, or instead of carving it use non toxic paint to decorate it.

The next batch I will use olive oil, garlic and sea salt.

This weeks deals from couponmom.com

It is Monday, so start planning this weeks shopping. Check out couponmom.com for the best deals and the coupons to match them up with. This week it looks like I will be stocking up on Dawn dish soap. CVS has it on sale and I have several 75 cent off coupons and some CVS bucks, so I will get about 3 bottles for free. Not bad.

Halloween is over, so if you drew your pumpkin faces on, you can recycle them into pumpkin pie. I bought a few and plan on cooking them down later this week and then freezing them for Thanksgiving and Christmas pies. Just remove the stem, wash the pumpkin and cut into about 3 or 4 large chunks (more or less depending on the size). Then boil till mushy. Drain them well, smash up and put in freezer bags and freeze. I freeze mine 2 cups at a time, as that is what my pie recipe calls for.

This afternoon the kids and I are going to travel the US. I have several videos that I got from the library for my coop class that are due tomorrow, that we will watch this afternoon. We are going to watch the history of the discovery of the Grand Canyon, learn about the gold and silver rushes, the rocky mountains and the great lakes and about an Indian Reservation. A couple of the videos are very short, around 20 minutes but most are around 50 minutes. So after lunch we will settle down with some popcorn and watch. I will count it as history time and geography.

Pumpkins Etc

This morning I took the kids to Pumpkins Etc. They all had a blast. I would highly highly recommend this pumpkin patch to everyone! It is family run. There were several patches to choose from. You can take a wheelbarrow with you to put your selections in or (as in our case) give a kid a ride. When you first get there, you will be greeted by cats. Lots and lots of cats, mostly cute babies. We were told that early this morning they had counted 21 of them. We also went through the hay bale maze. There is also another maze that we did not go through. They have a picnic area if you want to take your lunch. Prices were very reasonable. Admission is FREE, and you don't pay for anything except what you buy. They sell pumpkins, candy, gourds, honey (from Smithville)and mums. Get more info at http://www.pumpkins-etc.com/ They have a Platte City address, but it is actually on the Smithville side, more towards the Hoover area. It was very easy to get through and signs marked the way well.
If you have little ones with you, they will enjoy the airplanes from KCI that fly over often. We had to stop and wave at each one and guess where they were going.

We also saw a cute halloween display on highway 92 on the way there. It was all made of hay bales painted up. The kids had me pull over so they could see it better.