Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater!

Now that Halloween is over, I'm sure many of you have pumpkins that you aren't sure what to do with. Do you just let it ferment and hope that the squirrels come and eat it and get drunk? Do you put it straight into the trash or compost?

NOPE! You're gonna cook that thing up! But wait, isn't it a pain to chop up and roast a whole pumpkin??? YES! It is! In case you haven't realized it yet, this blog, is about how to NOT make it be a pain in the pa'-toot!

If you are fortunate like we are, and have an adorable Powder Monkey on board your ship, chances are you have a few pumpkins. Ours is adorable enough to charm the Farmer right off his tractor! He got right down, pulled two large pumpkins off the wagon and gave them to her! Little stinker!

Since we are fortunate, I don't want to let any of that kind generosity go to waste! So, I roasted the pumpkins. Whole. In the oven! It's truly easy!

Things you'll need:
Oven set to 375
Knife
Pointy spoon
Pumpkins (squash of any type works with this method. For this post, you'll see both a large pumpkin and a spaghetti squash)
Tin Foil (optional


First thing- you'll probably need to lower the racks in your oven to the two lowest settings. On the bottom rack, I put some tin foil to catch any potential dribbles. Haven't had that happen yet. Then again, "yet" means it's still a possiblity. You could also use a baking sheet. None of mine have edges, so I use the tin foil instead.  Once you have that done, turn the oven on and set it to 375 and let it heat up.

Next,grab your pumpkin and wash it off! You don't want the dirt from the field roasting in the oven!

Once you've gotten it all clean take a pairing knife and poke a few holes around the top. I try to keep the cuts on the top, so that it won't dribble down the sides and into the oven (hence the tin foil on the bottom rack- just in case!).  This is also a great time to take out a little aggression! You don't need too many slits, just a few.

 There is also the possibility that you may need to trim the pumpkin stem down. Go ahead, grab a good stiff knife and hack off some of that stem! I know I still needed to do this even though I put my oven racks all the way down.

By the way- all your prep work is now done! Just stick that sucker in the oven!

 Here's the not so measured part of all this. Now, you just wait. After a couple of hours, you can test the readiness of the squashes by taking a fork and poking the pumpkin. Now- a pumpkin's skin is a bit thicker, so you will have a tiny bit of resistance. But, as long as the fork goes in after the initial pop, then you are good to go! How long it needs to cook, depends on how big of a pumpkin you are roasting.  This was a decent sized pumpkin, and I let it cook about 2 hours and it was PERFECT! the spaghetti squash in the photo was done MUCH sooner! I think that one took about 45 minutes.

Once they are cooked, pull them out and set them on the counter to cool. Just for a little bit. You don't want to make the mistake of grabbing a hot pumpkin straight out of the oven! OUCH!

 Once they are cooled, take a knife and split them open to cool a little more. they will still be WAY hot on the inside!

They will split open soooooooooooooo easily! You can send me thank you cards at any point for this!

Once they have cooled enough to really handle, take a pointy spoon and start to scrape out the seeds! I use a grapefruit spoon, but any spoon would work. Since they are cooked, and nice and soft, it's really easy to remove the seeds! Just be sure to not take all your yummy squash meat with it!

After removing the seeds, go ahead and scrape out that lovely meat! Just put it in a bowl as you go. I was able to pull the pumpkin and squash apart in chunks, and peel the skin right off! Some spots, I did scrape with the spoon, but both methods are super easy and low fuss!

you can stop here, and either eat the meat as it is, or let it fully cool and freeze it, or you can take it a step further, and blend it up. The spaghetti squash I turned into fritters (which will be a later post) and the pumpkin, I pureed up. I just put the chunks into my Ninja and blended away! It came out super nice and smooth! You can then divide it into freezer bags, or use immediately in recipes. If you put it in a bowl in the fridge, and let it sit without a lid for a couple of days, you'll notice the moisture leaves! I'm not that patient, so I tend to squeeze mine through a cheese cloth, or tea towl to remove moisture.

There it is! YUM!!!!!!! Go ahead and make all the foods! This particular batch was turned into muffins, soup, fritters and sauce!

Go forth, and no longer fear roasting a whole huge pumpkin! I'll be processing our Halloween pumpkins this weekend and saving that golden goodness for the upcoming holidays!