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When internet fails you for pumpkin delights, get Grandma to e-mail the old, old recipes • Save that stringy pulp for . . . cookies! pie! entrees! By
Dusty Decker
When you see fresh pumpkins, do you think "jack-o-lanterns" or "dinner?" If you feel like doing some genuine pumpkin cooking or baking this fall and don't know where to start when it comes to using real pumpkin, than let me give you some insights that I found and tried for myself. I did a little pumpkin searching on the Internet and found some information, but it was a bit too gourmet. So I stuck with the recipes my Grandma e-mailed me. The first thing I made was dinner in a pumpkin. It turned out pretty good so here's the recipe. DINNER IN A PUMPKIN 1 small to medium pumpkin Cut off the top of pumpkin and thoroughly clean out seeds and soft pulp. You can draw a face on the pumpkin with a permanent marker if you want. Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a large skillet, sauté onions with ground beef. Drain grease. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms and soup. Simmer 10 minutes. Add cooked rice and water chestnuts. Spoon the mixture into the cleaned pumpkin shell. Replace pumpkin top and place entire pumpkin, with filling on a baking sheet. Bake 1 hour or until inside meat of the pumpkin is tender. Put pumpkin on a plate; remove pumpkin lid and serve. For your vegetable, scoop out cooked pumpkin and serve. I didn't have water chestnuts so I put in green beans instead. I'm sure you can add whatever you want or even use a different kind of soup. The soy sauce and brown sugar gave it a nice flavor. Now here are some tips on cooking pumpkin, so you can use it in place of the canned pumpkin. There are two general ways. I've tried one. I used a medium size pumpkin, a bit larger than a basketball. I sliced it in half vertically and removed the seeds. (If you like pumpkin seeds, than save them for later and I'll tell you how to bake them, don't wash them off) You clean you out all the stringy pulp stuff. I've found that your hands work the best to get the bug mushy globs and then I used a large spoon and scraped the sides lightly. Next you put both halves upside down on a cookie sheet and bake it for an hour or more at 325 F. It's done when the inside is tender and beginning to fall apart. Another way to cook pumpkin is to steam or boil it until it's cooked and then scrape it off. You would have to cut it into smaller pieces to fit it in a pot. When the baked pumpkin comes out of the oven you can take your large spoon again and scrape out all of the pumpkin meat. You can be as creative as you want to with mashing it up. I went for the easy-blender way. I had to add a little water so it would blend. Once that was done I had a large bowl of pumpkin puree. It looks like baby carrot food. The pumpkin I used yielded me about 12 cups, so I froze some of it to bake pies with later. With the pumpkin I didn't freeze I made chocolate chip pumpkin cookies. They were very good and got roommate approval. Fresh pumpkin makes them come out lighter and with a different, but excellent flavor. CHOCOLATE CHIP PUMPKIN COOKIES 1/2 cup shortening Stir shortening, sugar and egg together. Sift flour, baking powder, soda, salt and seasonings. Add to creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin. Fold in raisins, nuts chocolate chips and vanilla. Drop on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 F for 10 minutes. Hear is a basic recipe for pumpkin pie. PUMPKIN PIE 2 cups canned or mashed cooked pumpkin Combine filling ingredients in order. Pour it into an unbaked piecrust. Bake in preheated 425 F for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F and bake an additional 20-30 minutes or until pie tests done. Test by inserting a knife near center and if it comes out clean it is done. Another thing you can do is make apple cider in a jack o'lantern. Thoroughly clean out the pumpkin and then refrigerate it until you are ready to serve the drink. Than you can pour cider, punch or whatever you prefer into the pumpkin. Finally don't forget about the seeds you set aside. Remove the excess pulp but don't wash them. Then mix together melted butter and oil. Use 1-2 Tbsp of each or whatever you desire. Also add some salt to that like 1-2 tsp. Combine the seeds and the mixture and place them on a greased cookie sheet at 200 F for 45 minutes. They come out real crispy and good that way. At least I think so, that's what I'm going to try tonight
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