Pumpkin, Anyone?

I think that when I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and overworked and pulled in too many directions, I like to eat.  I'm sure Oprah would have a few things to say about this tendency.  The thing about having that tendency in a place like this, though, is that if you want to eat, you have to cook.  And you have to be creative.  And there's just not that many things like chocolate chips or other deliciousness around with which to cook.  So I end up cooking a lot of vegetables.  Today was the day of the pumpkin.  My day started first thing with people asking me for things or to do things, and it ended in the same way.  There are just some days when it seems everyone wants a piece of me.  So I figure I'd better make sure there's more of me to go around by... you guessed it... eating :)

I got quite a lot accomplished today (though still a lot NOT yet accomplished!), but by about 5:30pm, I was pooched.  The heat was sapping my strength, as well as the constant requests for my time and efforts.  So I called it day and went to attack a pumpkin.

Richard had brought this huge pumpkin all the way in the back of a pick up truck from the town he visited a few weeks ago.  It was a beautiful pumpkin that he got for a fraction of the cost it would have been in our city - only problem was that he had to sit on it for 2 days to get it here!  But I'm sure glad that he did.  He helped me break into it initially, because I have come to realize that I just don't have the upper body strength it takes to chop one of these local pumpkins.  But once it was in sections, I went a bit nuts with it!

From 5:30pm up until about 10pm, I was in the kitchen with my pumpkin.  First, I roasted a bunch of it for supper tonight - just drizzled a little oil over it, chopped some onions and garlic and put it all in the oven.  Mmmm... turned out so sweet and delicious!  While I was doing that, I was boiling some pumpkin to make up a huge pot of pumpkin soup (which I'll start eating for lunch tomorrow).  After enjoying my roasted pumpkin for supper (just with a simple tomato and carrot salad - all out of cucumbers), I did more chopping of the chunks of pumpkin.  I fried a bit in my skillet for the cat to eat - he LOVES pumpkin, and I think he likes it slightly harder and chewier.  I also put a bunch in the oven in big chunks to cook it up into puree.  From the puree, I plan to make a pumpkin loaf tomorrow, as well as pumpkin tart things for supper.

And while the pumpkin was cooking in the oven, I cleaned up the seeds and toasted them in my iron skillet on the stove.  Have I mentioned how much I love my skillet?  It toasted the seeds so perfectly.  With a bit of salt... mmmm.... so good!

I think Zane and I will certainly not be hungry for the next few days!  We might turn orange, but at least we won't be hungry...