Pumpkins!

My mom gave each of the kids pumpkins out of her garden, thank you Grandma!  I decided it was time to cook them up before they froze out on the front step.  Here are pictures of Caleb and Rebekah picking out the seeds.  Rebekah worked diligently at her task, Caleb mostly tried to carve his pumpkin with a spoon!

Caleb's was a really big pumpkin!  Fro those of you that don't know how to cook a pumpkin, it's really easy!  First you cut the pumpkin in half, quarters, or eighths like us (this depends on the size of your pumpkin).  Scoop out the seeds and the pumpkin guts.  Separate the seeds if you want to cook them.  Put your pumpkin chunks in an oven safe pan, I used 9 x 13 cake pans.  Put about an inch of water in the pans.  Bake in the oven at 350 until the pumpkin is soft, usually about an hour, but longer for a giant like ours.

Here they are in the oven.  This was only half of our pumpkin, the other half cooked later.  Once it's cooked, just scoop out the flesh and either put it in a blender to puree it, or just smash it with a fork and put it in containers.  I used ziploc freezer bags, full of 2 cups of pureed pumpkin.  I ended up with a total of 23 cups.  I actually put some in ice cube trays also to use in cooking (or rather hiding in my families food).

You can use your pumpkin in pies, cakes, breads, or whatever you desire.  Try my Pumpkin Apple Upside Down Cake, or try Pumpkin Apple Bars (I made these this weekend and they were really good, but more cake like).

Here are our seeds, all washed and ready to be seasoned.  I followed this recipe for Spiced Pumpkin Seeds.  I took the recommendations of some of the commenters, and doubled the spices.  They are very yummy!

Finished!