Pumpkins are for more than Halloween
Photo by kconnors on MorgueFile
For the first time in my life, I bought a pumpkin to eat instead of to carve a Jack-O-Lantern. It was an interesting experience, because I didn’t even know how to break down the pumpkin to cook it for my recipe.
- Aaron and I decided we both wanted to make pumpkin soup, so I started out searching the Internet for a good recipe. I found a simple recipe on FoodNetwork.com courtesy FamilyFun Magazine (PDF).
- Next, I cut off the top of the pumpkin and scooped out the innards, a familiar process. I saved the seeds for roasting, and then I cut the pumpkin into four equal sections.
- I roasted it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
- I let the pumpkin cool off, and then I peeled off the skin so I was left with all the flesh, which I chopped into equal pieces. At this point, I was surprised the color was yellowish instead of deep orange. It’s weird that canned pumpkin from the store is orange–Is that food dye?
- After that, I used a hand-immersion blender to puree the pumpkin, and I followed the rest of the recipe as written.
One regular-sized pumpkin made an enormous amount of soup, and it’s delicious. I definitely recommend eating pumpkins instead of just carving them up and putting a candle in them.
Anxiety about harvest time
Turkey chick
Sometime this week, Aaron will probably harvest our two turkeys. I hesitated to get turkeys because I was worried about killing time. Now it’s almost here, and I’m feeling uncomfortable. Processing turkeys is a multi-step process that includes bleeding them out, plucking their feathers, and removing their innards. As you can see from the video below, it’s pretty terrible. I hate the idea of the waste being around my home. I’ve decided not to be present when it’s time. Also, I look at the turkeys we’ve raised since the beginning of summer, and it just seems weird that I’ll be eating them for Thanksgiving. I know they’ll be delicious, but still.