Pumpkin Massacre

Halloween is over and I am happy because that means I can make pumpkin puree!

Our big pumpkin has been turned into about thirteen cups of puree. I know that everyone says to use the smaller pumpkins for puree because they are sweeter but I think the big ones taste fine in pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins (these are the only things I like pumpkin in).

To make the puree I took all of the guts out of the pumpkin and cut it into big pieces. I put the pieces onto cookie sheets with a little water in the bottoms into a 350 degree oven. I'm not sure how long I cooked them for because I was multi-tasking but they are done when you can poke a fork through the skin. Once out of the oven I just peeled the skin off (it should come off very easily) and put the pumpkin into the blender and pureed.

The puree is in the refrigerator right now but tomorrow I will freeze it in one cup increments. To freeze, I am going to pour one cup of puree into plastic containers. Once frozen I will pop out the puree and put some into a large freezer bags (ones that I know I will use in the near future) and the rest will get the Food Saver treatment so they will stay fresher for long term storage.