pumpkin day! special pumpkin bisque recipe!

Tera Lea and I had been talking about buying a pumpkin for a while and baking it together and using all of it for cooking and baking.

We went to the store and picked out the perfect size pumpkin then took it home and cut it in half. We saved the seeds to roast them which is on of by favorite snacks now. They are crunchy and really tasty.

We cut the pumpkin into fourths roasted two in the oven and boiled two. Personally I like the roasted pumpkin better, it has more of a richer flavor opposed to boiled pumpkin which has been soaking in water, to me the flavor seems slightly diluted.

I never had plain straight up pumpkin but to me it tasted just like butternut squash.

Tera Lea and I made pumpkin puree just by blending it in the food processor, we also used the food processor to make the pumpkin bisque. Here is the recipe:

2 cups of pumpkin
1/4 cup cream
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1/4 chicken broth ( you can use less)
Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender then heat on stove till warm.

The bisque is really delicious to me it almost tastes like a cheese soup, its really rich and absolutely decadent. If pumpkin is not in season you can buy it in a can just make sure that you get canned pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie stuff. You would want pure pumpkin.

 We also made pumpkin bread, neither of us had a recipe for it so what we did was we went to www.foodnetwork.com then searched for a recipe. We found one by Alton Brown that we used. I loved the way it turned out because the outside was crusty but the inside was light and delicious. I really like to use the food network website when I am in doubt because people rate the recipes according to skill so if you want something easy or difficult you can find it.

Lastly here is my recipe for pumpkin seeds

2 cups of pumpkin seeds
dash of salt
dash of pepper
spritz of cooking spray.

Bake at 450 till golden brown.Make sure that you check on them pretty frequently and stir them so that they end up golden brown on both sides. I use an 8x8 pan instead of a baking sheet cause its easier to stir. Also make sure that the seeds are as dry as you can get them before you bake them otherwise they stick to the pan.

Pumpkins should be in season for a few more weeks. I definitely recommend buying one and roasting it or boiling it. I roast mine at 350 till the pumpkin is soft.  Then I let it cool and take off the skin. To boil to put it in a pot of water let it sit till its soft.  We had tons of left overs, and just pureed them and froze them use can substitute it in recipes for oil just like apple sauce.