Anne Can Cook

Last week, some of my coworkers had a dessert and wine potluck. I had metric tons of pumpkin lying around, so I decided to dig out my old pumpkin spice scone recipe. Trouble was, I had misplaced my old recipe notebook from college.

Luckily, some mad Google skills reunited me with the site I had taken the recipe from in the first place. I hadn't even remembered it was Pinch My Salt, which is a thoroughly delightful blog that everyone should check out.

Anyway. The day was saved, the scones were made, and one of my coworkers described them as "like taking a bite out of fall."

My only recipe issues were with the Ginger Molasses icing. It's obviously from Pinch My Salt's pictures that the icing should have a frosting-like consistency.

It is obvious from my picture that I never got there.

Light icing is obviously one of my cooking weaknesses. I never mastered the cinnamon glaze, either.

Last weekend, when Andrew and I went to the orchard, I bought a pumpkin. Not a Jack-o-Lantern sized pumpkin. I bought a small, 4-5 pound little pumpkin.
And I must be crazy, because my intention was to cook it. Which is exactly what I did.

Anne Can Cook Presents: How to make your own pumpkin puree in 8 sort of easy steps.

Step One:
Halve the pumpkin
It doesn't have to be perfect.

Step Two: Scoop out the seeds.
I am suffering here from what Pioneer Woman would call Purple Alien Hand Syndrome. Anyway, I scooped the seeds out (for roasting!) with my hands. It is sort of like when you comb your hair with fingers, only much slimier.

Step Three: Scrape off the slimy stuff.
A good, old-fashioned spoon should do the trick. When you're done, you're left with this:
Step Four: Cut into manageable chunks.

May your knife be sharp and your muscles sturdy. This is where the "sort of" easy comes into play. Cutting up a pumpkin is intense work, particularly if you're a wuss with a knife of questionable durability (like me). I made it through, though, and so can you.

Step Five: Cut your manageable chunks into even smaller chunks.
Like this.
Yes, they have their skins still on in the pot. Trust me here.

Step Six: Boil that biz.

I boiled them for about an hour, and then dumped them in the colander.

Step Seven: Cut off the skin.
The pumpkin's tough skin comes off much easier once the flesh is soft. I used a butter knife to separate the skin from the flesh. How particular you want to be is up to you.

Step Eight: It's pureeing time!
Before.
After.
The pumpkin was really soft, so a few pulses with my hand blender more than did the trick. A food processor would be wonderful, or you can do things the old-fashioned way and use a potato masher. Whatever floats your boat.
Once everything is smooth, you can use the pumpkin right away or you can freeze it. I froze about 2/3 of and am reserving the rest in the fridge for a pumpkin curry later this week.

Ultimately, here is the deal with pumpkin: it is a real pain in the butt to prepare a pumpkin for pureeing. However, it does make a person feel immensely accomplished.

Sunday is always a strange day. It's the weekend, but I never feel like comitting to much because tomorrow is a work day. I generally end up watching the Bridezilla marathon and doing my laundry. Ho hum.
The leaves are starting to change here. I like Fall--it's not too hot, not too cold, it's aesthetically pleasing, and there is always a surplus of pumpkin...unless you're shopping at my local grocery store. Allow me to 'splain. No wait. Let me sum up:
Rachel Ray has this excellent pumpkin pasta recipe. I made said recipe last year with great success. Today I was thinking about pumpkins, and decided that pumpkin pasta would be excellent for supper. Here is the recipe:

1 lb. penne (I've never used penne for this recipe, nor have I ever used an entire pound of pasta. Last year I think I used wheat spaghetti, and this time I used about a half pound of fettuccine. It's really your call).
2 Tbsp. olive oil (EVOO if you're familiar with RR speak).
3 shallots, finely chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, grated (or 6-7 cloves of garlic, pressed if you're me).
2 c. chicken stock
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
1/2 c. cream
1 tsp. hot sauce to taste
Nutmeg to taste (I've always used mace)
2 pinches ground cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese to taste

Cook the pasta.

Heat oil over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic, saute for 3 minutes. Stir in chicken stock. Add pumpkin and cream. Season with hot sauce, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt & pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 5-6 minutes while the sauce thickens. Toss with pasta and cheese.

I also added about a teaspoon of garlic powder and a few heavy dashes of Penzeys pasta sprinkle. RR calls for fresh sage as a garnish, but the pasta sprinkle was a nice substitute.


Anyway. In order to make this recipe, I needed to pick up a few things-
Shallots
Pumpkin
Cream
Ok. Not too crazy of a shopping list, right? Maybe I'd have to use onions instead of shallot, but that's not a big deal.
I drove to the grocery store, on a Sunday at about 4:30 PM. I'm a genius. Of course the place was packed. Lucky for me, I found the shallots right away. Cream, no problem. Pumpkin?

Pumpkin?

Pumpkin?

No such luck. No pumpkin in the canned veggie aisle. No pumpkin in the canned fruit aisle. Pumpkin pie mix, sure. However, there was no pureed pumpkin to be found. I even asked one of the employees, who looked at me like I was crazy and told me it was probably in the canned veggie aisle. When I told him I did not see it there, he said, "Well, that's where it should be," and walked away.

A shining example of excellent customer service. Oh well.

I did eventually find pumpkin on my own in the organic food section. I rolled my eyes, checked out, drove home, and made delicious pasta. I have plenty for lunch tomorrow, too. Bonus!