Preserving Pumpkin

Just. Do. It.  Go to your local farmer (in my case, Barronnet Bob's) and load up on pie pumpkins.   As I wrote in my last blog, PUMPKIN is super healthy for you (your heart, your waistline and EVEN your SKIN).   

Why go to the extra effort of preserving pumpkin? 

• Healthier (no preservatives)
• Local product (not shipped from CA like your typical can of pumpkin)
• Cans are lined with BPA (yes, the BPA linked to cancer)
• Tastes better
• Saves money

How to preserve pumpkin:


To preserve pumpkin, you can either cook it and pressure can it, or you can cook it and freeze it.  This year, I'm choosing to can pumpkin mainly because I love displaying my glass containers and I'm trying to limit my use of plastic.

Step One:

Cut the pie pumpkins in half and scoop out the seeds.

Cutting the pumpkin - be careful - I added another scar this weekend

Step Two:

Place the pumpkin upside down into about an inch of water and cook until soft (hour to an hour and a half).

Cooking pumpkins

Step Three:

Peel the skin away and preserve by freezing in a ziplock bag or pressure canning (90 minutes at a 10 pound weight).   Here's where I learned everything about canning pumpkin:  the complete guide to canning pumpkin

Here's just 6 of the 14 jars - on my Grandma's platter - my Grandma's ghost peeking up

I bought 4 pie pumpkins from our local farmer (Baronnett Bob) and ended up with 14 quarts of pumpkin.  I'm set now until next the next pumpkin season - YAHOO!!  So, please:  just. do. it. :) 


THE WEEKEND

We had a FABULOUS time at the Badger / Gopher game and the Badgers won big time (always a plus).  I'd say the band almost trumped the game - amazing.  Now I'm dreaming that one of my kids will choose UW-Madison.  I love Madison and the campus - incredible.  My brother will be graduating with his Ph.D. from UW-Madison December 15th.  I'm so proud of him!

Me, Graham and my brother at the Badger game - my dad was there too :)

And, we also cleared part of our property for our new garden and new sauna.  Our garden was located at our neighbors (they weren't using it) but they moved so we're preparing for the Spring garden.  Oh, how I miss our garden of 2012). 

My goal is to share quite a few healthy pumpkin recipes.  If all goes well, I'll share my HEALTHY pumpkin risotto on tomorrow's blog.

What's your favorite pumpkin recipe?  What did you do this weekend?

Thanks for reading!  I'm so grateful to my faithful readers ;) 

Zucchini Recipes - The Best Yet!!

We had a hard freeze in the Northwoods this week, so I went to my garden to start prepping it for winter and I found a few zucchini's that had been hiding beneath their massive leaves, so I got busy with some more zucchini recipes.  Three of these recipes are the best to date, and I had one epic failure (happens, right?).

This morning I went on a great rainy 6 or 7 mile run with my friend Patrice and Carolyn.  Afterwards we saunaed (heaven) and then she shared 2 quarts of goats milk from her goat Myrtle.   Since it was cold, and I had zucchini, carrots and potatoes to use up, I decided to make Zucchini, Potato, Corn Chowder.  Even my kids LOVED it!

Myrtle's Zucchini, Potato Corn Chowder

Zucchini, Corn, Potato Chowder

2 tbsp. butter
1 cup of zucchini
3 potatoes cubed
1 onion
1 cup of carrots
2 cups of corn
4 cups of vegetable broth
1 cup of whole milk (I used Myrtles goat milk)
Salt, pepper and parsley

Saute zucchini, onion,  and carrots for 5 minutes.  Add broth and potatoes.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.  Add corn and milk - done when the corn is warm.  Delish!!

The kids and I went to barn dance and party at the McKinney's in Cable last night.  The kids enjoyed the zip line, gunny sack races, and dancing in the barn.   I have some great video of Gus and Greta shaking their booty without a care in the world and here's a video of Greta on the zip line.

For the barn potluck I made Pumpkin Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Brownies.  The brownies were gone almost instantly from the potluck, and they were the moistest, most delicious brownies on the planet.  I can't wait to make them again.  In fact, I might enter them into the Cable Fall Fest Bake-Off.

Here's both recipes: 

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Brownies

I used up some pumpkin from last year (more on pie pumpkins in a later blog) and for the brownies I used my Grandma Lundberg's brownie frosting recipe.  I do not like brownies unless they have good frosting, so I had to use my Grandma's recipe.   

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread and Yummy Zucchini Brownies Photgraphed in my Grandma's Dishes

Well, I had three great recipes and one failure.  I found a crock pot recipe for vegetable strata calling for all of the veggies I needed to use up.  Too bad it made the vegetables mushy and grey...yuck.   I like my vegetables with a little crunch and color.  At least the tomato slice and bread were good!

Grey Mush

 

Gus insists that I include a video of him walking into a hay trap.  He's such a good actor....lol.

Thanks to the McKinney's for making our weekend grand.  When I tucked Gus in last night he said, "this was the best night of my life....well, next to the Packer game."

Happy Cooking,

Kristin