Adam and I could hardly believe our eyes when we walked into Wal-Mart and saw the sign advertising giant pumpkins for one cent each. I really wanted them for the seeds (roasted pumpkin seeds make an incredible snack), but the thought of letting all that good pumpkin meat go to waste was unthinkable.
Jack O' Lantern pumpkins are not really recommended for cooking, but if you add 25% more sugar, it does the job well enough. I made pumpkin bread the other day with a Jack O' Lantern pumpkin (back when they were worth one hundred pennies!). To be honest, it tasted more like zucchini bread, lacking that deep pumpkin-y flavor, but it was delicious nonetheless!
So, on to the kitchen to make some very cheap pumpkin puree!
As I got ready to steam the pumpkin, I ran into a little problem: I do not own a steam basket. Nor do I intend to spend more money for more stuff that I don't have room for. No matter, teh internetz told me to put little foil balls in the bottom of the pot in lieu of a steam basket. Problem number two: there was no foil in the house! So, I rummaged around the kitchen and the recycling bin, and came up with this:
Works for me! Then I cut the pumpkin up into large chunks, set it on top of my "steam basket", and let 'er boil for about thirty minutes, till it was easily pierceable by a fork.
Then, the skin came off, it jumped in the blender, and....
Pumpkin puree that gets a thumbs-up from me! I made about eight cup's worth, plus the puree that went into the pumpkin bread.
And that was from one pumpkin, too!
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