My Pumpkin

I grew pumpkins in my garden this year, and since I harvested them several weeks ago I've been slowly pulling them from their decorative locations and cooking them up.  Last Saturday I processed the largest one.  (It actually wasn't all that big, but anyway...)  I got Sarah to take some pictures of the whole process, starting with Mr. Pumpkin in all his pre-cooked glory:

This one was a Big Max pumpkin, designed for size instead of taste.  It's not as yummy as, say, an Early Sweet Sugar Pie, but it works.  First you cut the pumpkin in half with the biggest knife you can find, then you scoop the glop out of the middle.  Save the glop for later.

Put both halves of the pumpkin upside down on a cookie sheet (I had to squish these together a little) and add some water.  Bake at 350 for an hour to an hour and a half, or until they're soft (I usually fork or knife test them).

Meanwhile, take aforementioned glop and begin to separate out the pumpkin seeds.

The glop is in the yellow colander; I'm putting the seeds in the bowl and the rest of the glop in the pile.  The seeds will be kind of sloppy.

When you're finished separating, put the seeds back in the colander and rinse thoroughly.  Then set them out to dry; I put mine on paper towels spread on a cookie sheet.  Be careful--sometimes the seeds stick to the paper towels when dry.  You don't have to dry them completely before roasting, though I think it would have helped this batch if I had.  

Pull pumpkins out of the oven.  They'll probably collapse on themselves, and you'll have a lot of juice in the pan.  I flip mine over like this so they can cool faster.  When cooled, I scoop out the meat of the pumpkin into my trusty colander (lets it drain somewhat) and then puree it in the blender.  You can use it immediately, refrigerate it, or freeze.  I guess if you're the canning sort you could can it, too.

Back to the pumpkin seeds...when fairly dry, spread them on a cookie sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic, or whatever suits your fancy.  Roast at 400 degrees until browned and crispy.  Set timer to prevent burning.  :)  I had a little trouble with this batch; they got brown on the outside before they were totally dry on the inside, so I ended up re-seasoning them and putting them back in at 250 on a high rack for 10 minutes.  If I had to do it again I'd either set the temperature lower from the outset or dry the seeds more thoroughly before starting.

  They were gone very fast.

So...from that whole pumpkin I got about 8 cups of pureed pumpkin (I use it instead of the canned stuff from the store, even though the consistency is a little more runny) and 2 cups of pumpkin seeds.  Not a huge output (though the pie pumpkins do seem to have more meat), but it's really great fun to process and eat something you grew.  Do any of you have any outstanding pumpkin or pumpkin seed recipes that you use?

Thanks to Sarah for the pictures!