Freezing Pumpkin

Fall just wouldn't be right without a pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, pumpkin bread, fried pumpkin......I love pumpkin! We bought several pumpkins from an Amish patch last weekend. My mom and grandmother call these old hog pumpkins and say they make the best pies. I have never made any of the aforementioned recipes with anything but canned pumpkin bought from the store before but since I have started blogging, I'm, always looking for something new to try and blog about.

So here's my journey from pumpkin to freezer to pie!
Start with a large pumpkin. I'm sure any kind will work but I'm using the light orangish-yellow ones. Wash it well.


Cut in half crosswise and scrap out all the strings and seeds better known as "the guts" around here.


Lay the pumkpin shell up on a large cookie sheet/pan with sides because it will produce a lot of juice while it's baking. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour or until the shell starts to collapse when pushed on.


Remove from oven, invert on a strainer for an hour or so while cooling (thanks for that tip from Paul at Salt Creek Life) so your flesh will not have so much juice in it. Flip it over and the inside will be soft and juicy.


Scrape the inside of the pumpkin from the peel. I have found this very easy to do with a spatula to hold the peel and one of those pumpkin scrapers from the jack-o-lantern kits to scrape with. Larger pumpkins may have a bit stringier flesh. Just give it a quick mash with a potato masher after you have scraped it from the peel.


I got 10 cups of wonderful pumpkin from this medium-sized one.
Look at that beautiful color and my house smelled so good from just baking the pumpkin.


I used 4 cups of this to make pies and a put the rest in 2 cup amounts into freezer bags, let cool completely and placed in freezer.

I have 3 more larger pumpkins just like this one and plan to freeze them also. This is so easy to do and tomorrow......I'll share the pie I baked.......yum!!!!

Country Whispers Give Away!

If you are a cross-stitcher or know someone who is go on over to Jessica's blog, Country Whispers and enter her give away contest!

The Pumpkin Patch

I just love going to the pumpkin patch in the Fall and seeing all the spectacular colors! It was even more fun this year because Luke and I got to go with Jake's kindergarten class on their first field trip!

We went to Wurth Farms. We all loaded onto a wagon for a hayride and made our way to the pumpkin patch.



Along the way we saw
spiders

a graveyard

a mummy

and a VERY colorful Frankenstein cow!

and lots of other scary things!

The kids loved running amongst all those big orange jacks!

The boys actually found time to stop and get their pic made with me!

This is Jake and his best friend Luke.

My little one and the giant pumpkin.

I thought this wagon and cornstalk horse were amazing!

and how would you like to camp out in one of these?

We had a great time! Jake attends a private school and here's his kindergarten class with his teacher Miss Sara and her baby girl Madison.

and here's the whole gang (First grade, Kindergarten and a couple of tag alongs (Luke and his friend Gabe)!

Thanks for going on our pumpkin patch trip with us!!

Birdseed Cookies

Elle asked about a birdseed cookie recipe so I just had to look it up and try it! Luke and I decided to bake some and here are the results of this recipe...


Birdseed Cookies
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup bacon grease or lard (melted)
2 eggs
1/2 cup birdseed
water

Mix flour, sugar and baking soda in a large bowl. Add melted grease or lard and mix. Blend two whole eggs (shell and all) in blender and add to mix. Add 1/2 cup birdseed and mix well. My mix was a little dry so I added 1/4 to 1/2 cup water.


Cover this with a wet towel and refrigerate until chilled. When chilled, roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters and use a drinking straw to poke a hole in each cookie for hanging.


Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes.


Let cool and hang from twine or in our case...ribbon...I couldn't find my twine and we used our Christmas cutters. Here's our gingerbread men.


The titmice are in love with these and we even had a Carolina wren munching on some that we laid out on the deck banner.

Suet Cakes

Where does the time go? I am so sorry that I haven't blogged in the last few days. Between my oldest being on Fall break, a goat getting mastitis and having to bottle feed one of the kids, work, 200 miles of yards sales Friday (which my sister and I just had to partake in of course) and the tech guy spending one of the days trying to finish getting my computer set up, it's been awhile!

The weather has changed very quickly here and we are heading straight into Fall with cool night and the leaves starting to change. I wanted to share this suet recipe with everyone. I love feeding my birds and try to keep a variety of things out for them especially during the colder months when food is so hard to find.

This recipe is nice because it can be used year-round. I have kept it out on the hottest days of the summer and it only softens up a bit, has never melted into a mess and never sours. I tried a fruit one a while back (not thinking about the warmer temps) and had a stinky mess by the next morning so I will be saving that one for winter!

This recipe is under the This and That section of my cookbook and I have received several compliments on it. I don't remember if I got this from a magazine or if it's one I mixed and threw together. I won't take credit for inventing it but I will take credit for sharing it!

The nuthatches and titmice LOVE this as well as the woodpeckers and chickadees.
Suet Cakes
1 c. lard
1 1/2 c. crunchy peanut butter
1/3 c. sugar
2 c. quick cook oats
2 c. cornmeal
1 c. flour
1 c. mixed birdseed
1 c. cracked corn

Melt lard and peanut butter. Add sugar to the melted mix and stir well. Add oats, cornmeal, flour, birdseed and cracked corn. Mix well and pour into large cardboard orange juice cartons with the top cut off. Chill or freeze. Slice into blocks to fit into suet feeders. You can also stuff toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls for easy slicing to fit into the suet feeders with round 1-inch holes.