Pumpkins Galore!

Who says that pumpkins are just for Halloween time? These past few weeks, I've gone on a bit of a pumpkin-spree with my cooking and baking endeavors!

My former sorority sister, Meghan, has a food blog and recently published a recipe for pumpkin scones - of course I had to try them out - and they were fabulous. They contained heavy cream, pumpkin puree and a touch of nutmeg & pumpkin pie spice. The glaze was made of confectioner's sugar, milk and pumpkin pie spice. Yum!!!




With some of the leftover pumpkin puree, I tried out a recipe for Pumpkin & Black Bean Soup. I was expecting the soup to have a very sweet & strong flavor from the pumpkin, but it actually turned out that it took most of its flavors from the savory & hearty black beans. I combined the soup with a scoop of brown rice, a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of shredded cheese. So good! And, it made such a large batch that I was able to freeze quite a few servings.



Next, I made a batch of Pumpkin Bread. This was a bit of a "cheat" because I used a mix from Trader's Joes - but, whatever, the mix is so good, why bother making it from scratch? For this particular morning, I topped the bread with a spread of pumpkin butter and, on the side, had a large cup of coffee with hazelnut cream.

One evening for dinner, I decided it was time to put to use the decorative pumpkin gourd that I'd received from Aunt MaryKay. (Don't worry, this was an edible gourd - function and design, can you get any better?) I roasted the pumpkin in the oven and then filled it with leftover Thanksgiving stuffing. On the side, I served brussels sprouts. For this dish, I tried out one of the Chopping Block's recipes - the brussels sprouts were glazed with a coating of dijon mustard, spicy maple syrup and chicken stock, and of course, included some onions & bacon. What a great dinner!

Finally, with the leftover seeds from my pumpkin gourd - I made a tasty snack of toasted, salted pumpkin seeds. They were so great. Otis tried a few, too - and he approved!