Perfect Pumpkin

My friend Larry invited me out to his backyard to see his amazing vertical gardens. I was in awe. His picnic table displayed a bumper crop of huge neck pumpkins, and I was waxing fondly on the fruit of his labor, when he picked out the what seemed to me to be the largest one and handed it to me...I hardly knew what to say, I should have told him thanks, but to pick me out a smaller one instead, not the prized winner which he should have planned to enter into the the annual farm show competition. I just uttered stunned gratefulness, and carried it out to my car, in my arms like a baby.

I am no stranger to neck pumkin, or to even using mere jack-o-lantern pumpkins for food, but this thing deserved some VIP treatment. It took me a while to figure out just how to do it, but in doing so, I have created a recipe for pie filling which cannot be beat!

I peeled it, scraped out the guts (reserving the seeds for roasting) and chunked it and piled it high into my crock pot one afternoon...adding NO water. I brought it quickly up to temp on the high setting, for about and hour, maybe two, then tuned it low and cooked it overnight. OH key to the story: Later in the evening,as it cooked down a bit, I added Frontier brand pumpkin pie spice blend,tossed it about and popped the lid back on for the overnighter. In the morning it cooked down. It was a wonderful consistency, not watered down like before when I would steam it. The spiced went from the bitter way they come out of the jar, to the wonderful fall aroma. I stirred it and mashed it with a potatoe masher while it was still hot, then I returned the lid, after another hour on low, or keep warm setting, I turned it off, and allowed it to cool all afternoon while the spices continued to permeate the whole batch. Then when cooled, I ran it through the food mill and packed most of it for pies and baking later. I am now perfectly spoiled, and think pumpkin from a can is scary! (nt that I will not use solid pack punkin form a can, but this home made is by far the best!

The pot I had placed under my food mill was getting full, so I stopped while some was not yet milled, perhaps the more fibrous bits....I scraped those into the food processor, added some non-dairy cream cheese, and some sweetener (date or coconut sugar would have been best, I used molasses because that was what I had...and set that blend aside for making a pumpkin cheesecake. Her laziness dumped gluten-free rolled oats, butter, and a little more molasses into the food processor bowl to make a graham cracker crumb-like crust...dropped it into the pan and spread an flattened it, then added the creamy filling...it came out of the spring-form pan like and champ, and I served it for dessert. Mmmm....

Thanks Larry! Your prize-winning pumpkin was not wasted on this family! We will have pies and cookies and all sorts of goodies from it.

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Harvest!