Today Class - P is for Pumpkin!

Most days I feel like a bumbling fool without the knowledge or ability to really teach or contribute to society. I'm not dumb by any means and I've learned a thing or two from my time on this earth, but c'mon...people aren't knocking down my door to pick my brain to reveal the vast amount of wisdom and knowledge buried deep within. However, every so often I come across a chance moment in which I know something that someone in my circle is not aware of and I jump on the opportunity to teach and explain all that I know.


Two mornings ago, hours before the roosters were rubbing the sleep from their eyes, I picked up a co-worker on the way to work. While I sat in my car waiting for her to finish packing up her stuff inside her house, I noticed that she had a fair number of leftover Halloween pumpkins sitting in her yard. A couple hours into the shift I asked if she was planning on doing anything with her pumpkins. She sighed heavily and explained that she just didn't have the time to even carve them this year since she's been so busy with work and renovations on the house, so they were just going to get composted. I asked if it would be alright for me to grab a couple of them (because I LOVE roasted pumpkin seeds and hated the idea of them going waste), which she easily permitted.

Then I said that if she wants, she can give me some old empty yogurt/butter/ice cream containers and I will bake the flesh for her and she can have it to do with as she wishes. I had so much left over from my own pumpkins that my freezer couldn't take on any more, but I didn't want it to go to waste so I would do that for her if she wanted. I also know that she is a fantastic cook and baker so she might want the pumpkin for future kitchen endeavors. She gave me this strange look and asked what I meant. I repeated the offer. Then she asked, "So you bake the pumpkin? In the oven?"

Me - "Yeah, then you can bake or cook with it."
Her - "Like can you make pumpkin pie with it?"
Me - "Yes, exactly, Or loaves, muffins, soups...anything you want."
Her - "So it's like the stuff in the cans at the store?"

Where do people think that canned pumpkin comes from? The label clearly indicates the one and only ingredient in the can - "Pumpkin."

At this point my mind was slightly blown that this woman, in all of her life, never baked the flesh of an old Jack O Lantern to use for her future baking needs. And then I thought, "Is it common for people to not do this?"

Throughout my years I have learned that it is slightly uncommon for people to bake their pumpkins and use it to cook with, but now I have learned that is it way more uncommon than I realized. In my family, every single November we would bake our pumpkins, scoop out the flesh and freeze it where it would be an important ingredient in future pumpkin loaves, muffins and other delicious baked goods. It's a super easy process and will save you lots of money on that canned pumpkin you buy in the stores.

So this morning I went and swiped 3 of the abandoned pumpkins from my co-worker's driveway and recorded the process for your learning needs. Here is the easy step-by-step process to baking your old Halloween pumpkin to create your very own stock of healthy and homemade pumpkin puree.

Step 1: Take an old Jack O Lantern.
Please make sure that it is not moldy. Ewwwww. 

Or as I did today, take a pumpkin and scoop out the guts.

Do not forget to keep the guts! Those seeds are priceless!

Step 2: Cut the pumpkin in half and place face down on a baking sheet. 

Step 3: Bake at 375 degrees F for 45-90 minutes, depending on the thickness of the flesh.
The skin will get dark and wrinkly.

Step 4: When the pumpkin cools a little, peel off the skin.
It will naturally pull away from the flesh so this is an easy task to accomplish.

Step 5: Put all of the pumpkin into a large bowl and puree
it with a hand blender.

Ahhhhhhhh. Nice and smooth.

At this point you can now freeze the pumpkin in empty yogurt containers, or whatever empty plastic tubs you have laying around the basement that you have been waiting to have a chance to reuse. I recommend freezing them in 1-2 cups portions since recipes generally ask for these amounts of pumpkin puree.

But because I am me, I am not done yet because I just did all of this for the seeds! 

Step 6: Toss the raw seeds in some oil and sprinkle generously with sea salt. 

Spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet and roast until brown and crispy. 

Stir them several times in the process to make sure that they roast evenly. 

Step 7: Be a good person and bake your co-worker a pumpkin loaf as a thank 

you for allowing you to take her pumpkins for your own personal use.

Now after all of this, I just know you're thinking that this is way too long of a process and no normal person has enough time to do such a thing. It's really not all that time consuming at all if you are even slightly talented at time management. If you're going to be home doing other chores or in and out doing errands, it's easy to swoop in and out of the kitchen to do these tasks at cooking, cooling and pureeing intervals. 

Or you can just toss your pumpkin off of a roof-top and watch is smash into smithereens onto the street below. Your call. 

Just A Hop, Jump and Skip to Fitness!

No I did not carve this but I wanted to put up
a picture of an AMAZING pumpkin carving. 

For as long as I can remember, I have loved carving pumpkins. When I was a kid and living at home, the number of pumpkins that mom grew had a direct relationship on my happiness. The more pumpkins that were produced meant increased levels of happiness on my part. So every Halloween I look forward to my annual pumpkin carving with great anticipation. However, the one thing that I am always missing is a good pumpkin carving knife. I have always wanted a nice carving kit but have been unable to find one that suits my needs. And by this I mean a knife that doesn’t bend or break in half the minute I try to saw open a pumpkin.

So I went out of my way to go to every kitchen and specialty store that I could find in an attempt to search for a carving knife or kit that would satisfy me. But I couldn’t find one! So I ventured online in my search and ended up choosing Pro Pumpkin Carving Tool from Zombie Pumpkins. As soon as it came in the mail I had to take it for a for a spin, so yesterday I went out, bought a pumpkin and busted open my newest carving toy.

And here is my creation!

I took multiple pictures of it lit up but they all turned out blurry! No matter what setting I tried it always came out blurry, so I gave up.

SEE! Very frustrating.

It was my first attempt at trying to do a carving of not cutting all the way through to get the “shaded” effect. And it worked alright. It’s not as clean as I would like but I need some kind of pumpkin chisel to get the smoothness that I crave. 

Mental note, find a chisel.

The knife worked fairly decently. It’s sharp and sturdy and easy to use. Plus the blades are a tiny bit bendy which helps when making a curve in the cut. In a couple weeks I am going to try to do a more intricate carving so we’ll see how the knife stands up to the real test.

On another note, I think that I have started a new fitness trend at the gym! Jump rope! Wait… that didn’t sound right. I’m not saying that I introduced the gym to jump rope because that would be a blatant lie and I can’t even begin to take the glory for the creation of jumping rope. But in the 8ish months that I have been attending my gym I have never seen another person jump rope. In the past month I have become slightly obsessed with ending my workouts with at least 10-20 minutes of skipping (and my ass and calves are thanking me for it). And now for the past 3 days I have seen other women skipping! Maybe I have inspired these people to pull out their jump ropes from the dark corners of their closets, wipe off the dust and go back to a youthful form of exercise that has been forgotten by most people.

Or maybe I have a big ego and imagination and I want to take the credit for this jump rope awakening.

But now that I am on the subject, I highly recommend mixing up your fitness routine and busting out your old jump rope for a nice little cardio session. Skipping is an inexpensive form of exercise which tones muscles, increases your cardiovascular health and burns just as many calories, actually probably quite a few more, than some cardio machine.  When I first started skipping I struggled to get through 10 minutes of non-stop jumping. Now I am up to a solid 20 minutes of fairly skilled skipping and I am always looking for new moves and going faster each time.

Remember doing the Jump Rope for Heart in elementary school? Remember how awesome that was?

While looking for some new moves to spruce up my skipping routine, today I found this video and was impressed with myself to learn that I already am doing a majority of the moves. Scissors, high knees, side to side, forward and back, running on the spot, double hops, butt kicks, one foot hops and two at a time are on my “DONE” list. However, the criss-cross, heel to toe, short sprints and one foot side to side on my “TO DO” list. But the heel jumps and up & over look brutal and frighten me! Maybe in time I will attempt these moves without fear of getting tangled in the rope and falling on my butt and/or face. Wouldn’t that be a pretty picture? Ouch.