😌🎃
It has begun. Pumpkin cooking season has started! And I am DETERMINED to get more in my freezer than I did last year. Buying canned pumpkin is fine. The muffins turn out taller and prettier. But goodness, it is SO expensive, and more painful now that I know how much it actually costs to process a pumpkin.
Yesterday, I cooked up my first pumpkin of the season. It went a bit different from last year. Not in a huge way, but my oven is different! Its not as deep! So if I want to put two pans in, side my side, they need to be little pans. I don’t love this about my oven, but the convection works great so I haven’t really taken issue with it, but that’s irrelevant when your pumpkin is massive. So, I used the little pans, and things just spilled over a little.
I ended up cooking two pumpkins that day, and I removed one of the racks so it wasn’t such a tight squeeze.
It cooked forever because it was just huge, and once it had cooled completely, I scooped out its guts and pureed them in my ninja. This was my first pumpkin!
Two pumpkins later, I had 27 CUPS of pumpkin puree!!! This whole haul cost a whopping $8.
Isn’t that BONKERS?! A can of pumpkin from the grocery store shelves is roughly 3 cups, and cost $6.50.
I’m so grateful that canned pumpkin exists but I will ALWAYS jump at mine first.
Once all the kids were down, I washed up ALL the pumpkin stuff in preparation for day two of pumpkinning.
It is absolutely worth the work. There is no question.
And it smells fabulous.