How to Cut a Pumpkin...or How to Cook with your Halloween and Thanksgiving Decorations

I can always justify spending $20-$30 on pumpkins at the beginning of October by using them in October, November, and then eating them in December.

This year I bought three smaller pumpkins and painted BOO (a Pintrest idea) and a larger pumpkin for my planter at the beginning of October.

Then, on November 1st, I turned the letters around and stacked them like a pyramid for Thanksgiving Decorations.

Today, I'm ready to decorate for Christmas and say goodbye to the pumpkins...but not really.  Now, I'll be eating them over the next two months.  But, the big challenge is not finding the best recipes, but rather, how to cut the pumpkin for cooking.  I already published a blog with recipes:
http://thesuburbanchallenge.blogspot.com/search?q=pumpkin

Now, I enlisted my 3 year-old photographer Camilla to help me demonstrate cutting a pumpkin.  Warning - PHOTOS MAY BE A LITTLE BLURRY!

1. Cut off the top and bottom with a large chef's knife.

2. Then, carve off the sides with the same knife.

3. Then Cut the pumpkin in half.  Using a high tech cook's tool - an ice cream scoop - remove the seeds.

4. Slice the pumpkin longways into wedges like you would see a cantaloupe.  Then cube the slices for storage.





5.  Done.  Measure off for your recipes.  Steam or roast if you need to puree it.

The Creamy Pumpkin Soup recipe calls for 2 pounds of chopped pumpkin.  One of the letter 'O's was exactly 2 pounds:

 I doubled the recipe and cut up both 'O's: Dinner for tonight and two batches packaged up for later.  I like to scatter it out and thaw one in December and one in January so it doesn't feel like we ate Pumpkin Soup for two weeks straight. 



So, unless Steve reads this blog (which is highly unlikely) he will never know that tonight's fancy dinner came from decorations he has seen for the past two months! (The roasted Acorn Squash came from my center piece in the front room.)