Savory Rosemary Pumpkin Casserole

Remember in November when the stores were selling huge pumpkins for .99 just to get rid of them? Those carving pumpkins?  Well, those are edible.  And they taste good.  You can even forage them from your neighbors with permission after Halloween since they will be wanting to get rid of their decorations!  Just collect the uncut ones.  I grab a bunch and cube and freeze or can.  This past year, Kroger had 50 - 70 lb pumpkins.  That's a lot of vegetable for .99!  So I have a freezer shelf full of pumpkin.  I use the frozen raw cubes in stews like I would potatoes, and the canned cubes for pumpkin bread, cake or brownies.  I really wanted a side dish that uses the frozen cubed pumpkin that I could make occasionally without have to make a stew.  This is a great alternative!

Savory Rosemary Pumpkin Casserole

Ingredients:

1 quart bag of frozen cubed pumpkin (can use fresh)
1 onion chopped
2 T melted butter
garlic salt
pepper

3/4 c ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 c milk
3/4 c Parmesan cheese
1 t dried rosemary

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place pumpkin and onion in baking dish.  Pour butter over.  Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper.  Bake for 30 minutes. Drain after baking since pumpkin will release a lot of liquid.

In a separate bowl, mix ricotta, eggs, milk, Parmesan cheese and rosemary.  Spread over pumpkin mixture.  Bake for an additional 20 minutes or until golden.

Crockpot Dandelion Stew!

I think the first crop out of my garden is dandelions.  It has been warming up in middle Tennessee, and I have been planting spring vegetables and pulling the dandelions which are young, tender and perfect for a spring stew.  The roots can also be saved for tea or a coffee substitute.

I like using cubed pumpkin, but you can also use any squash or even potatoes.  When pumpkins go on sale in November for $1 each, I stock up and cube them for the freezer.  It makes soup and stews really easy.  Carving pumpkins are edible.  They often don't have as strong a flavor as baking pumpkins but for soups and stews, or actually any pumpkin recipe, it works out fine. One large pumpkin can produce a ton of pumpkin cubes!

Dandelion Stew

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of cubed meat (pork, beef or chicken -  I used cubed pork loin)
• 2 cups chopped dandelion greens
• 4 cups cubed pumpkin
• 1 cup diced peppers
• 1 cup of beans already soaked or canned
• handfuls of other chopped spring greens that are available (like chickweed, sorrel, dock, wild garlic chives and cress)
• seasoning of choice (I used Za'atar seasoning made with wild Staghorn Sumac)
• 3 pints of broth (I used a combination of duck broth and chicken broth)
• 1 box of favorite small pasta
• 1 block of cream cheese (optional for creamy variety)

Directions:

Clean and cut your vegetables.

Diced dandelion leaves

Other wild greens

Add all ingredients to crock pot except for cream cheese and pasta.  Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6.

Za'atar Seasoning with wild Staghorn Sumac

Duck broth, darker and richer than chicken broth

Stew beginning to cook

Half an hour before completion, warm cream cheese in the microwave until soft and add to crock pot. Mix. 

Cook pasta according to directions.  Drain and add to soup.

Best served hot topped with shredded cheese.


I got a "Thanks, that was great, mom!!" If my fourteen year old son likes it, then it is good!

Chocolate Pumpkin Bread!

Here is another great recipe to use your shredded carving pumpkins! It is amazing and moist!

Chocolate Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate (OR 2 tbsp of cocoa & 2 tbsp of butter)
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar

1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups grated pumpkin (if frozen, bring to room temp)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips (about half an average bag)

1-2 teaspoons white sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate until melted OR melt butter and stir in powdered chocolate. Stir until chocolate is smooth.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, oil, grated pumpkin, vanilla and chocolate; beat well. Stir in the

flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans.

Sprinkle sugar and chocolate chips on the top before baking (optional).

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

Shredding Pumpkin for Baking!

Here's something to do with your uncut leftover carving pumpkins. Did you know you can shred and freeze pumpkin? You can then bake with it like zucchini. Pumpkin Pineapple Bread recipe below!

Shredding pumpkin is easy.  Cut sections off of your pumpkin.  Slice into inch slices.  Slice off the gut side.  Cut into inch squares.   Slice off the skin side. 

Put into your food processor and when it is filled. process until it is all shredded. 

Fill your freezer bag and freeze!

Pumpkin Pineapple Bread 

Ingredients:

2 cups finely shredded pumpkin
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 8 oz can of crushed pineapple, drained
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

Mix wet ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients together. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until just combined.

Grease two loaf pans. Pour batter equally into each. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Test with a fork to be sure it is done. Fork should come out clean.

Super Easy Pumpkin Muffins

You know how people like to buy pumpkins before Halloween, save them through Thanksgiving to display and then throw away? Well in my neighborhood, the weekend after Thanksgiving you can collect numerous perfectly good pumpkins on the curb. My neighbors quite happily donate them to me. Then begins a week of nonstop cutting and canning of pumpkin just so I can use it in recipes such as this one! It has four ingredients and is super easy. You would never know these muffins have no oil or eggs in them. They are moist and rise like any other muffin.

Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

1 Classic Yellow Cake Mix

1 store can or 1 home canned quart of cubed pumpkin

1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie ground spice

Sugar to sprinkle

Directions:

If using home canned cubed pumpkin, drain and mash with a fork. Drain any additional juice.

Hand mix pumpkin pie spice and cake mix into the pumpkin.  It will be stiff at first and then loosen up. Batter will be a bit thicker than normal cake mix batter. 

Using two spoons to help with distribution, place batter evenly into a twelve muffin cup pan.  Sprinkle sugar lightly on top of muffins to form a sweet crust after baking.

Bake at 350 for 20 to 24 minutes.

Note: You can do this with a chocolate cake mix as well, minus the pie spice. It is wildly popular in my house!

How to Cube a Pumpkin for Canning or Freezing

One of the challenges to using pumpkin or hard squashes for me has been the difficult feat of removing the outer skin.  The common approach has been to bake it in the skin and peel or scrape it out.  This is not great for canning or freezing for stews because it makes the results far too mushy.  Here is a way that allows for beautifully firm pumpkin:

1. Cut your pumpkin in half and scrape out the stingy guts and seeds. It does not have to be perfectly cleaned out.

2. Cut the two pieces in half twice more resulting in manageable pieces.

Jarrahdale Pumpkin, one of my favorites.  It has an amazing flavor and lasts forever.

3. Slice into inch thick slices. Cut slices into inch size cubes.

4. Slice the gut side off and then slice the skin side off. If the cube is still too large for your purposes (like if you are freezing it for stews and want a bite size), then slice it in half again.

5. Drop it into water with lemon added until you are ready to freeze or can.  If your pumpkin is older and the flesh has lost some firmness, putting it in water will rehydrate it, often making it firmer. You can either freeze or can at this point. To freeze, drain and put in freezer bags and freeze.  I add it to stews I make in the crockpot.  To can, drain and fill a quart jar with pumpkin. Some people precook their pumpkin by boiling for two minutes at this point but I do not.  I have done it both ways and it makes very little difference.  Not boiling makes the pumpkin tend to float a little more but that does not bother me and it is not worth the hassle to prevent.  Add clean boiling water to jars.  Pressure can quarts for 90 minutes at 11 lbs and pints for 55 minutes at 11 lbs.  I use the canned pumpkin for pumpkin bread or pumpkin brownies which my kids love.

To make pumpkin brownies, use one box brownie mix and one quart of pumpkin.  Drain pumpkin and mash with a fork, drain again any extra liquid that mashing releases. Mix with brownie mix and bake according to box directions.  It makes fudge type brownies that are far healthier. My kids beg for me to make these.

I use all types of pumpkin to can and freeze, even the carving pumpkins from Halloween. They all work and are tasty in recipes.