Thursday Thirteen #2 - Ways to Use Pumpkin

In honour of fall, halloween, Thanksgiving and general pumpkin season here are a few ideas on how to use this ubiquitous fall vegetable.

1. Obviously, carve it into fantastic shapes, such as tiger faces. (See www.pumpkingutter.com)
2. Pumpkin-Ginger Cloud - a layer of gingersnap crust, a layer of chocolate, a layer of pumpkin mousse and a layer of whipped cream. Deeeelicious!
3. Pumpkin Chicken Stew - use cubes of pumpkin instead of potatoes in the stew and add a whole new dimension of taste.
4. Savory Pumpkin Dip - mix cooked pumpkin with cream cheese, sauteed onions, salt, pepper and any herbs or spices you might like. Serve with crackers or bread.
5. Roasted pumpkin seeds, lightly salted.
6. Anger management or stress relief. Lift pumpkin high over your head and smash into the ground or sidewalk as hard as you possibly can. Stomp on the remains (possibly imagining them as the brains of your boss, or?...) until the anger has drained out of you.
7. Fill ten 2 litre bottles with water and set them up in a triangle, then use a pumpkin as a backyard bowling ball.
8. Draw or carve a face on the pumpkin and use it as the head for a scarecrow.
9. Did you know you can eat pumpkin leaves? Go to a local pumpkin patch and ask if you can have some - use them in a stew, or in any recipe you would use spinach in.
10. Cut a smallish pumpkin (perhaps a longer, narrower squash would work better for this) in half. Tape a triangular piece of paper or cloth to a skewer and stick it into the flesh of the pumpkin as a sail. Float it as a sailboat in your bathtub, or in a pond or river near you.
11. Cook the traditional pumpkin-marshmallow stuff in a scooped out pumpkin and use the shell as a decorative serving dish.
12. Scoop out the seeds and as much of the meat as possible, bend a wire coat hangar into a handle shape, stick into opposite sides of the pumpkin near the top, and carry it as a costume purse for halloween.
13.vqqqqqqqgggtf bbbbbbbbbbb bghgr hyhh (That's my daughter's way of saying 'Come up with your own - you are only limited by your imagination!')