Pumpkin-y questions

Okay, so a couple of you are curious about my intentions with my pumpkin haul from last week (14 pumpkins for free!)

SandyAZ wants to know, "how much canned pumpkin will you get from all those free pumpkins?"

And Delores, gifted with 4 pumpkins over the Thanksgiving holiday, "it's just my husband and I. I don't know what to do with these pumpkins. Besides pie and muffins, do you have any recipes?"

So, for Sandy, this is 5 of the pumpkins cooking down in my largest stock pot. I've been reducing the pumpkins down to about 2  1/2 cups of puree per pumpkin, on average. So, with my 14 recently acquired pumpkins, I should have about 16 pints of pumpkin puree. Of course, I'm using much of it in cooking this week.

The pumpkins looked to be going soft, so last weekend, I cooked 7 of them, and this weekend, 5. I have 2 of the free pumpkins left, and 3 other pumpkins that I grew in my garden. I am hoping to get them all cooked by the end of next weekend.

Sandy also asked if I can or freeze my pumpkin. I freeze it. But I'd be interested in knowing of other's experience pressure canning pumpkin. Canning would save freezer space. I've just never canned anything that wasn't either high in sugar or vinegar, and am a bit nervous about canning.


For Delores, depending on the size of the pumpkins, you may go through the 4 quickly enough. Cook and can or freeze the puree. Then use the pumpkin over the month's of winter. I find pumpkin to be fairly versatile. It's flavor is mild enough that it can be added to many of my regular dishes.

This weekend, I made a batch of pumpkin soup, some pumpkin muffins (my favorite recipe is from the inside of a Libby's label on canned pumpkin) and added some pumpkin to a chili-mac casserole on Friday, and some to refried beans for Saturday night's burritos.

I frequently add 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree to casseroles and other dishes. The flavor, in small quantities, doesn't seem to compete with other recipe ingredients.

I made a successful pumpkin soup last winter, from Live and Learn's blog. It had peanut butter and curry in it. Live and Learn, if you're reading today, could you give us a link to that recipe?

I make a delicious pumpkin, sage, Italian sausage and cream pasta sauce. I'll be making this later this week, when I have time to make some homemade fettuccine.

Pumpkin oatmeal is a nice change from other oatmeal flavors. Just add some pumpkin (about 1 to 2 tablespoons per serving), cinnamon, nutmeg and sweeten with maple syrup, or add maple extract.

I've been wanting to make pumpkin butter. Does anyone have experience with making pumpkin butter?

I've also thought that I could blend some of this pumpkin with homemade applesauce, for a pumpkin-spice applesauce. I'll try it and let you know if we like it.


What else? Do you have any favorite pumpkin recipes that you could add to this list?

November grocery money journal

If you follow grocery store sales, you will have noticed that autumn is the best season for stocking the fridge, freezer and pantry. November, in particular, stands out as the month with the most sales on a wide variety of basic groceries, from baking supplies, to canned veggies and autumn long-keeping fresh vegetables, and to turkey and cheese. I buy more groceries during this month, than any other month of the year, more groceries than we can consume in a month.

While November has some of the best deals, just around the corner January, February and early March will have some of the fewest great deals on groceries. I use this info to my advantage, and really stock-up now, enough to carry us through the leaner months to come.


I'm a bit nervous about this month. I do have a bit of a surplus entering the month, plus the usual $170. I will hopefully find great deals on turkey, ham, cheese, butter, potatoes, celery, yams, and canned vegetables. I have a surplus of $64.05 to add to this month's budget of $170, for a total of $234.05 to spend this month on groceries.


Nov.1 Dollar Tree for soy milk (1 qt.) and peanut butter (10 small jars). Spent $11

Country Farms produce stand for the last bit of clearance. Squash, pumpkins, oranges, limes, grapefruit, avocado and apples. Spent $22.76

Safeway to use coupons. Milk (1.89/gal, bought 2), cheese (2-lb block for 3.99), spent $7.77 for a total month to date of $41.53

Nov. 6 Walgreen's has eggs for 99 cents/dozen. I pick up 7 dozen eggs. The sell-by date is in mid-December, about how long this amount of eggs will last for us. spent $6.93, for a total $48.46

Nov. 8 Dollar Tree, need soy milk, spent $1, for a total of $49.46

Nov. 11 Fred Meyer, 1/2 gallons of milk for 99 cents, limit 4. also find autumn mix candy for 32 cents. I buy 1 bag to add to the Thanksgiving dessert buffet. spent $4.28, for a total of $53.74

Nov. 15 Albertson's to buy turkeys. the deal is spend $35, then buy one turkey for 99 cents/lb and get another turkey free. I buy shortening for pies ($5.79/3 lbs), marked down quarts of half and half creamer (50 cents each, I buy 2, I'll freeze most of this), milk for $2.19/gal (limit 2 w/coupon), 8 oz cream cheese ( 88 cents, limit 6), and two 22-lb turkeys. I spent $40.83, for a total of $94.57.

Nov. 20 Albertson's again. I wasn't planning on buying anything but the potatoes on sale, then thought to spend another $35, and buy one turkey, get another free. So, I find 8 packages of our favorite brand of breakfast sausage on markdown for $1.99 each, regularly $3.99, a family pack of ground beef for $1.99/lb, Italian sausage marked down for $2.99/19 ounces (I buy 2 packs, will divide and freeze when I get home), and two 2-lb packages of powdered sugar, celery (89cents/lb), yams (99 cents/lb) and 1 10-lb bag of potatoes (97 cents, limit 1 per transaction), plus my 2 turkeys. Spent $53.73, for a total of $148.30 for the month so far.

Nov. 21 Albertson's, this time with my coffee and butter coupons. I buy 2 cans of coffee (34 oz, $5.99 ea), 2 pounds of butter (1.99, limit 2 w/ coupon), and my 10-lb bag of potatoes (97 cents), for $16.93, for a total of $165.23

Nov. 23 Albertson's, this time I take my two daughters with me, and all three of us buy 10-lb bags of potatoes, for a total of $2.91

Fred Meyer, we buy 16 cans of pumpkin ($1 ea), 2 lbs of butter (1.67/lb), 10 jars natural peanut butter (1.88/16 oz), 1 gal skim milk (marked down, $1.50), 1 package choc chip for 1.79, 6 cans of corn (50 cents ea w/coupon), 1 can of decaf coffee (5.99), can cream of mushroom soup (75 cents), for a total of $51.17, bringing spending for month up to $219.31

Nov. 24 Albertson's again w/ family members to buy potatoes. we buy 3 10-lb bags, for a total of $2.91, total month to date, $222.22

Nov. 29 Bartells for canned nuts and sparkling cider, on sale. Tins of nuts are 30 oz for $4.99 each. I buy 3 tins and get rainchecks for more, and 6 bottles of cider (1.99 ea), spent $26.91

Fred Meyer while shopping for socks, etc, I find 5 half gallons of milk for 89 cents each, spent $4.45, for a total of $253.58 spent for November.

I went over budget plus surplus by $19.53. This amount will be deducted from December's budget of $170. I think we'll be okay, though.

What I stocked up on this month: 80 pounds of potatoes, 4 frozen whole turkeys, 5  1/2 lbs of nuts (and hope to buy more when stock comes in), sparkling cider (we'll use this throughout the winter and early spring, for special occasions), an assortment of meat, cream cheese, the winter's supply of coffee, peanut butter, winter squash, fresh and canned pumpkin, and a couple month's supply of butter.

Ending the month I can get a glimpse of how we'll do year round, with our grocery spending. Looking into my pantry, fridge and freezer, I can see that we are very well stocked. We have enough here that we really could go months without shopping. We'd run out of eggs and milk, but otherwise be okay. So, that's reassuring. I even had the thought that we could cut our grocery spending further. But I don't need to, so I won't. It's nice to have a bit of extra money in this category, so we can have some luxury foods, like cheese, cocoa, nuts, cream and plenty of meat.

This month, I'll be looking for good prices on ham, onions, butter and cheese.