Saturday 23 October 2010

Pumpkin recipes & other Autumn bits

I tried cooking pumpkin years ago & never liked it but this year we have grown quite a few & what we grow we must eat! This is what I made with one pumpkin a similar size to the one in the photo about 4lb. They were all really yummy & I've made the soup 3 times since.
First I washed & dried the seeds then spread them out on a baking tray & baked them for 20 minutes.
Pumpkin Bread (American recipe hence the cup measurements)
2 cups of plain flour, 2tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp baking powder, 1tsp bicarb, 1/2tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups sugar,3/4 cups vegetable oil, 3 lge eggs, 1tsp vanilla essence, 3 cups shredded pumpkin, 1 cup toasted pumpkin seeds.
Mix the dry ingredients then add the wet ingredients keeping back some of the seeds. Put into a loaf tin pushing the saved seeds on top. Bake at 325 for about 1hr 15 mins or put mixture into muffin cases & bake for 30 mins.

Spicy pumpkin teabread.
12oz diced pumpkin boiled for 10 mins, 5 1/2 oz honey, 30z sultanas, 11oz SR flour, 2tsp mixed spice, 5 1/2 oz margarine, 1 tblsp seeds
Mash the boiled pumpkin with the honey then add the sultanas. Put the flour & spice in a bowl then rub in the margarine add pumpkin mix & seeds. Put into a 2lb loaf tin & bake for 50 mins.

Pumpkin soup
When I make soup I tend to make it up as I go along using what I have available so this is a rough guide to my soup!
I sauted in a knob of butter a diced onion, 1/2 diced green pepper, 1 deseeded red chilli, 1 chopped clove garlic. Add 2 diced potatoes and the chopped pumpkin (I used about a half of a 4lb pumpkin) Add roughly a pint of veg stock, a tsp of ground cinnamon, pinch of salt & pepper. Bring to the boil then reduce heat & simmer for 1/2 hr. Blitz with a blender then stir in a little milk.
Some of our Autumn harvest.
I have done some crocheting an Autumn coloured brooch & some Amigurumi pumpkins.
And some fabric pumkins scented with orange & mandarin.
L and I made a Autumn display using some leaves & seed heads collected on our walk through the woods.

It was very sunny & the butterflies were making the most of it, basking in the afternoon sun.

Lots of funghi and the first signs that ........


Christmas is just around the corner :)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the look of the teabread recipe, must try that xx

bellaboo said...

Ooh,some lovely scrummy pumpkin recipes there and I LOVE those little crochet ones! Your photos are beautiful too.
Have a lovely weekend. :o)

topchelseagirl said...

I like your Autumn display! Lovely photos too.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for such a beautiful post. I love your fabric pumpkins.xx

Callies Cottage said...

Lovely recipes! Autumn is my favourite time of the year..
Warm Wishes,
Cally x x x

Lyn said...

Great photos, and recipes too. Please don't remind me about Christmas!!!
love
Lyn
xxx

Lulu said...

lovely pics

Jenny at Red House said...

Wow what fab photos! just found your blog and really enjoyed reading it, im just the same with pumpkin it's taken me a long time to 'get it!' drop by and see me jennyx

Booklinks said...

Lovely pumpkin ~Autumn post!
I must try some recepes.I love the autumn coloured brooch and the fabric pumpkins!

Floss said...

Oh, I love your photos! We have made pumpkin cheese bake and pumpkin currey so far - lots more pumpkins to go, so your recipes will come in useful! Thanks for sharing.