Monday, October 25, 2010

Pumpkin Yumm!

Well, I finally got finished with all my pumpkins!  And MamaPea was probably right, I had enough to do me thru the year.  But I neeeever listen!  Noooo...I picked up 5 more at the Pumpkin Patch the day Julee and I tried to kill Holli on the slide.

I ended up with 18 pints of pumpkin in the freezer!  That oughta do me thru Thanksgiving...of 2012!  My body didn't take the beating it did when I had 25 of my own a few years ago tearing my rotator cuff, but man I think I have tennis elbow on the other arm now!

Pumpkins are alot of work!  I was talking to my cousin Paula today and she had read some where that you can pierce the pumpkin and cook it whole until tender and then cut and clean it.  I might have to try that next year.  But knowing me...I'd forget to pierce it and they would explode in my oven!!


Ok, those aren't my pumpkins...I eat mine!  But it was pretty funny anyway!

Here's our favorite recipe handed down from my Aunt Beverly:


Pumpkin Bars

4 Eggs
1 2/3 C Sugar
1 C Oil
2 C Pumpkin (*One Can)
2 C Flour
2 t Baking Powder
2 t Cinnamon
1 t Salt
1 t Baking Soda

Stir dry ingredients together.
Beat together eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients slowly.
Spread into bar pan/jelly roll pan.
Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Let Cool.

Frosting

2 oz Cream Cheese -softened
1/4 C butter -softened
1/2 t Vanilla Extract
1 C Powdered Sugar -sifted
Combine all ingredients and beat smooth.  Frost bars.

This frosting recipe is already halved.  We don't care for mounds of frosting, but you may.  So double if you like.

*Note on the pumpkin:  My girlfriend Heather told me the other day that store bought pumpkin now comes in 15oz cans.  It used to come in 16 oz or 2 cup cans.  They charge the same price if not more!  I have some canned pumpkin that I stock piled due to the great pumpkin shortage the past few years.  So I went and looked.  I'll be darned if she wasn't right! 

Doesn't that just tick ya off?  It sort of goes along with buying everything big or in bulk.  Now they are down sizing because that's the "IN" thing to do.  And of course they don't drop the prices and most consumers don't even catch on.  Heck, I didn't notice the pumpkin can!  In my defense, where it not for the bad yields these past few years...there hasn't been a need for me to buy canned pumpkin.  (I didn't fool you, I know.  So I'm an idiot)  Have you noticed that some cases of pop (soda for those in the south) don't always come in a 24 pack any more? 

Dirty Rats!

Ok, enough rambling.  Don't even know how I got onto that!

If you love pumpkin, I hope you get to try these...they really are super yummy if you use canned or fresh pumpkin!  Yes, the 15oz can will be just fine.

Go on now...make some up!  But if you do, make sure you have some nice cold milk to go along with them!

Oh and Chelsi, you better have frozen that pumpkin I told you about!

15 comments:

  1. That pumpkin display is FUN-NEE! How do people come up with this stuff. I have been having a hankering for pumpkin pie lately but I might try those bars instead. But alas, I must buy pumpkin. I got not one this year. Darn critters.

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  2. Jane, far more creative people than us come up with that stuff huh? Well go buy some pumpkin then! And maybe better luck next year! If we lived close, I would gladly share with you :)

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  3. Hey, we have yet another thing in common. I've torn both my left and right rotator cuffs! (How talented am I?)

    I'm definitely making those Pumpkin Bars. They look too good to pass up. Although I haven't made my recipe (which is a little different) yet this year (nobody in the fam is as crazy about it as I am) so maybe I should make that and throw out into Blogland.

    Jane, if we lived closer, I would share my squash with you. They are proving to be an excellent substitute for pumpkin. I've been inflicting them on everyone who comes by and I still have too many of them!

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  4. Those bars look GREAT!!!

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  5. Love the pumpkin display. Might have to steal that one for here....

    I'm hungry after seeing those pumpkin bars.....good thing its almost 10 pm and way too late to start anything like that. But trust me. They're going on the menu. Yum, lady. Just yum. :0

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  6. MamaPea, please tell me it gets better! The cuff that is. I have a girlfriend that is making the bars with all her sweet potatoe extras. Bet that is good too!

    Pops, you know I will feed you anytime!

    MamaTea, you should Google it. There were bunches of funny pics that cracked me up. :)

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  7. It always cracks me up when "pops" comments on yours and Jen's blogs... :)

    I also want to make those bars... RIGHT NOW. But, I just did the dinner dishes about an hour ago and now it's almost midnight. I wouldn't put it past my normal self, I'm a night owl... but I'm not feeling so hot today. So, I will keep them in mind!

    Oh, I didn't freeze the extra punkin cause I used it! Ha! In cinnamon struesel muffins! YUMMMO!

    Thanks for the shout out! :)

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  8. Dirty rats is right! I say we all preserve our own pumpkin and let them sink. I love the recipe - I will have to try it, since I, too, fall into the "that seems like enough, but maybe just 5 more" group.

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  9. y'all crack me up... count me in your little rotator cuff clique! Mine was about 12 years ago though! LOVE that pumpkin display!

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  10. Dear Rotator Cuff Survivorees - Hey, Erin, you and I must have been in severe pain just about the same time! I tore my left one first by repeatedly opening and closing a heavy oven door at the restaurant, then when that one was almost healed, I tore the right one doing a lot of overhead crowbar work when I tore our house here down to the studs.

    Although I had physical therapy for a looonnng time (my therapist and I grew to know each other very well) and he said he'd never had a patient work as hard as I did (when we would start a session, he got so he'd immediately station a box of kleenex nearby because I couldn't keep the tears from flowing), I never got back the full backward or behind my back motion in either shoulder. But it could have been a LOT worse and I'm glad all that is behind me.

    So torn rotator cuff survivors, raise your hand. Ooops, sorry, that hurt, didn't it?

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  11. Chels, I don't remember seeing a struesel recipe...HmmmHuh???

    Susan, Oh NO! You have my sympathy if you are like me! Just one more...rightttt!

    Erin and Mama, soooo what you are telling me is 1) we are getting old and 2) it doesn't really ever go away! Great!

    I'd raise my hand to ya, but it hurts!

    JennyGirl...you are such a liar! You love pumpkin bars! Why you always gotta lie to me???

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  12. hey i never lie to you i am a good girl i do dishes.And is there any pumpkin bars left for me this weekend

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  13. Those pumpkin bars look delicious, I'll have to try them for sure. It's funny you mentioned the size of the pumpkin cans getting smaller, they had that on the news last night about manufacturers cutting the size down on a lot of things and charging the same price or more.

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  14. JennyGirl, Now see...right there another lie! I never make you do the dishes! What are you talking about young lady?!!

    Alla, my mom called me last night and said she just heard the same broadcast! See...they think they are getting away with it! And sadly, what can we do? Well, for us that have the notion, we can preserve our own foods and then stick our tongues out, right? :)

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