Peggy Chambers "Views from the Hammock" site

  This week my husband took the week off work to hunt.  He has been at the same job for so long he has to use vacation leave or lose it.  It was too warm to hunt deer, he declared so he spent much of the week just hanging around the house.  And when he is bored, he gets into trouble.  He came home from a farmer’s with two huge pumpkins (not the little pie pumpkins).  He’s a country boy at heart trapped in the city and when he and buddy started discussing pumpkin bread,pumpkin pies, and all things pumpkin, trouble was brewing.    He had a great idea.  We’d bake and peel the pumpkins and make pumpkin bread.

“That’s a lot of work,” I said, “I normally use the canned stuff.”

“Oh, this will be better!” he exclaimed.

He worked all afternoon.  When I came home from work, the kitchen had exploded in pumpkin debris.  He stood at the sink washing each pumpkin seed by hand.  There was a giant pumpkin in the oven cut in half and baking.  One still remained on the sink top cut open and waiting its turn to be baked.  Good thing supper was waiting in the crockpot.  I cleaned up the kitchen.

The baking and pealing went on into the evening.  The next day at work I received text messages with pictures of bowls piled high with pumpkin scooped from the inside of the globe.  He complained that my blender didn’t do a good job on “puree.”

Returning home from work the second day the scent of pumpkin bread wafted from the kitchen.  The finished product.  Three loaves of warm pumpkin bread awaited me.  He did a great job.  The bread was perfect.  The kitchen, not so much.

After dinner and cleanup, I was faced with the giant bowl of pumpkin still sitting in the frig.  I lovingly scooped the mush by two cup measures into zip lock bags and froze it.  Seven of them!!!  Meanwhile he stirred and tasted the pumpkin seeds.  Two days!  He worked on three loaves of pumpkin bread for two days! I cleaned the kitchen again.

“That’s a lot of work,” he said.      Maybe next time he’ll just buy the canned type.

Remind me sometime to tell you about the buffalo he brought home.  (remember he is a hunter) – yes, that’s right.  An American Bison in my freezer.  Do you know how long it takes two people to eat a buffalo?  We won’t starve at my house.

What recipes do you have for pumpkin?  I need some new ones.  You can only eat so much pumpkin bread and pies.