All summer the bees are drawn.
They are enamoured with those huge intensely pumpkin yellow blossoms and travel blossom to blossom all over my garden.
Bees of all shapes and sizes.
Huge black ones, tiny little ones and substantial furry honey bees all living together peacefully hovering about 8 inches following the path of the vines.
Watching the pumpkin change from deep blackish green to orange is an appreciable thing as well. 
Delicious colors and textures forming to make the beauty of the fruit.
We planted sugar babies this year they are just big enough for about 3 cups of pumpkin puree, and I think they are just about perfect.
But...why all this waxing poetic about the pumpkin?
Yup you guessed it...Muffins!
This recipe is so simple I had to post it,
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Directions
1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper liners.
2.In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until smooth. Spoon equal amounts of batter into the prepared muffin cups. 3.Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean.
Find it here
Then I took it and quartered it and removed the seeds and pulp (I used rubber gloves because it is rather hot by now) and put it in the micro again for the last 5 minutes covered -to steam a little. Then it was ready to peel (so easy to peel now, the peel is a hard shell that flakes off rather than peels off)
The end result was worth the effort for sure!Ah, the finer things in life!
From wiki regarding pumpkins and Halloween:
Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time encompassing customs of medieval holy days as well as contemporary cultures. The souling practice of commemorating the souls in purgatory with candle lanterns carved from turnips, became adapted into the making of jack-o'-lanterns. In traditional Celtic Halloween festivals, large turnips were hollowed out, carved with faces and placed in windows to ward off evil spirits.
The carving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America where pumpkins are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips. (laughing..says who?) Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their doorstep after dark. The American tradition of carving pumpkins preceded the Great Famine period of Irish immigration and was originally associated with harvest time in general, not becoming specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.
So there ya have it! When you see folks with pumpkins on their porches be thankful that we are still not in the times where we compuslively carved our root vegetables so as to ward off evil spirits that wished to inhabit our bodies for the year!
I'd rather be baking pumpkin bread...
Or eating...
(one to try)
Blessings!
4 comments:
Wow, those sound like some great recipes! Thanks for the posting.
Those recipes look great. I have been wanting to bake up some pumpkin streusel muffins using this recipe: http://thepepperedpantry.blogspot.com/2010/10/pumpkin-streusel-muffins.html Hubby is at the store picking up some pumpkin :) Do pumpkin blossoms have a scent?
Hey thanks for the share, I have a thing for pumpkin this year...I have included pumpkin my spicy recipes using hamberger... tacos and spegetti and it really smooths out the spices. Pumpkin streusel sounds yummy!
I am a fan of homemade pumpkin pie and bread from fresh pumpkins, the "cheese" pumpkins really are the best to use, they are flatter and less orange. Try using one next year and see if you like it better, less fibrous and better flavor. to cook, cut in half vertically, clean out and set aside, preheat oven to 350-375 degrees, take cake roll pan or baking pan with lower sides, and put an 1/2 " to an inch of water in the pan, put one half of the pumpkin open side down in the pan and cook til tender usually 1.5 hours or less per half (if it is a good size pumpkin) allow to cool, and scoop away, you'll find you'll be able to scoop right up until the skin or fairly close getting you more pumpkin. this is freezeable for a few months also. You can also make your pie filling etc and freeze it.
anyway, come visit:
http://piecesoffatesusan.blogspot.com/2010/10/tuesday-er-um-thursdaytreative-been.html
I have a surprise for you:)
Susan
Post a Comment