Pumpkin Day

Today I completed my annual pumpkin cutting, cooking, scooping, pureeing, and freezing. Four years in a row is enough to call it an annual tradition, isn't it? My pumpkin weighed about 16 pounds, and I ended up with a little over 15 cups of pumpkin puree. . .more than enough for this year's pies and bread, I hope.

I discovered a new trick this year. In the past, I've really struggled with the cutting. Pumpkins are not an easy item to dismember. In fact, I've even had Kevin or, one year, my dad cut them for me so as not to wear myself out with the very first step. Yesterday, however, I read that one should use a serrated knife when cutting pumpkins. Amazingly, it made a huge difference. I cut that pumpkin up in no time, and it wasn't even taxing! Good to know.

So now my house smells like pumpkin, which smells like squash, if you don't know. Yesterday it smelled like bread; I think that was preferable. Tomorrow, hopefully, it will smell like the season's first loaf of pumpkin bread. And Friday, maybe, I will make it smell like pumpkin pie, because I want to make ahead and freeze some pie crusts for Thanksgiving anyway, and, mostly, just because I can.