Pumpkin!

As I was "patiently" cranking my food mill today, I wondered if I should make another "canning" post....
I've been teased as being an "over-achiever" and well, I sure don't want the label of "Master Food Preserver" or anything like that! But it's not a bad thing to share tips and ideas. I spent some time today Googling advise on pumpkins--you see....
Halloween evening my husband and I went to a grocery store called Fred Meyers (I think it's only a Washington-Oregon store)...anyway, my daughter Emily works there as a cashier. She was hanging out with friends, but "happened" to be on her way over to the store at the same time as us...would you call this a coincidence? Hmmm...I was very happy to get her employee discount. On top of that, as she was chatting with one of the other employees he said, "Oh, don't forget to get some free pumpkins on your way out if you want any."
...OK, so this was a day of coincidences...cause just that morning, as I was checking out the Totally Ready blog, I was reading about how you could often go to the pumpkin fields the day after Halloween and get a good deal from the farmer's on pumpkins...then I read what it said on canning or freezing, but it recommended freezing. Now, I've tried using fresh pumpkin in a pie years ago and it was awful, so I haven't wanted to do this ever since...but it was on my mind right? ...and...well, this was better than getting a good deal---it was free!! The article said to pick out ones that weren't too big, so we put 4 in our trunk with the groceries. I was thinking--oh boy, more work. But I was also thinking about a yummy cookie recipe on my friend Lindy's blog a few months ago; "Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies" which she said was her favorite cookie...and they sure sounded good....
SO...today, I was able to glean some good advise for doing this--meaning preparing the pumpkin. Perhaps if I'd had better information years ago I would have been more successful. However, everyone said to do the "pie" pumpkins and not the "jack-o-lantern" pumpkins. I had no idea what I had, so I decided to only brave 2 of them for today. I had my husband help "cut & gut" them. Then I baked them at 350º for 90 min. Then cooled them. Then I ran them through my food mill. I haven't used this thing in years and it's amazing I even remembered I had it, when one article suggested a food mill. I was really worried if it was the wrong kind of pumpkin it would be stringy. As I was sieving I was wondering if I should take pictures and post. Then I thought about how this information would be useful to me again next year---granted that it worked out---and so that clinched it! I grabbed my camera....LOL!
Here are 2 of my free pumpkins (obviously the 2 I didn't cook today!)
To prepare to bake I washed them really good, cut them into half and scooped out the insides, then cut them again. I read you can bake them whole...so I suppose you could scoop out after they're baked.

After baking them...seriously, it looked and smelled just like winter squash.
Scooping out of shell.My food mill...sieving. Yes, it took some cranking for a while, but wasn't too bad.

These must have been pie pumpkins cause there was hardly any strings and I got it down to practically nothing...so tomorrow, it'll be the zip-zip of the food processor for the last 2 pumpkins!

Then I put it in a strainer with cheese cloth, cause it said to drain out some of the liquid.

Here it is all wrapped up in the cheese cloth. I put plastic wrap over it and stuck it in the fridge..then went back online to look up how much it would take for pie recipes and noted that one gal said straining too much liquid out made it tasteless...so I decided not to leave it overnight.

Besides, I'd already taken some out to make Lindy's cookie recipe and it was really good! So it was worth the time.Here's how much juice strained out. I read you could save it for soup broth, maybe I should make some cream of pumpkin soup!

Pies take 2 cups, and Lindy's cookie recipe doubled takes 2 cups. I only got 3 bags and one batch of cookies, but that was not bad for 2 small pumpkins.
I'd love to give you the link to Lindy's blog for her cookies but it's set to private (she has a cool blog!)
So here is her recipe, only it's double batch. It said it made 4 doz cookies but they'd have to be very small cause I only got 24 out of it and it's worth making a double batch!

Lindy's Favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

2 cup sugar*
2 egg

2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup vegetable shortening
2 Tbsp grated orange peel
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips*

*Overly sweet food does not sit well with my stomach, so I modified the recipe by using 1/2 cup sugar and just over half cup of chocolate chips. They were perfect for me, so it depends on your sweet tooth. OH! And of course that was before the batch was doubled, so for this recipe it would be 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of choc. chips...or however many you like in it. As much as I love chocolate, I love tasting the cookie, too!

Directions:

Mix sugar, egg, pumpkin, shortening and orange peel with an electric mixer until well blended.
(Next time I will cream the sugar and shortening first before adding the eggs and pumpkin as it kind of separated the shortening)
Sift together dry ingredients (excluding chocolate chips). Stir dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture and blend well. Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes at 375F until lightly browned. (I found 10 min. was best for the size cookie I made which was a generous spoonful.)
Remove from cookie sheets and cool on rack.
Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.