Gotta admit I also love pumpkin but tend to rely more on canned for cooking/baking. It’s just a preference after using both fresh and canned.

As for cooking/baking with pumpkin, this recipe from my mom has been a big favorite for many years (I’ve posted this here before).

Killer Pumpkin Bars

This makes a lot. Easy to halve the recipe using a 9x13 sheet pan. Baking time is about the same with my oven. Any unused pumpkin puree feezes great.

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temp.
2 cups canned pumpkin (one 15-oz. can)
4 eggs, room temp.
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 15 X 10 1/2 X 1 pan. Sift flour, baking soda, spices, and salt together; set aside. Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add pumpkin and eggs; beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Spread mixture into pan. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched or toothpick comes out clean (start checking early). Cool completely and frost with your favorite cream cheese icing.

I spent some time this morning looking at ideas for pumpkin displays…with real pumpkins. Not a fan of most of the faux I’ve seen.

plllog, you mentioned kabochas. Last Fall I was looking for a certain color of green pumpkin to use in a display. The only green that worked was on the kabochas. I found some larger ones and did a little reconstructive surgery by glueing on some great pumpkin stems (yes, I do save the longer twisty stems!). Works like a charm. I get excited each year when the pumpkins start coming!

Thanks for posting the recipe again. I do have it, and should make it!

Kabocha is the best of pumpkins for eating straight out of the shell. Or with a little butter Or with a little butter and cinnamon. Microwaves well--remove the top, clean out the seeds and any guts, optionally season and/or butter, put in a glass or pyroceram pie plate and zap to desired softness. Or roast in a regular oven. Same diff. :)

Your pumpkin stemmed kabochas remind me of my mother's June camellias. :) There were big bushes along the back fence. They were usually still lush in June, when we often had big outdoor parties. My mother thought they looked sad without flowers, though, so she made them out of white packing tissue and leftover twist ties. Most people didn't walk across the lawn to inspect them, though quite a few asked how she got the camilias bloom at Midsummer. :)

Curried pumpkin and black bean soup :) Stock, curry spices, the pumpkin gets blended in so it's a thick puree soup with the beans. I need to see where I put that recipe, lol. Probably a chunky pumpkin chili. I've got some nice yellow tomatillos growing this year. Scalloped pumpkin and ham casserole for sure. Probably a couple stuffed halves. Sometimes half is all I need for a small sweet, and the other half then can be stuffed and split for the two of us for dinner.

“Most people didn't walk across the lawn to inspect them, though quite a few asked how she got the camilias bloom at Midsummer.”

More power to your mom, especially staging them from a distance!👍🏻

This is one example of my ”stem surgery” on a kabocha. It didn’t even have a nub of a stem when I bought it. The nerve!🙃

Fabulous! And slightly spooky.

The camillias were only about 10’ back (and one was actually a hibiscus) but it worked. ;)

I apologize for the profanity, but I just saw this and thought of this thread:

cute little critters (goats?) but the reference is going over my head...

Asses’ asses sitting down.

Same here.

I prefer winter squashes to pumpkin, since they tend to be sweeter and more available, and I like butter and fresh rosemary for baked squash - a good sweet one really needs nothing more, IMO.

One of our faves I make with winter squash is a hearty stew with big chunks of squash, potatoes, peppers, onions, tomatoes, chiles, beans, corn and dark meat chicken or turkey - seasoned with garlic, oregano, marjoram and cumin. The squash breaks down a bit and makes a nice thickener.

I use canned for pies as well - much less fuss for essentially the same result.

plllog, I’m not getting it, either…?

I’ve also used sugars like this for soup bowls. However, these cuties would likely be on display instead of the dinner table at my house with those great stems.☺️

Not getting what? The picture? The explanation? Surely not the pumpkin obsession.

I used canned for cake, but I like fresh for pie. It's texture, mostly—I don't hate ”silken” but even puréed, fresh has more oomph.

“Surely not the pumpkin obsession.”

Crystal clear on that.👍🏻

😁😁😁 Clearly. ;) Okay, so Olychick apologized for the slightly profane word in the meme. I countered with the entirely wholesome version of ”sitting your asses down”, aka asses sitting their asses down.

Sept 22 is a ways into autumn around here. We are already in early autumn here- fall harvests and plantings have been going on, the twilights comings are noticeably different, summers berries and the like are mostly spent, summer peaking plants are at peak fruiting and on regular harvest, early foliages are turning. The cross quarter was a couple weeks ago. Some years summer stretches later and gets a couple weeks into August and it's nice to have a good late summer, but not this year.

plllog, I thought they were kangaroos! lol!!!!

LOL, party_music, I knew what they were and still didn’t get the connection. Guess I’m a little slow today!🙃

beesneeds, our warm/hot weather will go well into October. I have to be careful any pumpkins I have outside don’t start to bake in the sun.

August is prime summer here in the PNW. Before climate change turned it hotter and drier, we sometimes couldn't count on summer UNTIL August; September is also summery, a drag for us kids to have to return to school when we'd waited so long for summery weather.

I think those are deer or something in that family...?

Donkeys have bigger ears:

They look more like donkeys to me, and were so labelled. There are lots of kinds. Whatever. It's a large discussion over a little joke.

Pretty sure they are mouflon lambs, so cute! You know what sheep like to eat? Pumpkins. They prefer them raw and unseasoned.

Back to cooking/baking with pumpkins. I got this recipe from Bon Appetit long ago. The whipped cream is, of course, optional but tasty.

Pumpkin Bread With Pumpkin Whipped Cream

Makes 2 loaves

3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
2/3 cup warm water

1 cup chilled whipping cream
3 T. sugar
1/2 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350.

Lightly butter two 9x5x2 1/2-inch loaf pans.

Beat 3 cups sugar, oil, eggs and 15-oz. can pumpkin in large bowl to blend. Sift four, baking soda, baking powder, salt, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture. Slowly mix in 2/3 cup warm water.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until tops are golden brown and toothpick comes out clean (about 1 hour). Transfer loaves to rack and cool 10 minutes. Run knife around edges to loosen. Turn onto rack and cool completely. (Can be prepared up to 1 month ahead. Wrap in foil and freeeze. If desired, rewarm thawed, wrapped loaves in 350 oven for 10 minutes.)

Beat cream and 3 T. sugar to stiff peaks in bowl. Fold in the 1/2 cup pumpkin. Slice bread and arrange on platter. Serve, passing pumpkin whipped cream alongside.

Looks good!

Re the asses, Mr. Picky said ”roo” (he's been in Australia a lot). I asked if he'd looked at the feet (I don't expect PM to look that closely at a tiny picture, and am telling of this to say she's in good company). He admitted that roos don’t have hooves. I’m no expert, but the hooves look equine to me, not ovine, though perhaps cervine. And while it could have been mislabelled, it was just a little joke. Pumpkin bread is more interesting. I often have too far gone bananas, so I'm more likely to make banana bread, but pumpkin bread is awesome!

I was just looking through my recipes. Marcolo's (former GWite) smoky pumpkin soup is a must, but can wait for November weather. And I've been meaning to try the Pumpkin Tart with Caramelized Onions & Pumpkin Seed Gremolata from Justinessnacks.com, but it's way fiddly, and I need to find the right time.

“I’m no expert, but the hooves look equine to me…”

Agree!

Regarding banana bread, have you ever tried Martha Stewart’s version with sour cream? Banana bread was always a ”take or leave” for me until I tried her recipe.

I'll check it out. This is my go-to, which has a similar thought. I love it because it's not overly sweet.

Banana Bread 3 Bears — Based on Wizardnm's Recipe

3 Bears are Banana Blueberry Pistachio
.

BANANA BREAD

240 g unbleached AP flour, sifted
3/4 C sugar (original amount—I scant it based on how sugary the bananas are)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C lightly chopped pistachios

3 ripe bananas, mashed well
3/4 cup blueberries rolled in some of the dry mix

1/4 C plain yogurt (White Mountain Bulgarian)
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
6 TBSP butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour bread pan.

Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl, remove some to roll the blueberries in, and stir in the pistachios.

In a medium bowl mix together bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter and vanilla.

Add wet ingredients to the dry, mixing gently with a spatula, just to combine, batter should look lumpy. Stir in blueberries. You don't want to over mix. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake about 60 minutes, until loaf is golden and a toothpick comes out almost clean. It can have a crumb or two, but you don't want wet showing on the toothpick.

Cool about 5 min., then turn out of pan to finish cooling on a wire rack.

Makes 1- 9" loaf.

Sounds good with the yogurt, and I do love blueberries and pistachios.👍🏻

I’ve served this simple version of pumpkin soup at our annual Halloween soup party. I’ve made croutons for garnish using mini leaf- and/or pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters. Easy to make way ahead and freeze.

Pumpkin Soup

1 large onion, chopped
1/2 stick butter
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
2 cups heavy cream
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
Pinch each of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, or to taste (see *Note below)

Optional garnishes: cubes of cream cheese, dollop of sour cream, minced chives, parsley, roasted pumpkin seeds, croutons.

Sauté the onion in butter until it is limp but not browned. Sprinkle with curry powder, and continue to cook for a few minutes. In batches, in a blender or food processor (or using an immersion blender for the entire mixture), puree the onions with the pumpkin and salt, then add the cream, continuing to blend. Transfer this mixture to a soup pot or saucepan and whisk in the chicken stock. Heat slowly, seasoning with the spices (see Note). Do not allow to boil. Serve hot in large hollowed-out pumpkin "tureen" or in individual hollowed-out pumpkin "bowls." Garnish with desired toppings listed above.

*Note: Use a very light hand with the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. You don't want the soup to taste like liquid pumpkin pie. Start with a pinch of each and check the taste. Alternatively, use only the allspice, or a pinch of ground cloves, and increase the curry powder slightly.

This is in Marcolo's own words. The actual pumpkins and pumpkin famiiy squash aren't important, though at least half should be pumpkin and some should be on the sweeter side of sour (though I suppose you could just use more carrots). It's awesome!

Smoky Spicy Pumpkin Soup by Marcolo

Unfortunately the recipe was something I made up on the fly last night.

I roasted cut-up sugar pumpkins and butternut squash to within an inch of their life, just a little brush of veg oil, salt and pepper. Peel and sorta mash 'em a bit.

In a stock pot saute the aromatics of your choice in butter, especially leeks or onions and a few carrots for sweetness, plus celery and parsley or whatnot. Add the spices now. Use regular pumpkin pie selections like allspice, cloves, cinnamon, etc. But add two other key things. One is sage, which I used both fresh and dry. The other, which is the key, is pimenton, Spanish smoked paprika. When the onions and carrots are carmelized plop in the roasted pumpkin, some chicken stock and water. I don't like all chicken stock, it's too chickeny, so I use mostly water. S&P to taste, and keep adjusting all the spices until you feel the punch. Once everything is good and soft, turn off the heat, let it cool a bit and puree. I may add a touch of half and half. We roasted pepitas to put on top and I may also garnish with fried sage before serving.

Sorry I can't get more specific. I was winging it.

Forgot to mention I always add chunks of winter squash to my lentil stew - along with celery, onions, barley and lots of curry powder.