NaBloWriMo Day 27 Great Pumpkin

Want to know a secret? I love pumpkin pie.

No, really…I LOVE pumpkin pie. Given the choice between pumpkin pie and new shoes, I’d pick pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie or steak? Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie or a million dollars? Pu---leeze, I’m not THAT crazy. Can you imagine all the pumpkin pies I could buy with a million bucks? Wowza!

I also love pumpkin seeds, roasted to perfection. I love squash with butter, salt, and garlic, or butter salt and brown sugar and a little bit of cream… This time of year is awfully nice, bringing us such wonders as pumpkins and squash (which I love as much as pumpkins).

Taking advantage of the season’s plethora of pumpkins, I purchased a large specimin thinking, “Hey! I can roast up some seeds and some pumpkin and yum!” Those of you who are cooks are going to say something like, “Um, honey, you know those carving pumpkins aren’t that good for pies,” and you’d be right, but I already knew that. I just wanted to roast it up like squash, toss some butter and garlic on it, and call it dinner.

As I was cutting it, I noticed it stayed together in strings, much like spaghetti squash, and I got REALLY excited because I LOVE spaghetti squash! I pulled a bowlful from the steaming shell, tossed it with some garlic, olive oil, and salt, and took a bite. Actually, I took several bites, hoping that first one was just a fluke.

It wasn’t.

Loathe to waste food, I choked down a bit more before my stomach said something rude and forced me to stop. People, let me be the first to say, “I think I did something wrong.” There were slimy parts that just wouldn’t chew down to manageable bites. There were other parts that had a decent, semi-crunchy pasta-squash texture and flavor, but it wasn’t quite “there,” if you know what I mean. I think there is hope, but right now, I’m going to steer clear of carving pumpkins and stick with squash for eating. I’d pick up some sugar pumpkins, but they’re way more expensive and, “Hi, I’m broke.”

Sigh.

At the moment, I’m starving for something that isn’t going to make my stomach unhappy. As soon as my gut speaks to me using an indoor voice and nice words, I’ll head back out to the kitchen and fix us something that won’t cause anymore internal organ revolt. My fingers are crossed that I didn’t screw up the seeds.