My friend Kelly and I went to the pumpkin patch today and came back with lots of goodies for plans of a baking day. We started with a list:

1) Steam and mash sugar pumpkins
2) Sugar cookies
3) Brownies
4) Pumpkin Bars
5) Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

My first goal was to steam and mash two sugar pumpkins. I had read a great post at Money Saving Mom about steaming pumpkins in the microwave and making your own pumpkin puree. I thought it sounded like a wonderful idea because canned pumpkin is so expensive this year. Kelly was nice enough to go along with my experiment.

We started after lunch at 1:00 with the first pumpkin in the microwave. As it was cooking I mixed up the sugar cookie dough so it could chill. Not a special recipe just something from an old Betty Crocker Cooky book. When that went into the fridge I mixed up the brownies and popped them into the oven. By then my first pumpkin was done so I took it out skinned it and dumped it in the food processor. When I was peeling and food processing Kelly made the Chocoalte Chip Pumpkin Bread. It is a recipie she got from one of her student's mom but it came from Cooking Light magazine. See the link above for the recipie. The only difference was that we used more chocoalte chips than the orginal recipie we used 2 whole eggs instead of 4 egg whites.


I decided after the bread was in the oven that I needed to make the pumpkin bars with the new pumpkin puree to ensure I liked it before I cut into the second pumpkin. When the pumpkin bars went into the oven we took a break and went outside for a walk in the beautiful sun and left my husband to take them out of the oven.

When we came back the house smelled amazing! We sampled the Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread and the Pumpkin Bars. Both were super and oh so fall like. I decided the pumpkin was totally worth it and put the second one in the microwave to cook. While the microwave was humming away I rolled out the sugar cookies and baked 4 batches.

At 4:30, with everything accomplished, we relaxed by the tv before dividing up the goodies for home. We were very proud of ourselves. The pumpkin turned out wonderful and so did all the treats! I also ended up with 14 cups of pumpkin puree for only $2.70 invested in the pumpkins. I highly recommend making pumpkin puree if you have a little time to devote to the process.

As for the cookies and brownies I now have yummy treats to take to the baby shower I am attending tomorrow.

The day is over, and it was a sucess!