*Easy Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice*

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

* Mix and store in an airtight container.

Here's a Pumpkin Soup that is wonderful:

Autumn Rarebit Soup

5 cup Pumpkin, or squash, cooked
2 1/2 cup Chicken stock
1 1/2 cup Light beer
2 tbl Butter
1 x Onion,large, chopped
3 x Garlic cloves,crushed
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup Pumpkin seeds
Salt and pepper


In large heavy saucepan, bring pumpkin and stock to a boil; reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until tender. In a blender or food processor, puree in batches.

In clean saucepan, combine pumpkin puree with beer; bring to boil over medium heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt butter over medium low heat, cook onion and garlic; stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add to pumpkin mixture; stir in cheese and simmer gently, partially covered, for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile in skillet over medium heat, cook pumpkin seeds, shaking pan often, for 7 to 10 minutes or until golden brown and toasted.

Season soup with salt to taste. Garnish with pepper and pumpkin seeds.

SERVES: 4-6

*Easy Pumpkin Puree~

* Cut pumpkins in half, scrape out all seeds and "stuff". Cut halves in half to make quarters. Place on a cookie sheet skin side down, bake in 300* oven for about 60 minutes or until flesh is easily poked with a fork. Scrape flesh off skin with an ice cream scoop or a table spoon. Flesh should come off relatively easily. Zip flesh in a food processor until smooth, I used a regular electric hand mixer and it did the trick. Freeze pumpkin puree. I freeze mine in ziplock bags, in one cup portions, but I may just fill 1 cup Mason jars next time, this would allow me to skip the measuring step. Next time I do this I will go ahead and add pumpkin pie spice to it aswell.

~Easy Crockpot Pumpkin Butter~

* When eating this on toast its like having Pumpkin Pie for breakfast.....

4 cups pumpkin puree
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon gound cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

This recipe can easily be doubled, and spices can be adjusted to suit taste.

* Place pumpkin, spices, sugar and lemon juice in crockpot. Mix well. Cook on low until thick, smooth, and spreadable. Stirring occasionally. I cook for about 8 hours. Should become a dark rich colour, and should smell and taste like pumpkin pie. Spoon into hot sterilized jars. Seal and process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Pumpkin Pecan Butter:

3 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup toasted pecans chopped
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 box powdered pectin
4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon butter
*Put pumpkin, nuts & spices in saucepan, stir in pectin, add butter, bring to a boil, stirring constantly, add sugar stir until melted, remove from heat. Skim, ladle into hot sterilized jars, process in BWB for 10 minutes. I added extra spices, cause I like mine spicy. I found this to be more of a jam than a butter, but still really good.

Simple Pumpkin soup
1 small pumpkin peeled, seed and cut into 1" cubes
1 gallon of chicken stock
I onion chopped coarsely
one bouquet garni
1 tablespoon of crushed peppercorns
salt to taste
1 T butter, unsalted
Sautee the onion until translucent in the bottom of the stock pot in 1 T of butter melted. Once onions are softened add pumpkin and stir sautee for a few minutes and then cover with chicken stock, ass peppercorns and bouquet garni bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until pumpkin is tender. Serve with french bread. You can finish the soup off in the last 5 minutes of cooking with one cup of white wine and serve it ladled over crouton to have it in the French provinsal way.

I really want to try this savory stuffed pumpkin recipe from Dorie Greenspan with some small sugar pumpkins.

www.doriegreenspan.com/dorie_...ss.html

A ROUGH RECIPE FOR A REALLY GOOD STUFFED PUMPKIN

Makes 2 generous or 4 genteel servings

1 pumpkin, about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds

4 ounces stale bread, sliced thin, then cut into 1/2-inch chunks

4 ounces cheese, such as Gruyere, Swiss, Blue, Cheddar or a combination, cut into 1/2-inch chunks

2-4 cloves garlic (to taste), peeled, germ removed and coarsely chopped

About 1/3 cup heavy cream

Freshly grated nutmeg

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Either line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat or find a Dutch oven that's the same diameter as the pumpkin. (If you bake the pumpkin in a casserole, it will keep its shape, but it will also stick to the casserole, so you'll have to serve it from the pot, which is a rustic, appealingly homey way to serve it. If you bake it on a sheet, you can present it free-standing, if it doesn't collapse in the oven. I was lucky this time, but when I make it again tonight with a larger pumpkin, I'm not going to push my luck - I'm going to put it in a Dutch oven.)

Using a very sturdy knife, cut a cap off the top of the pumpkin. This isn't an easy job - I went around the top of the pumpkin with my knife at a 45-degree angle to get a nice size cap. Clear away any seeds and strings from the cap and hold it aside while you scoop out the seeds and filaments inside the pumpkin. (Hold onto this goop -- you can separate the seeds from the filaments and roast them.) Season the inside of the pumpkin with salt and pepper and put it on the sheet or in the casserole.

Now you have a choice, you can either toss the bread, cheese and garlic together in a bowl, then pack it into the pumpkin, or you can alternate layers of bread and cheese and scatter the garlic here and there. (I mixed everything together.) Either way, the filling should go into the pumpkin and fill it well. You might have a little too much filling or you might need to add to it -- it's hard to give exact amounts. Season the cream with salt, pepper and several gratings of fresh nutmeg and pour the cream into the pumpkin. Again, you might have too much or too little. You don't want the ingredients to swim in cream, but you do want to get a feeling that they're moistened.

Put the cap back in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours -- check after 90 minutes -- or until everything inside the pumpkin is bubbly and the flesh of the pumpkin is tender enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. I removed the cap during the last 20 minutes or so of baking so that the top could brown.

Pumpkin pie, but with curry spices:

2 parts coriander
1 part cumin
1 part turmeric

Then in descending order:

white pepper
galanga
cayenne
nutmeg
clove

I made five this year and used two tablespoons of coriander.

Let the pies sit for at least thirty six hours before eating. Like all good curries it takes time for the flavor to develop.