About pumpkins

The introduction

Hello everyone, I hope that you all are doing well!

Now I want to tell you about pumpkin and how people use it and things like that, and, well, how I use it and how I like to prepare it for myself, because this thing is just perfect for everything, if you want to know the truth. You can eat it as a main dish or as a dessert or whatever, it’s just that good!

About pumpkin in general

Well, there are different types of pumpkins and the ones that were very popular in my childhood were those white pumpkins, I mean, the outside of them , you know , the skin was kind of white and grey and the inside was kind of orange, of course. I guess, that was the kind of pumpkin that my grandparents had seed of, or something like that, because they used to seed them in the vineyard where there was some free space, 

and those pumpkins were pretty large and I just liked to walk between them and look for the largest one of them, if you want to know the truth. Well, there were plenty of those pumpkins and then when they were ripe, they used to pick them and take them to our house and place them somewhere inside the cellar and then we used to take them and my grandmother would cook them and we would eat them a lot. That was pretty cook, if you ask me. They were really delicious, though, my grandmother used to sprinkle some white granulated sugar on them to make them like a dessert, however, they really didn’t need to be sweetened, because they were already sweet enough and they didn’t require any more sugar, if you ask me. Well, some people liked them with sugar, of course, but I didn’t really, so that, they knew that I didn’t like them with sugar, so they would sprinkle it on their pieces of pumpkin and not on mine.

Well, there’s this other type of pumpkin, which was not really very popular in those places where I live. It’s kind of a cylinder shaped and its skin is kind of orange or something and it’s orange inside and it doesn’t really have so many seeds inside and that’s what most people like about them, I guess. Well, it’s pretty delicious, too, and it’s easy to cut and everything. So that, I  really like those ones, and, besides, they can be pretty small, too, and when someone wants to have a pumpkin, but is alone and doesn’t want the pumpkin to be large and stuff, they can buy those ones and that’s it. this is a pretty good choice in that case. And, well, I must say , that no pumpkin costs much, I mean, here in Georgia they cost 50 Tetris or so, it all depends on where exactly you are buying them. I mean, they usually cost more in supermarkets, but if you buy them in Bazaars, they cost pretty cheap. And, there’s no other difference between them, if you want to know the truth.

Cooking pumpkins

Well, all my childhood I just ate boiled pumpkin and I didn’t think, that you could eat pumpkin in any other way, you know. my grandmother would cut the pumpkins and make them like a triangle shaped and put them into a saucepan with the insides on the bottom and pour some water, so that they were covered with it and then boil them for some time or maybe even more. Then, when they were softer, she would take them out and put them on plates or something and that was it. and those were really delicious pumpkin pieces, if you want to know the truth.

Then, after some time, I realized, that one can prepare so many things with pumpkin.

First of all, you can bake pumpkin and that’s what my aunt likes to do and she bakes pumpkin in the oven and it is pretty good, however, I guess, I still prefer the boiled one to the baked one. Though, if you bake pumpkin, you can eat it as a main dish, I mean, not like a dessert, but a typical dish. You can have some sauce with it or something like that, and just like that, it can be your meal.

You can boil the pumpkin and prepare some puree from it and then you can either eat that puree or use it in something, like in preparing some dish or cake, even. Well, I use to have it in my  oatmeal cookies recipe and it came out pretty good. I used pumpkin puree and ground oatmeal to prepare some oatmeal cookies and those are healthier than the other ones, you know, which have much sugar and some other things in them. That is something that you can prepare anytime with no much effort  and stuff like that, because preparing them is really not that hard and they are pretty good for snacks or to take them with you and eat them on the road or something like that, you know. I used to do that, because when you are on a way the whole day, you can’t just eat whatever you want and, sometimes, there’s no time to buy something and eat it, so that, you have those small pieces of oatmeal cookies with you and you just take them out and eat them. They are pretty efficient, because you can make them just the size you want , s that then it will be comfortable for you to take one of them out of your bag and eat them while being in public transport or on a way or wherever you want.

So, if you buy 1 kilogramme pumpkin, that’s pretty much for just one person, I mean, it all depends on how much you can eat and sometimes people just love pumpkin so much, that they can eat a lot of them, though, it’s not really recommended to eat lots of pumpkin at the same time, I guess, because it still contains sugar and stuff like that, you know, however, it really contains other precious vitamins and everything and it’s really good for us, so that, we should eat pumpkin, but enough is enough, of course and we need to be not that much of eaters to eat that much, I guess.

Preparation process _ boiled pumpkin

Well, the process is pretty easy once you have washed the pumpkin thoroughly and cut it into some pieces. You know, it’s pretty hard to cut those pumpkins and it needs some strength, if you want to know the truth. So, my grandfather used to cut them for my grandmother, so that she could cut those pieces into smaller ones after that and then she could prepare them.

So, the smaller the pieces are, the faster they are prepared. Also, you can even peel the pumpkin and cook it that way. However, some people even eat the pumpkin with the skin. You know, the skin is very thin and sometimes it’s pretty hard to separate those two things from each other and you just eat the whole thing together. And it’s not a big deal, because boiling kills any other bacteria, that may be on that skin, so that if you washed it pretty well, there’s nothing to be afraid of. I mean, it’s on the ground and that’s where it grows, of course, so that it can have some things on it like mud or something like that and that’s why you need to wash everything very well, not just those pumpkins, but all the other things, like vegetables and fruits and whatever it can be that needs washing. There’s this kind of a dispute about whether you need to wash meat or not. I’ve read somewhere, that you shouldn’t wash poultry, because if there are some bacteria and you are washing it, you just spread that bacteria all over the meat, well, I don’t know, I mean, if there’s bacteria, then I think, that it should already be all over the meat and washing doesn’t make any difference. Besides, then after washing, you put that poultry into a boiling water, which should kill all those bacteria, so it’s not that different whether you wash it or not, I guess.

So then, after washing and cutting, I just put those pieces into a saucepan and pour some water in it so that every piece is covered with water and then just put it on the gas on a high heat, so that water can be boiled fast. Then, after the water boils, I turn the heat down to a low gas and let it boil for some time, until the pieces are tender. It doesn’t even need to be boiling for half an hour,because it gets ready pretty quickly, if you want to know the truth. So that, you should check it soon with fork or something like that and if the pieces are tender and soft, then they are ready and you can turn the gas off and get them out of the water. They are pretty delicious when eaten when they are still hot, but not that hot so that one can burn their mouth, of course!

Preparation process _ baked pumpkin

This baked pumpkin was something that I tasted at my aunt’s. there were her friends and they prepared this baked pumpkin. They had cut the pumpkin into smaller pieces and put them on the pan and into the oven. It was about half an hour or even more that it was in the oven baking. They would check it out and see whether it was ready or not and , I guess, it was ready when the tops of the pieces got baked, I mean, they got kind of brownish and stuff like that. And they smelled pretty good and the taste was great, too. And, you know, you could eat them with some sauce or just like a dessert. I liked eating them like dessert, because I was used to eat pumpkin as a dessert, however, some other people ate it with Ajika sauce, that is Megrelian sauce, which is pretty hot and spicy. And, well, if you like eating it, it goes with everything, trust me. Though, there are different types of Ajika and you should choose wisely. You know, there’s this one, which my aunt buys and it’s really delicious, though I don’t like Ajika that much, however, I can say, that this one is pretty good. Some Ajikas are not that good, well, at least, I don’t really like them.

So, that’s another way to use pumpkin _ bake in the oven and have it served hot. It’s really delicious and easy to prepare and it really makes your dinner table more beautiful, if you ask me. And, besides, people will love it.

Preparation process _ pumpkin puree

Well, preparing pumpkin puree is another easy way to use pumpkin. You know, some people really love eating purees and pumpkin puree is one of the best purees , if you ask me, because it’s really tasty and it doesn’t really need much effort to be prepared, you know. you just have to boil the pumpkin and when it’s ready, you can peel the skin off and put it in a blender or chopper or whatever and make it a puree. You can either season it and sprinkle some spices and stuff like that, or you can leave it like that and eat it that way. For me, personally, it’s better eating it just the way it is, because it has its own taste, which I love very much and I don’t add anything else to it. however, it all depends on you, whether you like the way it tastes or if you want to add some things to it. well, some people will add some sugar to it and make it like a dessert. You can even put some cream on it and it will be like a trifle or something like that. You can decorate it or put it into some glasses and serve it like that. There are so many things that you can use pumpkin puree in.

So, now I will tell you about my pumpkin oatmeal cookies. You need pumpkin puree for that, of course, and some oatmeal. I’ve heard about those pumpkin oatmeal cookies and I wondered, how they would taste. Well, I’ve been preparing oatmeal cookies for some time now and I pretty much enjoy them, so that I thought that pumpkin oatmeal cookies were something worth trying tasting. So that, one day I bought this small pumpkin and took it home and started preparing it. well, you know, I boiled that pumpkin and then took those pieces out when they were ready and waited for them to get colder. Then I took the skin off and put two pieces into the blender to make a puree. Well, those two pieces were something about 170 grams, I guess.

Ingredients:

• 170 grams pumpkin puree
• 200 grams oats
• 1 pack baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• Vanilla
• 2 tbs melted unsalted butter
• White granulated sugar (optional)
• Chocolate chips (optional)

So, after preparing some pumpkin puree, I added some unsalted butter to it and oats and baking powder and salt and vanilla and mixed them all together in my blender, so that the mass was kind of dry, but not too dry, so that I could make some small balls and put them on an oiled pan or parchment paper. I preheated the oven on 180 degrees Celsius and made some balls from that mixture and put the pan into the oven for about 20 minutes or so. You can add some chocolate chips so that it will have a better taste and it will be better-looking. Or, you may like those oatmeal cookies to be sweeter, you can add some sugar in the mixture, or you may want to decorate those cookies with some chocolate ganache or glaze or something like that. It will be pretty beautiful, if you want to know the truth. However, I wanted those cookies to be efficient, I mean, it should have been in such condition to take them with me and I needed them to be in my bag in a container or something like that and not get my hands dirty or something like that when eating them, so that I didn’t put anything fancy on top of them or something. And I didn’t add any sugar, so that they were kind of sweet in a way, but not that much, if you want to know the truth. So, if you are keen on oatmeal cookies, you can prepare those stuff with pumpkin pie and enjoy the cookies. I definitely enjoyed them and they were pretty good, I must say.

Anyways, these oatmeal cookies are pretty good and you must really try. They can be really enjoying and you may feel like you want to eat them even more. Well, you can add half oatmeal and half all-purpose flourand so that the cookies will be more like regular cookies. I mean, some people don’t really like those oatmeal stuff, you know. I use to kind of ground those oatmeals, so that they have this flour-look and are more like regular flour, and it’s pretty good, if you want to know the truth. So that, you can do that , too, and forget that those cookies are made from oatmeal and not flour. And, you know, these oatmeal cookies are healthier, than the all-purpose flour ones, so that, keep that in mind when preparing some cookies! You can make your favourite chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal, too, of course, and they will be just as delicious, as those ones with flour!

Photo gallery