Roasted Pumpkin?

It is true.  For the first time in probably 10 years, I roasted a pumpkin.  I used to do this in college.  And I would make pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing.  YUM!  But college kids have time for stuff like that.  When you actually need food for a family of four, you don't usually have the time to do these kinds of things.  One-pot and crock pot meals become the norm for dinner.  Dessert?  If you're lucky.

But then one day you start talking about pumpkin bread with a friend and you have an overwhelming craving for the yumminess of old.

So, I went to our local farm store and bought a pumpkin, roasted it, froze some, and set some out for muffins, toasted the seeds (and burned them beyond the point of being edible), and made muffins!  I even made the cream cheese icing.  It all sounds so much fancier than it is.

So, if any of you are interested, here's the what and how of my semi-home-made pumpkin muffins.

Roast the pumpkin:

Cut in half, set the halves on a cookie sheet, cover the tops with aluminum foil and roast at 400 for about an hour or until soft.

Freeze the pumpkin:

Scoop out the pumpkin.  (Toss skins in compost.)  Blend or process.  Measure into freezer baggies the amount you need for your fave recipes.  (I freeze 1 1/2 cups in each baggie.)  Label and freeze.

(Pumpkin should thaw in about an hour after removing it from freezer.)

Make the muffins:

Buy a box of Spice Cake mix.  Use the recipe on the side for Apple Spice Cake, subbing pumpkin for apples:

1 pkg. Spice Cake Mix
3 large eggs
[1 1/2 c.pureed pumpkin]
1/3 c. vegetable oil
3/4 c. water [or less if your pumpkin is watery; I use 1/3 c.]
1 c. chopped nuts [I opt out]
1/2 tsp cinnamon [or more]

Pour all ingredients together and mix at medium speed for two mins.  Place liners in muffin cups.  Fill cups 3/4 full.  Bake at 350 until lightly brown and cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.  [Approx 18 mins.]

Make the icing:

Mix:

1 block of cream cheese, softened
1 stick of butter, softened
2 c. powdered sugar

Slather the icing all over the baby cakes and...

Eat 'em up!  Yum, yum!

One of these days I'll get really ambitious and make the muffins from scratch.  For now this is all I can muster.  Please don't remind me of the hydrogenated oils, preservatives, xanthan gum, etc. in the mix.  I'm trying to eat in ignorant bliss...