Pumpkin fail 2

Bad idea. Bad, bad, bad idea.

Well, it might have been a good idea when I first had it, but all the traveling and time away from home, meant that my pumpkin might have been past its prime. Or that my initial enthusiasm for all things pumpkin might have waned. Or that I just never really felt like I had a good idea about how pumpkin can be used for a side dish rather than a dessert.

Nonetheless, I did try. Once I got the thing opened and more or less prepared for cooking, I tried a couple of things.

• Boiled some pumpkin meat with Splenda and water. Added cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, butter. Light mash. I didn't care for the taste. It was a bit earthy for me. My Prince had three helpings.
• Baked shards of pumpkin (peel on) at 375 degrees for an hour, wrapped in foil, dotted with butter. The buttered bits tasted better than the unbuttered bits. I ended up cutting off the peeling (which had finally softened enough to actually be a peeling), chopped the meat, and tossed it into a Mystery Stir Fry. Hidden among the other ingredients, the taste was fine. Tasted alone, still earthy.
• I saved the seeds. They've been spread out and drying for a couple of days, but I still don't know how to get all the strings off. Maybe they will just fall off when I try to roast the seeds.
  

The other half of the pumpkin went in the trash. I hate to waste food like that, but I really didn't like it. And it was hard to handle. I might try pumpkin soup with canned pumpkin, but I do believe that that is the last (more or less) fresh pumpkin that I will try.