The Great Japanese Pumpkin - Part Two

It all started here with a green pumpkin.
To begin, I could say that I sliced open our green pumpkin very carefully, but what I really did was wrestle a knife through its crazy tough rind until the knife got stuck and I had to sorta pound them both on the counter to get the knife to cut through.

I might need sharper knives.

Cut away from yourself *grunt*cut away!
Whew! That took some effort, but there it is! Looks like any pumpkin might look on the inside, don't you think so? No surprises so far.

Next, I threw the halves into the oven to bake for about an hour at 350. In hindsight, they might not have needed the whole hour - they got a bit overdone. Oops.
So, though possibly, maybe, probably, a bit overcooked, I scraped the orange meat out of the rind and decided it would be a good time to sample it too.
It tasted like... well, it tasted like pumpkin to me. Maybe just a little sweeter? Isn't that just what those farmers said to expect? Yep, I think they were right!
Smash! Smash! Sorry that the picture is a bit blurry.

Just looks like regular pumpkin at this point, doesn't it?

When it came time to choose a recipe for our green pumpkin, I did a little more smashing. I pulled a recipe from everybody's favorite, Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, and another from Allrecipes.com, and then I smashed them into one, I hope this turns out, pumpkin bread recipe.

Why two recipes? Because I have terrible time making decisions. Recipes included.
But it all worked out because the recipes are very similar.

They differ the most in their use of spices. The Better Homes and Gardens recipe calls for cinnamon and nutmeg, while the Allrecipes.com version calls for cinnamon and nutmeg PLUS cloves and ginger.

I took the middle ground and added cloves but left out the ginger.

But I had a good reason for excluding the ginger. Personally, I love ginger, but my little sister thinks it is gross, and since it was her birthday over the weekend, I left it out for her sake and in her honor. Not that she got to eat any of the bread.

Still, Happy Birthday, little sis. Can't say I never did nothin' for ya.

The little owls were overseeing the work.
These are the ingredients that went into the green, pumpkin bread - minus the ginger.
Just a side thought... Take a good look at that picture. Now, why do you suppose, I cannot seem to buy the same brand of anything ever? Anyone else have cabinets that look like a cross-section of the supermarket?
Such a sad picture, the ginger is being pushed out - left out - dismissed - disregarded. He stands alone - estranged to the far right. Poor ginger. Though, I suppose by including the ginger here, it is not being completely excluded which should help to make it feel a little better.

Okay, now I am going to attempt to do what the wonderful and talented Pioneer Woman does and show you my baking steps. Just thought I would try it this once.

Uhhh, here we go...

Mix the oil and the sugar.
Then add the eggs.
All the dry ingredients.
Combine.
Alright, there is obviously more than 15 oz of pumpkin-y goodness blopped in there, but what else was I gonna do with it?
Stir.
Pour. We have sooo got this!
Ta-Da!!!!
All said and done, the funny thing about our Great Japanese Pumpkin is that really it is just a less famous pumpkin - but that kinda makes it special, like a best-kept secret, don't you think so?

It was so tasty in the bread. I cut the loaves into halves and shared around with our neighbors, and so far, all the feedback has been positive.

"Delicious!"

"Yummy!"

It even scored a "Divine!"

So, next time you are out and about, if you see a strange looking green pumpkin, don't hesitate to invite it home, set it next to your more common-variety, average, regular, orange pumpkins, look at it, warm up to it, embrace its uniqueness, and when the time comes, feel free to bake/cook it into anything and everything for deliciousness!

It really was fun to experiment with and learn about Japanese Pumpkin. Hope you get a chance to do the same.

P.S. - In case you don't have a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and oh-so very much want to make pumpkin bread, the recipe I (kinda) used is available at Allrecipes.com, posted by Laurie Bennett, and is called Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread. It is absolutely scrumptious!