It's Fall Y'all

Can I just say, my house smells amazing right now!  So, it's fall.  When it's fall, there are pie pumpkins available at the store.  My friend is a bargain ninja.  She stalked the price of the pumpkins and then told me when to go to the store to buy them.

We had a cutting party at her house this morning with one other friend that is as crazy about canning as we are.  When you've got to cut pumpkins, you need to be hanging out with friends because it takes forever!  We have played with whether or not to roast first or just cut.  I'm usually too impatient to roast and just cut it.  As you can see by the middle picture, this process comes with a price- a nice blister.

I didn't take any selfies or pictures of the other 2 ladies because - remember when I said that stuff has to go when you are trying to be super productive?  Yeah, non of us had showered this morning.  I went from my morning walk to the bus stop to my friends house.  I didn't think it fair to drag them into my honesty fest by documenting their appearance.  I just got around to showering - only because I'm in charge of an activity at the church tonight....but I'm back in yoga pants and I haven't brushed my hair yet :0)

The only bummer about pressure canning is that you live by the little red button thingy.  When it pops up, the canner is sealed and you can add your weight.  When the cooking time is up and you remove the canner from the stove you again have to wait on the red button.  This time it has to go back in so that you know all the pressure has been released and it's safe to remove the lid.  This is usually when I start loosing patience (especially when I'm waiting to do another batch) and start jiggling the weight so that it will force the release pressure (carefully with a wooden spoon or you will burn yourself).

So, my 5 pie pumpkins  yielded 1 batch of pumpkin butter (I've never made it before so I'm not sure how many pints, but fingers crossed that it is divine) 7 quarts and 10 pints of cubed pumpkin.  It all depends on the size of your pumpkins.  The advantage my friend had was that she was the first one to go get pumpkins so her's were the biggest.  She bought 7 and she yielded 21 quarts, 8 pints and 2 batches of butter.

I decided to roast the seeds this time as well- I don't think I did last time.  Waste not, want not - that's my new motto.  The pumpkin butter is in the crockpot cooking down and wont be ready until this evening.  In case you were wondering, you cannot can the pumpkin butter, it can be stored in the freezer if you want.  I think it's dumb, but I don't make the rules.  It's too thick to be sure that it reaches the proper internal temp so it is on the absolutely do not do list- along side regular butter.

Now I just need some amazing new recipes to try out all my pumpkin on.......after my 15 days of torture is over.  BTW in the bottom left hand picture there is a mason jar full of a suspicious liquid - it belonged  to the other friend that was there.  She doesn't own a juicer so she is just blending everything and "chewing" her drinks.  Gross!  She does it because she is a runner and needed more nutrients to not run out of energy.  I haven't started yet and looking at that liquid didn't make me any more eager!  Maybe tomorrow :0)