Please Save Me! Roasted Pumpkins

It is 4 o'clock in the morning here in Hazlehurst, GA. Hazlehurst is a tiny little town 30 minutes south of Vidalia. I am holed up at the cleanest hotel I could find for on-site sewage management systems (or septic system) training. I work as an environmentalist, and one of my responsibilities is inspecting septic tanks and helping people get the most out of their septic system. It isn't glamorous, but I love fiddling around outside with a hand-held auger and playing in the mud.

Hazlehurst is a typical south Georgia city. Beautiful flatwood pine forests, heat-worn buildings, and good ol' boy politics. The most apparent problem I have with this place is that I can count the number of restaurants in this town with both hands. Burger King, McDonald's, Krystal, and Dairy Queen. There's a small pizza buffet place that didn't make me sick. The last two nights I've been eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with yogurt and fruit from my hotel fridge. We had a "cookout" one night with fried quail, venison sausage, and an assortment of carbohydrates including french fries, biscuits, gravy, grits, and coconut cake. Needless to say, I was starved for anything that wasn't fast food, so I chomped into that little quail like there was no tomorrow. Unfortunately, on the second bite I crunched down into a piece of birdshot. I just sat staring at the small metal ball in my hand, wondering what I had done to deserve this punishment.

Last night my boyfriend told me he was eating Peking duck and Chinese broccoli. A part of me died.

I am starved for wholesome, nutritious, and appealing provisions, and that is why I am up at 4:30 am writing about pumpkins. Here we go.

Roasting a pumpkin is very easy, and it is an excellent way to eat pumpkin in its unsweetened, unprocessed form. (Plus, you get to roast the seeds for extra credit.)

Roasted Pumpkin

1 small sugar pumpkin (or pie pumpkin)

1 tbsp butter, melted

Enough water to cover the bottom of your roasting pan

Slice the pumpkin in half, being careful not to dismember yourself. Gently remove the seeds from the pulp with a gentle pinching action. The less pulp you pull off with the seeds, the better. Scrape the stringy pulp out of the pumpkin with a large spoon. (Note: I was doing this all outside. It can get messy and dried pulp is hard to scrub off the kitchen counter.)

Baste the inside of the pumpkin with the melted butter. Turn the pumpkin upside down on a roasting pan so the rind is facing up. Fill the pan with water so that the entire bottom is covered. Preheat oven to 350 and roast for 45-55 minutes.

I used a mixture of roast pumpkin and roast acorn squash to make Thai-Spiced Pumpkin Soup from 101 Cookbooks. I went a little crazy on the red thai paste and the sambal oelek chili paste, but it was delcious. My boyfriend was drinking it up. I would also recommend trying any of these pumpkin dishes from Pinch My Salt.