In memory of Fred…. the pumpkin

When I was in fourth grade we did the typical carving the pumpkin lesson. We even named it Fred and put his name in big red letters on the side of the pumpkin. It was neat but my parents would never bother making one and I honestly didn’t care much for it. When the lesson was over my teacher raffled off the pumpkin and I won. I was happy to take this huge pumpkin home. However, I did not like the fact that I had to carry the darn thing to the bus, climb the steps and sit with it on my lap for awhile while the other kids tried to poke at Fred with their pencils. When I got home I showed it to my mom and she put it outside for a couple of days. After that she decided to cut it up and freeze it. She also cut the name out so I could keep it. During November she decided to make pumpkin empanadas. It was such a task ( I learned that the hard way today). I helped in the process in any way that I could. She made a ton of them and packed them for me to take to class. The kids kept asking me about Fred so I figured it was a great idea to take the empanadas to them. So I passed out the empanandas and told them that they were made out of Fred. They looked at me funny and I just thought I said something wrong. Meanwhile, Mrs. West was cracking up at her desk. She enjoyed the empanadas while my classmates looked at me in disgust. They eventually got over it and ate the empanandas too. So on Thursday I was at one of my patient’s house and his mother suggests that I take one of the pumpkins that he had won at school. He was all happy to hear that I was taking one home. She started asking me what I normally do with them and I told her you could make soup, pies, breads and even empanadas. My patient was histerical he couldn’t believe and had a fit. I brought the pumpkin home and left it on the table until today. I boiled it and roasted the seeds. I was off to make the dough but I decided that I was going to wait. I did get to make a few to taste the pumpkin puree. I did not know how much work this was but I do know that I won’t be taking any to my patient because I don’t want him to freak out.

they were good but I am going to wait until later this week