My oldest son came home on Friday and told me he needed a pumpkin for an art project at school. It also happened to be the weekend of the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival. 

Saturday morning started our busy day. Our first stop was at the farmers market. We saw many orange vegtables; cauliflower, carrots, beets and pumpkins. There were white, orange, lumpy and majorly distorted pumpkins. It was so much fun to look at them all. We finally settled on a “sugar” pumpkin. We then head for the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival. There was a craft show, a business expo, rides for the kids and pumpkin this, pumpkin that and of course pumpkin flavored everything. My significant other announced the kid’s games: mummy wrap, seed spitting and pumpkin pie eating contest. It was a very fun weekend.

This morning my son took his pumpkin to school where it will be turned in to a work of art. On Friday he will bring it home. We will admire it for the Halloween weekend and then for the best part, I will cut it in half and bake it. Peel off the skin and puree it. Fresh pumpkin pie filling! Yum!

For those of you that want to bake a pumpkin, the recipe:

Use 4 “sugar” pumpkins or whatever happens to be your favorite. Wash them, cut in half and scrap out the seeds. Place them cut side down on a jelly roll pan. Bake about 45 minutes at 400 degrees or until you can put a fork through the skin. Cool them or until you can touch them. Scrap out the flesh and place in food processor. Process the flesh until smooth. Place the pumpkin puree in a colander lined with cheese cloth. Pull the cheese cloth over the pumpkin puree. Place in the refrigerator and drain over night. In the morning the filling should be the consistence of canned pumpkin. This is a little time consuming, but the flavor is amazing. I will do a few batches and put the puree in 1 cup containers and freeze. Good for about 6 months. Defrost in refrigerator overnight and use in your favorite recipe.