Ten Uses for A Pumpkin - Part II

by Alden Smith

We have looked at all the obvious uses for a pumpkin in the first part of this series. Now, we will take a look at other things that can be done. Much of this is in the arts and crafts world, but we also add more things that can be done with the versatile pumpkin.

Make pumpkin pancakes. Make your pancake batter as you normally do, and add pumpkin pie spices to the mix. Add ½ can of pumpkin to the mixture. You may need to thin the batter with milk to produce the proper thickness for good batter.
Make some muffins. Use any basic muffin recipe for the base, and add canned pumpkin and pumpkin spices to the mixture. These muffins come out light and fluffy. Many good recipes can be found online.
Make a gaseous, bubbling jack o’ lantern. To do this, take a carved pumpkin, and put a glass jar inside. Add some liquid dish soap. Pour hot water into the glass jar. Add dry ice to this mixture, and put the lid on the pumpkin. Soap bubbles and fog will come out of the eyes, nose and mouth of the pumpkin, giving a very spooky Halloween effect. Be very careful when handling dry ice. Always wear heavy rubber gloves. If dry ice touches the skin, it can cause immediate frostbite. Always remember to use this in a well ventilated space, too, because breathing carbon dioxide, the fumes from the dry ice, can lead to asphyxiation.
Make pumpkin bread. Much like zucchini bread, it is a good way to use pumpkin removed from a jack o’ lantern. If you use canned pumpkin, the taste will be a bit stronger than pulp taken from a jack o’ lantern pumpkin. Those pumpkins are raised for durability, while the sugar pumpkin used in canned pumpkin are raised for taste. Either makes delicious bread.
Decoupage them – this is a fun activity for little children. Instead of carving, let the kids cut pictures from magazines or wrapping paper and apply them to the pumpkin with decoupage glue. Give them colored markers and let their imagination run wild.
Make a holiday bowl from a pumpkin. Use a small, flat bottomed pumpkin and mark a circle around the widest portion of the pumpkin. Bisect the top portion so that you are removing one quarter of the shell. Scoop out the insides, scraping away the stringy portions and seeds. Coat cut edges with vegetable oil. Serve hot soup or stew in the shell.

Many events are built around the pumpkin. There are contests for the world’s largest pumpkin. The current record is held by Scott Cully of Northern Cambria, Pennsylvania. The pumpkin weighed in at 1,469 pounds! In New Bremen, Ohio, on October 8, 2005, growers baked a pumpkin pie that weighed 2,020 pounds. The "Pumpkin Chuckin" record stands at 4,091 feet, shot out of an air cannon.