Pumpkin!

Last year at this time I got a really great price on sugar pumpkins...  50 cents each (the cheapest I've seen so far this year is $1.50 each).  So, naturally, I bought a bunch and decided to preserve them.  Knowing we'd be moving over the summer, I didn't want to just make pumpkin puree and freeze it, only to have to scramble to use it.  I decided to dehydrate it and then grind it up and store in a canning jar.  (7 pumpkins fit into a quart jar!)

A few weeks ago, I finally rehydrated some and made pumpkin icecream out of it.  The girls liked it, but I thought it was barely edible.  There were tiny 'chunks' of pumpkin throughout.  I was devastated.  What if all of my pumpkin-preserving was a waste?  Refusing to give up, I rehydrated another batch and left it in the fridge to get nice and juicy.  There were still small chunks, and even putting it in the blender didn't help.  I decided to try something that would involve cooking the pumpkin, hoping the heat would help.  It did.

I've been wanting to make these 'Starbucks' Pumpkin Scones for awhile, so I decided to finally give them a whirl.  The recipe looks far more complicated than it really is..

This is what they look like, all mixed and cut:

They really puff up a lot while baking:

The icing was thick, so I spread it while the scones were still warm and that helped to smooth it out and make them look pretty.

The last step is the spiced icing. 

If you're going to use the ziploc bag trick to get them to look beautiful, don't use a snack size one.  It oozes everywhere.  Trust me on this one.

I've decided that once my dehydrated pumpkin is used up, I'll be sticking to Libby's... even with the great price on the fresh pumpkins, it's just not worth it... this is one of those rare cases where store-bought trumps homemade (ketchup and Ragu being the only other two I can think of off the top of my head.)