We started Long Island cheese pumpkins (in the photos) from seed this year and planted them over at my father-in-law's big garden. We were over there last weekend and checked on them and saw that we have a lot of pumpkins. A few were ripe so we grabbed a couple. The first thing I noticed is how adorable they are and what a lovely shade of orange they are on the outside. I roasted one up right away and froze a bunch of puree (and have a feeling I'll be doing more of that). I'm excited to give these pumpkins a try in pumpkin pie because they have a sweet, dense, bright orange flesh and according to some of my research they were historically a preferred pie pumpkin. Since we have a lot of pumpkins on our plants, you can probably expect even more pumpkin recipes this fall/winter!
One of my favorite fall weekend breakfasts is this French toast. The custard is full of pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spices. It's delicious, especially with an extra sprinkle of cinnamon, a good drizzle of real maple syrup, and some sage breakfast sausage. This recipe will make about 8 slices of French toast.