Don't throw out your pumpkins!!!!

I always feel  guilty throwing away my pumpkins after Halloween night......The Italian "don't waste anything" mentality kicks into high gear when I drive down my street, November 1st and see all the beautiful jack-o-lanterns on the curbside, waiting to be picked up by the garbage truck.

This is what I do......

Place your cleaned out pumpkin, cut in half,  flesh side down on a large baking sheet.  Bake at 350' for 45 min.  Remove from oven, let cool.  Scoop out all the flesh into a bowl, mash up with a potato masher, and measure out into 1 cup servings and drop the cooked pumpkin into a ziplock bag.  Freeze.  This will last several months in the freezer, and you can use it in any recipe calling for pumpkin puree.
Or you can just buy a can of pumpkin puree......you won't offend me!!

Moist, and delicious.  Is it a cake, cookie or muffin top? These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies got over 600 four star ratings on thefoodnetwork.com, so of course, I just had to try them.  Keeper.

Here is the recipe:

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

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• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree (What do you think I used?????)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips (I used semi sweet)
• Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper ( I used parchment, ....easy clean up!!)
• Directions
• Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.
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• Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.
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