It's the Great Can of Libby's Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Last week my friend, Angi , posted some pictures on her blog of the pumpkins in their garden. How much fun are home-grown pumpkins? Lots.

Back when the boys were little and I was running the in-home daycare, I had a garden too. I dabbled in strawberries and tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash. But the biggest crowd pleaser, by far, was the pumpkins. We grew pumpkins in our garden for about 5 years - big ones, little ones, bright orange and the never-did-turn-orange ones, misshapen ones and perfect ones. The kids loved them all. We turned them and babied them and watched and waited for them to grow and change color. Then we hacked them off the vine and sliced and sawed and scraped at them until they were no longer pumpkins - they were jack-o-lanterns! Whaaahahahaha! That's my evil laugh.

And then my garden stopped producing pumpkins. Or anything for that matter. Just a few (okay, just a few million) weeds. It was as if the soil had given all that it had. All the minerals and richness and goodness that make up a good soil were depleted. Our last few attempts at a garden yielded only discouragement and a paltry tomato or two. We stopped trying. We buy our pumpkins now.

(Note to self: Growing your own pumpkins was a blast! Don't give up completely - keep after Troy until he builds you that raised garden bed that you've been talking about. Bring in fresh soil. Start small, nurture and care for it...you can do it. Have faith.)


Well, home-grown or bought at the store or from a field, it is definitely pumpkin time. Feeling the weather get cooler and seeing the leaves change puts me in a mood to hang out with my favorite kind of pumpkin:


The kind to make yummy things with. Are you with me? Do you like pumpkin desserts? I do, starting with:
Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread (oh, just wait til I put my Mom's recipe for pumpkin bread on here!) pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and Tawnya's Pumpkin Dessert. Oh baby.

Years and years ago, I had a friend named Tawnya who made this fabulous pumpkin dessert. She gave me the recipe and it's a favorite every time I make it. I've given the recipe to lots of people and they probably call it Wendy's Pumpkin Dessert. If you make it and decide that it's a keeper for your family, go ahead and give it a fancy, delicious-sounding name - it deserves better than just the name of the person you got it from.

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Tawnya's Pumpkin Dessert

1 large can evaporated milk
1 16 oz. can of solid pack pumpkin
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Mix that all up with the beaters and pour into a greased or sprayed 9x13 pan.

1 box yellow cake mix
chopped pecans - a lot or a little. I like a lot.
1 cup margarine or butter, melted

Sprinkle the dry cake mix all over the top of the pumpkin mixture, and then sprinkle the pecans on top of that. Pour that melted margarine or butter over the whole thing and bake for 50 - 60 minutes at 350 degrees.

Top it with either Cool Whip or the real stuff. So dang good! The pumpkin part is sort of mild - not too sweet, smooth and creamy. The buttery, pecan-laden cake mix part is rich and sweet and decadent and kind of crunchy, and heaven help me, it's even a little bit salty from all that butter! You need the whipped cream to bring it all together. Don't you dare make it without the whipped cream!

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Whew! For a blog that isn't a recipe blog, I've sure been writing about food a lot lately. It's enough to make me do something in the kitchen besides the dishes and overseeing homework.

Do you have a favorite dessert that's made with pumpkin?