Pumpkin ice cream.

I followed the Almanac planting guide and planted pumpkin seeds in May.  I had never grown pumpkins before, so I assumed that I would have pumpkins in October when pumpkins are normally available.  No, I had pumpkins in July!  I picked 3 nice pumpkins just before the vines died.  One of the pumpkins developed some rot, so the chickens got it.  Anyway, I ended up with two really nice pie pumpkins. 

Then I had to decide what to do with them.  Ice cream seemed like the obvious answer.

I started by cutting the pumpkins in half and removing the seeds.  Then they went into the oven for 45 minutes or so.

After that it was easy to scoop the flesh out of the pumpkin and into the food processor.

I pureed the pumpkin in the food processor.

I put the puree in the fridge to chill over night.

I have a Cuisinart ice cream maker, so I thought I'd use Cuisinart's pumpkin ice cream recipe.  Well, I used their recipe as a guide really.  I didn't use corn syrup and I didn't have ginger snaps or ginger.  And I didn't use heavy cream or whole milk.  I just used half & half.  Just for good measure (and because I found it in the cabinet) I threw in some pumpkin pie spice.

I mixed all of the ingredients in a large bowl and then dumped the contents into the ice cream maker.

It took half an hour, but I ended up with yummy pumpkin ice cream.  It had too much cinnamon, but that didn't stop me from eating it.

The dog even helped by cleaning the ice cream maker afterwards.

My wife informed me that pumpkin pie spice contains cinnamon, and that I should not have used it in addition to the cinnamon that the recipe called for.  Oh well...  That just gives me a reason to try again in the fall when pumpkins are normally available.