Fall is my absolute favorite season. The colors, the smell of leaves, the crisp, damp air; everything about the fall ignites my senses and makes me want to spend as much time as possible outside. And…one of my favorite things about fall are pumpkins. I don’t go for those overly sugary pumpkin coffee drinks, but I do get excited about cooking with pumpkin.
A longstanding joke in our household is my incessant need for canned pumpkin each fall (I’m too impatient to prepare pumpkin myself). Years ago, a pumpkin shortage made canned pumpkin difficult (and expensive) to find. The following year, concerned that I’d miss my window of pumpkin opportunity, I had my husband pick up canned pumpkin as soon as he saw it in the store. He came home with no fewer than SIX cans (that’s love, isn’t it?)! So, each year, when a chill overtakes the warm, summer breeze, my husband asks if I need any canned pumpkin. Not long after, my culinary pumpkin creations commence.