Pumpkin, two ways

I know it's not original, but I really do love pumpkin this time of year. I've come across all kinds of glorious recipes for pumpkin recently, including pumpkin cake, pumpkin bars, and pumpkin ice cream, all of which have my mind spinning in an orangey blur. So when an adorable Sugar Pie Pumpkin arrived in our produce box last week, I thought long and hard about what to do with it.

By the way, isn't "Sugar Pie Pumpkin" the cutest name ever? I mean, if you don't want to eat something called Sugar Pie, you need to get your head checked.

Sometimes I spend a lot of time mulling over what to do with a particular ingredient, only to use it on a whim, which is what happened to my little Sugar Pie one night recently when we found ourselves without a dinner plan. All of a sudden my agony over pumpkin whoopie pies v. pork and pumpkin stew, in honor of one of my favorite dishes at Burma Superstar, vanished into thin air. Before I knew it, I was flying around the kitchen like a little witch, chopping squash, covering the other hungry dog in a light dusting of garam masala, and rooting around for my immersion blender.

Turns out curried pumpkin soup isn't bad for a quick weeknight dinner. It's certainly not fancy, nor is it particularly photogenic, as is evidenced below, but it hits the spot on a cool night. Serve it with a dollop of sour cream and a few snipped chives, plus crispy croutons or some good bread.

I also had some canned pumpkin burning a hole in my, uh, pantry. I think we can all admit that canned pumpkin is up there with frozen spinach when we're talking about the greatest convenience foods. Someone else has done all the hard work so that all we have to do is open a can or defrost a box. Canned pumpkin lends great moisture to any baked good and can take a lot of flavors.

Normally I make pumpkin cranberry bread, but having recently made something similar, I nixed the berries, bulked up the powdered ginger, and added a hefty grating of fresh ginger root.

Gingery pumpkin bread is a nice way to start the day. It's not too sweet and has a lot of spice, and it goes well with coffee or tea. I ate it plain, just cut into thick golden slices, but I think it would be delicious cut a bit thinner, toasted, and served with an orange marmalade or quince jam.

What have you been doing with pumpkin recently, besides carving jack-o-lanterns?