Got Pumpkin?

I meant to post this after Halloween, but forgot. So if I post it now, I'll have it for this year. Here's a link to the Utah Deal Diva http://www.utahdealdiva.com/2009/11/cooking-with-pumpkin.html . She goes in depth on how to cook your Halloween Jack o Lantern (scoop out the yuck, cut up the pumpkin and put it into a dish with 1 inch water, cover with foil, and bake for 1.5 hours at 350 degrees). Once it's cooked and pureed it's only .18/cup. Here are the recipes from her post (check out her post for the yummy pics):

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Has nothing to do with pumpkin puree! They're so good, you have to try them!
Melt 1-2 TBSP of butter and mix into about 2 cups of well cleaned pumpkin seeds. Spread on a baking sheet and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Apple

Pumpkin Muffins
I saw this recipe and knew I had to try it, being as I have quite a bit of diced apples in my freezer. My family loved these so much, I've made this recipe twice in 3 days! The original recipe is here, however, I changed so much of it, it's almost unrecognizable. Here's my version:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup milk
1 cup diced apples, softened in microwave {2 minutes worked for me}
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with oil. Mix ingredients and spoon into muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 full. I like to make mini muffins because they bake in less time and they're fun for my kids to eat. Mini muffins take about 13 minutes to cook. Regular sized muffins take about 18-20 minutes to cook.
Cool and enjoy!

Soft Ginger-Pumpkin Cookies with Browned Butter Frosting
This recipe came from the newest Pillsbury recipe booklet, available in stores. I received it for free from MyBlogSpark for providing input for the cover photo. I made some changes to this one as well, just because it called for items I don't normally have on hand, like crystallized ginger. It still turned out incredible though, so be sure to try it!!
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter (I used butter flavored Crisco!}
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger {I used 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger I had left over from another recipe and the other half ground ginger.}
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger {I omitted this and my cookies still had plenty of ginger flavor!}
1 tsp cinnamon {my addition}
1/2 tsp vanilla {my addition}
Frosting
1/3 cup butter {do not use margarine!}
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-4 TBSP milk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl combine brown sugar, ginger, the 3/4 cup butter, pumpkin and egg. Beat with a mixer until well blended. Add remaining ingredients to form soft dough. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes so that your cookies will have more shape. Roll into 1-inch balls and flatten slightly on tray. Bake 7-10 minutes or until lightly golden brown. {The cookies don't spread much at all, so I ended up baking about 20 on a tray!} Remove from tray immediately and place on cooling rack.
In a small saucepan, heat the 1/3 cup butter over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook until butter turns a nice golden brown. It took mine about 5 minutes and when it turned, it turned very suddenly. Remove from heat. Add in remaining ingredients, stirring until frosting is smooth and spreadable. Let cookies cool for about 20 minutes before frosting. Enjoy!