While touring the beautiful California coast near Santa Cruz, I came upon a few pumpkin farms right on the ocean. I wanted to buy a pie pumpkin because they are more flavorful than the larger pumpkins used for decorations. They are also smaller and easier to handle. I was met with a few choices of these baking pumpkins that I had never seen before, which were blue and white pumpkins! Take a look at these magnificent specimens, piled high in the farmer's bins: They are smaller like a pie pumpkin but they are available in beautiful blue and ivory colors.So, I bought a blue pumpkin and roasted it in my oven. I simply rinsed it, added vent holes with a sharp paring knife, and then placed it in a large wok in a 350 degree oven until it was fork tender, which took about 2-3 hours. I refrigerated the pumpkin overnight so it would be easy to handle but it can be used right away.I removed the top and cut the pumpkin in half. Then I scraped away the seeds from the pulp. Finally, I removed the pumpkin from the skin. I discarded the skin, stem, and seeds.My blue pumpkin yielded about 8 cups of pumpkin.

• 2 cups were used to make crustless Roasted Pumpkin Pie that is only 77 calories a slice!
• 2 cups were used to make Pumpkin Almond Soup.
• And then 2 2-cup bags of pumpkin were frozen for later use.

The pumpkin almond soup is delicious and you can see the recipe and nutrition analysis here. It was made by sautéing onions and slivered almonds with seasonings, then adding pumpkin and broth, and pureeing with cream. It's delicious!The crustless pumpkin pie is very easy:

• 2 cups pumpkin
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 cup eggs
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tablespoons of honey

Simply puree in a blender, then bake on top of a Panko bread crumb crust.   Serve warm with a little whipped cream. I hope you enjoyed this blue pumpkin adventure as much as I did!