Pumpkin Patch Bread

We bought pumpkins, picked pumpkins, and have been given even more pumpkins. So, what do you do with all those pumpkins? I figure you have 3 choices:

1. Throw them on the front porch with some mums and call it "fall decoration".

2. Carve and/or paint them for Halloween.

3. Clean it, cut it, scoop it, roast it, scoop it (again), mash it, and bake it into something edible.

Well, I'm sure you see where this is going. Since we have already done #1 and #2, we, um, I decided to do #3 and pretty much mess up my entire kitchen in the process. We made some pumpkin bread (which Ashley called "Pumpkin Patch Bread") for the Cake Walk at Nathan's Halloween carnival. It actually turned out really well, and I am exaggerating about the mess.

I have cooked a pumpkin the hard way before (peeling, cutting, boiling, mashing), and it was ridiculously hard and messy. I swore I would only use canned pumpkin in the future. This time, I just sliced a small pumpkin in 2 halves, scooped out the guts, and baked them for about an hour. The cooked pumpkin scooped out very easily, and there was hardly any waste. I actually froze some of it for making bread another time. Maybe Thanksgiving Eve?