I learned a thing or 2 about butt issue and dogs since we got the pups. It was the same issue my mojo had but we never knew what it was.

Here is some TMI:

Basically the dogs have a little “sac” that gets released when they poop. Sometimes this doesn’t always happen and then they have, as we call in my house, “leaky butt”

TMI – complete

To alleviate this, the vets suggest pumpkin. Well canned pumpkin is about 2.69 a can. I was in walmart a while back and they had squash (same thing as a pumkin, right?) for 44 cents a pound, so i bought a bunch and learned how to get it done in a crock pot! Woot!

A couple weeks ago i was in costco and there was a big old box of yam/sweet potatoes (same thing as a pumpkin, right?) for what ended up at 67 cents a pound, so i bought it up! Hello 10 pounds of yams!

Since i’ve done most every other veggie in the crock pot including corn (super easy, pull leaves back, slather butter and cayene or what not, put leaves back, wrap in foil, put in crock pot for 4 hours) i decided to give the yams a try.

I wrapped them up in foil, placed them gently in the crock pot with a ramikan full of water and turned the bad boy on for about 8 hours. And whala – OMG good! Some of those wondrous mashed sweet potato did not make it into the freezer for the boys! Great idea for potatoes in the summer to i say!

Recently we had a pumpkin carving night at hubby’s co-working space, put on by Yelp Denver and there was a left over pumpkin. I volunteered to save the poor fella from a smashin!

So it’s been sitting in the house, staring at me since then…

Tuesday I was working from home and said, lets give this a shot..

I looked up on line how to “cook” a pumpkin. Basically no-one had a crock pot option. So i decided to follow the butternut way. Obviously this was not a small pumpkin, in fact it took me 3 rounds of 5 hours to get the whole thing cooked!

Preparation:

Basically you cut the pumpkin in half with a bread knife in a sawing motion since a smooth knife might remove a finger or 2 if you slip (fyi – my bread knife, cuts in a circle…  boo)

Remove the seeds into a bowl of water – save for later, see the next post (ice cream scoop is a wonderful tool here)

Put whatever pieces of pumpkin will fit in  your crock pot, fill the bottom with water, enough so it will steam but not cover the pumpkin.

Turn on low for 5-8 hours.

Let it cool (i am too impatient and i was doing a bit of oooh, hot hot hot, as i scraped the mush out)

Remove the mush into a bowl (again the ice cream scoop is amazing for this part!) Mash to consistency desired. Freeze in whatever format is best for your needs (for me it’s the same as chicken broth, old yogurt containers! Boys usually go thru 1 container in a week)

From the smaller half of my pumpkin i got five 6oz containers full of mush!

The boys loved the tastings they got as the pumpkin was being cooked throughout the day! We’ll be covered though a number of months with all these veggies!

I was at walmart that night and saw that the pumpkins were on sale – $1 a piece! Hello!!! I think i need a bigger freezer!