They say it doesn’t get more American than apple pie, but indigenous cooks were roasting pumpkin and mashing it with spices long before Europeans introduced the apple. Early settlers boiled pumpkin, reserved the sweet, starchy cooking water and added to their bread dough to moisten  and extend it.  In the 20th century,  the invention of chemical leaveners and canned pumpkin turned pumpkin bread into an easy seasonal staple. But roasting a whole pumpkin, which are plentiful at roadside farm stands this time of year, is more than worth the small amount of extra effort: just cut it in quarters, scoop out the insides (separate the seeds and roast them with salt and spices for a bonus treat!) stick it in the oven and in no time the house will be filled with the aroma of caramelized pumpkin that says fall like nothing else. Now you have your base ingredient for perfect pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake (click links for recipes!)