a question about pumpkins...

I bought a fairly big pumpkin today in the hopes of making pumpkin pies and pumpkin soup

I've never cooked with a pumpkin before... is it supposed to be so hard to cut a pumpkin in pieces? I feel like I practically need a chainsaw!
It's kind of hard especially to remove the skin on the pumpkin... any tips??

Also, I'm putting the seeds aside for roasting. How long does it take to roast them? Should I add anything before roasting? (oil? salt?)

Don't usually try to cook the pumpkin - I know that you have to get the pie pumpkins to do it!

Seeds?? I love roasted pumpkin seeds! Just dry them out in a single layer - sitting in the oven on a baking sheet at low temp will do it. Once they're dried out, I fry in butter until dark and then just shake with a little bit of salt! Yum!!!!!

There are specific pumpkins for pie called "pie pumpkins" They are fairly small. The "jack o lantern" type are usually more fibrous/stringy for pumpkin pie and not sweet enough. I would think it might be ok for soup. The big pumpkins are also a pain to cut. If you buy squash you have to cut pumpkin the same way. As for seeds I wash the stringy stuff off, coat with olive oil and place on baking sheet I then salt and add other flavours and bake until they look dry!!

Baking the pumpkin is the best way to prepare it for pies. You can stew it, but it stays very wet, and ideally, you scrape the the soft part out (after stewing) and then simmer till most of the extra liquid cooks off - a pain cuz the pumpkin wants to scorch on the bottom of the pan. To bake it, I just put a little water in the baking pan, and bake it at 300 till soft. Scrape out the meat, and give the cooked rinds to the chickens, if you have them. It's a tradition that I make our jack-o-lanterns into pie. If you need extra sweetening, try using the "raw sugar" or add a little molasses or use brown sugar for your pie. And please save me a piece

Thanks everyone.

I did manage to finish cutting up the pumpkin and making the pie. It was a big jack-o-lantern pumpkin (not a pie pumpkin) but the pie turned out great.

Actually I made two pies and I have enough pie stuffing left for at least one more pie. I also have enough raw pumpkin left to feed an army. I'll make a big batch of soup soon.

Anything else I can make with pumpkins?

Muffins, cakes!

What did you add to the pumpkin to make the pie?
And how much pumpkin per pie?