Dinner in a Pumpkin

You can use any type of pumpkin...but the larger/harder fleshed ones take longer to bake to done-ness. I have made meals in pumpkins for many years because they always look great and feed a lot of people. It's important to make sure the filling is already cooked before adding it to the pumpkin so that the baking time is just for the flesh of the pumpkin. I also found it imperative to bake in ON THE SERVING PLATE because sometimes the pumpkin gets so soft it is impossible to transfer to a plate without breaking up. I find the softer the flesh, the more delicious it is to eat- but you've got to get it to the table in one piece!

fun and easy! made a few changes: used only a little over 1 lb. of ground turkey; added 1 tsp. of minced garlic and 1/2 c. of chopped celery when browning the meat; deglazed pan after browning meat with about 6 T. of chardonnay, then threw in seasonings and soup, then threw in meat; used a brown & wild rice mix instead of just plain rice; used cream of mushroom soup instead of chicken and omitted mushrooms, also added pepper; rubbed inside of pumpkin with 2 T. brown sugar and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice. my husband loved it! i would've added more salt and pepper and some seasoning, but i'm not sure what--maybe sage? any suggestions? update: i made this again, wondering why last time i used chardonnay w/the turkey. weird. anyway, so this time i only had canned chicken, so i used that and was about to get the chardonnay when i passed the madeira and ooohh...that was a good move. also, this time threw in some poultry seasoning and salt and that gave it a little more flavor. yum!

As a first time dinner in a pumpkin maker, I thought this turned out well for my first try. Although I did make a few changes. First, I used a frozen mix of chopped onion, celary & peppers [[plus I added a few chopped green peppers]] I sauted those with the ground beef. I used a larger can of mushrooms. Before I added the meat mixture to the pumpkin, I coated the inside with a bit of pumpkin pie spice and some salt. I really enjoyed this, and I think I see a new Halloween tradition in my future.

good

Made as directed, using an organic cream of chicken soup. It was SO good! My kids loved it. This is a really easy dinner in a pumpkin and will become a Halloween tradition!