New Recipe Night: Dinner in a Pumpkin

Now how much more Fall themed can you get than dinner in a pumpkin?????

That's what I thought.

My inspiration for this evening's new recipe: my friend Melissa. She is/was a good friend/ PT classmate who loves to cook. Actually to tell you the truth, I never could figure out how she had the time to do all of that baking and cooking she did. Now I get it though....if you like something enough you just make time for it. I have to say I've grown quite fond of being in the kitchen over the past month. So here's to Melissa for being a good example....the world needs more Betty Crockers like her!! So you are probably wondering what a pumpkin has to do with Melissa and all of my rambling. She just so happens to love hosting and entertaining as well. This was one of her tasty ideas for a girl's holiday party one year. Dinner in a pumpkin? I was astounded at the idea.....and astounded by the taste as well! What a delish meal and such a fun concept. Kids would just eat this idea up (no pun intended)!!! Even though my daughter is only a wee little 15 month old I thought I'd include her in the preparation of tonight's dinner. It couldn't have been a more successful first attempt at dinner in a pumpkin. Hope you enjoy it as well this Fall season. You've still got until Thanksgiving to make plenty of pumpkin dinners! I can foresee us skipping the carving of the squatty round fellas this year and just using them to cook in. Who needs a pan when you have a pumpkin?!

Ingredients:

1 medium pumpkin

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 cups tomato juice

3 cups shredded cabbage

1/2 pound fresh green beans, washed and trimmed

1 cup uncooked white rice

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Wash pumpkin, cut off top, scrape out seeds and discard.

*I think we must've picked an easy pumpkin because it only took about ten minutes to de-gut it. I had help though so it went quicker because of that of course....

Make sure to recruit a good helper...one who is serious about the job ;)

All ready!

3) Place hamburger in a large, deep skillet. Crumble and cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain fat, add onion and garlic; saute slightly.

Crying like a baby by this point!

4) Add sugar, Italian herbs, salt, pepper, tomato juice and rice; mix thoroughly

5) Layer inside of pumpkin with 1/3 of cabbage, green beans and beef and rice mixture. Repeat layers, replace lid and bake for 2 to 3 hours.

Just a few notes about this recipe before it slips my mind:

*I didn't have fresh garlic so I just used garlic powder

*Make sure you pumpkin will fit in the oven with the top on....my stem was pretty tall and almost posed a challenge

*I added one can of diced tomatoes to give it more texture

*I left out the stinky cabbage

*I used canned green beans instead of fresh because it was handy

It was really hard to grasp the concept that there was a pumpkin cooking in my oven. Just seems totally bizzare. Since it took two hours to cook I left the house for a bit of that time but was paranoid the whole time wondering if the stem had caught fire and burned the house down. I guess stems are oven safe and so are melting pumpkins. I put the pumpkin directly on the rack and then realized about 15 minutes into cooking that I ought to put it on a pan for easier removal and in case it started oozing. Which it did. Maybe oozing isn't the most attractive term to use when talking about your dinner....so we will say bubbling yummy juices. Sound better? So anyways, put a pan underneath to catch the bubbling yummy juices. K? K. Oh and don't forget to poke the pumpkin after it cools off. It's all squishy and fun to press on. ;)

The hubs has yet to return home from hunting to try out this unusual choice for dinner....but I did have a great taste-tester in my sis-in-law and she had nothing but good things to say about it. As for me, I'm holding my two thumbs up.....as well as all of my other fingers....I've got jazz hands. It's that good. ;)

Oh yeah, one more thing.....ENJOY!!

GOT MOTIVATION?