Recipe from Mom Murdock
So I guess I need to explain this dinner a little bit. A tradition from my mother-in-law was to make dinner in a pumpkin every year. I thought my husband was kidding when he told me he wanted me to make dinner that was in a pumpkin. He tried to explain how to do it and I finally caved and sifted through all of Mom's recipes until I found it. You can use the carving pumpkins but the dinner is that much better if you can find pie pumpkins that can fit the dinner in them. Typically I've found if you put the dinner directly in the pumpkin the meat of the pumpkin doesn't get tender enough. To solve that problem throw your carved pumpkin with top on in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes then put your main dish in and cook for the hour stated or until tender. It just depends on how thick your pumpkin meat is. I'm expecting great photographs from this recipe because I know a few of my friends are making it this year!
Jack-O-Lantern Dinner
1 small to medium pumpkin
¾ cup chopped onion
1 to 2 tablespoons butter or cooking
oil
1 ½ pounds ground beef
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 4-ounce can mushrooms, drained
1 10 ¾ -ounce can cream of chicken
soup
1 ½ cups cooked rice
Cut off the pumpkin top and clean out
all
seeds and stringy pulp. Use a black
marking
pen to draw an appropriate
jack-o-lantern face
on the pumpkin. Saute onions in butter
or oil
in a large skillet. Add meat and
brown. Drain
off grease. Add soy sauce, sugar,
mushrooms
and soup. Simmer, stirring
occasionally, for
8 to 10 minutes. Add cooked rice and
simmer
an additional 5 minutes. Pour mixture
into
pumpkin. Replace pumpkin top.
Place the filled pumpkin on a baking
sheet and
bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 1
hour. The
pumpkin itself should be tender when
removed
from the oven.
Add ins or substitutes:
water chestnuts
celery
mushroom soup
green pepper
ground pork sausage
chow mein noodles for topping
Worcestershire sauce
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
