Nancy Kimmerle's Dinner In A Pumpkin

Grandma Kathy made this yummy dinner for the Hurst Halloween party 2009.


Dinner In A Pumpkin

(stolen from Nancy Kimmerle's recipe book, aptly titled "Recipes Stolen From Nancy Kimmerly")

1 small to medium pumpkin

1 1/2 to 2 pound ground beef

1 onion, chopped

2 Tbs soy sauce

2 Tbs brown sugar

1 can sliced mushrooms, drained

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 1/2 cups cooked rice

12 oz. can sliced water chestnuts, drained (optional)

Cut off pumpkin top and thoroughly clean out seeds and pulp. Preheat oven to 350. In a large skillet, cook onions and meat. Drain drippings. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, and soup. Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cooked rice and water chestnuts. Spoon mixture into the clean pumpkin shell. Replace top and place whole pumpkin with filling on a cookie sheet. Bake 1 hour or until inside meat of the pumpkin is tender. Put pumpkin on plate. Remove lid and serve casserole. For the vegetable, scoop out cooked pumpkin and serve, too.

(I added a cup of chopped cabbage, too, just because I had some that I needed to use. I suppose you could do the same with veggies on hand that need to be used--carrots, celery, etc...)

The kids thought this was fun and yummy.