It's that time of year... (Dinner in a Pumpkin time that is)

Fall is my most fav season of the year, and these are two of my most fav, festive recipes.

First, Dinner in a Pumpkin!!

I like to make this every year on halloween night. I stole the tradition and the recipe from my awesome sister-in-law Carri. It's simple, yummy and warming on a cool fall evening (not that I know what those are like, but I can imagine). So here's what you need:

1 small to medium carving pumpkin
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2-2lbs ground beef
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1 4oz can sliced mushrooms drained
1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup
1 1/2 cup cooked rice
1 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts drained

Clean out pumpkin. Brown your hamburger with the onion, drain. Add Soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, and soup. Simmer 10 min stir occasionally, add rice and water chestnuts. Spoon into pumpkin. Put top on pumpkin and cook on a cookie sheet at 350 for at least an hour or until pumpkin is tender.

So the fun part here is to play with this recipe. Taste your meat mixture before adding rice to make sure that it is flavorful enough for you. Want to throw in a dash of worcestershire sauce or some hot sauce for a kick? Go right ahead. Add more mushrooms, no mushrooms, if you're like me you could hold the water chestnuts and add a bit more rice. Whatever your tastebuds fancy. Oh and if you want to get really fun you could even take a big black marker and decorate your pumpkin before you throw all the food in. Either way, you have no idea how much fun it is to eat your Halloween dinner straight out of a pumpkin. Try it.

This next recipe is another one from Carri and is the same idea as the previous recipe. I don't even have an official name for it.

Let's just call it Pumpkin Apple Bake.

For this one you'll need:

2 small pumpkins (the really little ones, I think they're called pie pumpkins)
2 baking apples, peeled and sliced
brown sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg
butter

Cut a lid in your pumpkins, clean them out and set them aside. Slice all the apples into a bowl and then mix with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg - no exact measurements here, just whatever feels right. And don't be shy about it. The more the better I think. So then you spoon the apple mixture into the pumpkins and top with a little pat of butter. Put the lids on and bake at 350-400ish for about an hour or until the pumpkins are soft. (It's so yummy to scoop out a little pumpkin when you're eating the apples.) I like to put a big scoop of icecream on top and eat the apples right out of the pumpkin. This seriously so good and the epitome of a fall dessert.

Eat your hearts out people.