Dinner In a Pumpkin
Medium
sized pumpkin (about 4 lbs.)
1½ lbs. lean ground beef
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
¾ cup chopped celery
¾ cup chopped onion
1 t. salt
¼ t. pepper
¼ cup soy sauce
2 T. brown sugar
1 4-ounce can mushrooms
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups cooked rice
Black olives
Steamed carrot
Whole cloves
Fresh parsley
Using a sharp knife, cut lid from pumpkin and scoop out pumpkin seeds and excess membrane with a scraping tool. In a large skillet, combine ground beef, chopped green pepper, chopped celery, and chopped onion and cook over medium heat until ground beef is browned. Add next 7 ingredients to skillet. Mix well and place mixture into pumpkin cavity. Place lid on pumpkin. Place pumpkin on a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350º for 1½ hours. Just before serving, embellish pumpkin by placing (with toothpicks) black olives to make eyes, a steamed carrot to make a nose, and whole cloves to make a mouth. Use fresh parsley leaves to make hair around like opening. To serve, scoop out part of the baked pumpkin, along with the meat mixture, onto each plate.