Dinner in a Pumpkin

My friends wife contributes to a cooking blog and I found this recipe there. The kids thought it was pretty cool to cook dinner in the pumpkin and it turned out really well. I changed the recipe slightly because I can never leave well enough alone.

Dinner in a Pumpkin

1 Medium Pumpkin (or Amber Cup squash)

1 lb Sausage (hot or sage)

1/2 c. chopped celery

1/2 c. chopped onion

1/4 c. chopped green onion

1 tsp. salt

Dash of pepper

2 c. cooked rice

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1/2 c. chopped or sliced mushrooms

1/4 c. roasted pine nuts

2 tbsp brown sugar

2-4 tbsp soy sauce

Brown the sausage then add celery, onions, green onion, salt and pepper and cook until tender. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until well combined. Put the entire casserole into the cleaned out pumpkin and bake at 400 until the pumpkin is tender. Scoop out the casserole, scraping some of the pumpkin with it.

Tweaks: The original recipe called for hamburger, which sounded fine, but the sausage really added some spicyness. We tried this in an Amber Cup squash and a Turban squash too. We preferred the sweetness and smooth texture of the Amber Cup over the Turban squash. Slivered almonds may also be good instead of pine nuts.