Dinner in a Pumpkin

Every year growing up, my mom made dinner in a pumpkin on Halloween, and she still does. What? Dinner IN a pumpkin? Yes, it really is made inside the pumpkin! I didn't like it much as a kid, but now, I think it tastes great!

Last night, I decided to have a little dinner in a pumpkin party. I made the dinner in a pumpkin, and people who came brought pot luck dishes. It was really fun.

It started out as just a simple little dinner party, but you know me and my outrageous imagination . . . It turned into a full-fledged Halloween party! We played Halloween trivia, guessed which Halloween creature we were (it was taped onto our backs), and I made up a Halloween word scramble. I got very creative all week. I added some cute homemade decorations, and made some really cute place cards.

This is the recipe for Dinner in a Pumpkin:

Choose a nice medium sized pumpkin. Cut a lid, and scoop out the inside. Draw a face with permanent magic marker, or acrylic paints.

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1-4 oz can sliced mushrooms
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 can cream of mushroom soup
3/4 cups chopped onion
2 cups hot cooked rice
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce

Brown ground beef along with salt, celery, onion, and green pepper. Mix in remaining ingredients. Stuff pumpkin with meat mixture, put on lid, place on a foil lined cookie sheet or baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Serve pumpkin as a vegetable with each serving of meat casserole. Serves 6-8.

*I have used chicken and turkey instead of ground beef, and each are delicious. I also didn't use celery or green pepper, and it still turned out good.

Here are some pictures of how everything turned out.

One side of the pumpkin I decorated.

Another side of the pumpkin.

I decorated four sides of the pumpkin so that people could see from all angles.

The last side of the pumpkin.

I punched out little pumpkins and leaves for decoration on the table. I did black for Halloween.

I traced bats and colored them black with a magic marker, then I hung them up in my curtains. I love the silhouette look.

This is the table all set.

This is my place setting.

This is Lance's place card. I went online and found some Halloween clip art, and made them on the computer. Every person's had a different picture.

One plus of doing this is that if you have some of the pumpkin leftover, it's easy to cut up and puree. I've already made pumpkin bread, and I'm excited to make a pumpkin pie soon! I also was able to save the seeds and bake them for a yummy snack! Well, I hope this gives you some good ideas for Halloween, or if not, at least I hope it will put you into the Halloween mood!

Wacky Weekend

This weekend was very fun! I had lots of fun things to do, and spent time with lots of fun people.

Friday, one of my best friends went through the temple, and she invited me to this wonderful experience. It was at the Ogden temple, so afterward, I decided to get some pictures of the temple, since it is going to be redone very soon.

Ogden Temple

Ogden Tabernacle

Saturday, Lance went on a hike in the morning, and got some great picture. Then, the Wellings went to Gardner Village, and we got a huge group picture, as well as looked at witches throughout the village. Then, we went to Melissa and Dan's house for pizza and treats.

View fro m the mountain.

They saw a few moose.

Welling Family

Lance and me.

Sunday, we celebrated October birthdays in my family. Four of my nieces and my dad have birthdays in October. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL OF YOU!!!

Happy October Everyone!

Well, it's October, and you know what that means? It's FALL, and it's starting to look like it, too! This weekend we took a drive over the mountains to look at the colorful leaves. It was beautiful! I also have put up my Halloween decorations. I'm so excited that the holidays are starting up! I love festively decorating my house! So, here are a few pictures to get you into the Autumn/Halloween mood.

Zucchini Dessert Squares

I have found another dynamite recipe online for getting rid of zucchini! I know, most of you may be thinking, "Zucchini for dessert, and it's not in brownie form? Yuck!" But actually, if you try this, your taste buds will throw a party in your mouth, with zucchini as the guest of honor. The best way to accurately describe the taste is that it is kind of like apple crisp, or something like that, but not entirely. The cooked zucchini really does taste very similar to apples, though. However, my brother-in-law said it tasted like rhubarb pie. I, personally, don't think it is quite that tart, but here is the recipe so you can decide for yourself. I found this recipe online.

Zucchini Dessert Squares

Crust:
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup butter

Filling:
8-10 cups cubed seeded peeled zucchini
2/3 cups lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

-Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly. Reserve 3 cups. Pat remaining crumb mixture into a greased cake pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.
-Meanwhile, for filling, place zucchini and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and cook 6-8 minutes or until zucchini is crisp-tender. Stir in sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. (Mixture will be thin.)
-Spoon over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until golden.
Makes 16-20 servings

I hope you like it!

A Week of Woe

Last week wasn't the best week for me. First off, I had REALLY bad allergies that were very inconvenient for me. It's been about a week, and they're still pestering me. Ah well, at least I'm not puking my guts out, right?

Then, I had this horrible experience that I'd rather not talk about, but afterwards, I felt totally inadequate, and, well, terrible. Terrible is the only word for it.

To top everything off, our kitchen sink wouldn't drain, even after buying a variety of drain cleaners. My pictures this week are of our emergency project of replacing the drain from our kitchen sink. This sink clog was there for over a week! Imagine trying to run your dishwasher, but having to keep two bowls on hand to catch the water, and run them outside to dump, about twenty times per load. It was obnoxious! Plus, our kitchen was filthy for an entire week, because I was afraid to do the dishes! Cooking was a nightmare, because I didn't have the pots and pans that I needed clean! We tried drain cleaners, like I said before. We even tried power blasting. That's a funny story.

So, we used this bladder that you attach to a hose. It fills up the pipe, and makes sure that the water goes down. Well, surprise for us, we forgot that every pipe needs a vent, so the water went up the vent. I knew something was wrong when water was coming off the roof. "Um, Lance, why is there water coming off the roof? Should I turn it off? Honey? What do I do?" A couple of minutes later, he finally says, "Okay, turn it off." So, I turned it off. What happens when there is no pressure making the water go up? That's right! It comes back down. And boy did it ever come back down into our kitchen. Did I mention that we have carpet in our kitchen, which I think is absolutely idiotic? So, our carpet was wet for about two days.

We finally decided that this was going to have to be a pipe replacement job, because when Lance and his brother and dad were replacing our incoming pipes, they noticed that there was a LOT of gunk in the outgoing pipes. So, Lance and his brother, Scott replaced a section of pipe in our basement. Now, our sink drains perfectly! I'm so grateful for Lance and Scott giving me back my kitchen! Oh, and I got all caught up on my dishes, thank goodness!

Lance is cleaning out the pipe with his screwdriver.

I'm holding up a bucket to catch the gunk from the pipe. It's NASTY!!!

That is how clogged the pipe was. You can see why we had to replace it.

EWE!!! Gunk residue on Lance's screwdriver! Gross!

That is what I caught in the bucket. I didn't get ready that day. Oddly enough, the gunk makes me look good. :)

Lance and Scott are holding up the new pipe so that the glue will work. Hooray for the new pipe!

So, it was a pretty woeful week, as you can see. But the weekend was pretty good. I went to the LDS Women's conference on Saturday with my mom. I really enjoyed the talks, and they helped me have a better attitude. Sunday was good, too. I realized that trials happen for a reason, and without them, our faith could never be strengthened.

Georgia Peach

Last week, Lance had the opportunity to go to Atlanta, GA for work. I got to stay with my parents, as usual. You'd think with all the business trips he goes on, and I stay with my parents, that it's just like before I moved out! Just kidding!

Lance was able to sight-see a little bit. Here are some of my favorites of the bunch.

This is downtown in Atlanta

Lance got to go to a Braves game. He LOVES baseball!

Cool shot of the pitcher in mid-throw.

This was a cool building in Atlanta. I like the architecture.

All "Hooked" Up

Our house has been pretty exciting this past little while. I got a few new things to hang up . . . and set up!

In our entry way, I have been wondering how to make it look better. Do I get shelves to put our shoes on, a box, what? Then it finally dawned on me! I have a cute little bench in my living room! I tried it out, thinking that it wouldn't work very well, but I was wrong! It worked out perfectly! Now, I love it. After I did that, I had to get some hooks to hang up my purse. They were not very expensive, and look very classy. I have a new fetish with wrought iron things.

My mom recently bought a curio cabinet for her house, and decided to say goodbye to her tree friend that was in her living room. But she didn't want to completely say goodbye to it, so she gave it to me. I love having plants in my house to clean the air, and to give it a more homey feel.

I got really sick of having my robes on the floor. They're too bulky to fit into my closet or my drawers, so I decided to get a hook and hang them up on that. It works wonderfully! I didn't come up with this idea on my own, though. It was in a magazine I read. I guess magazines are good things to have around, and not just full of silly nonsense.

Here are some pictures of how I have made my home a better place in the past month.

This key hanger is in my back entryway. It's so nice to always know where our keys are.

This bench was left with our house. It was in our living room, but it fits perfectly in our back entryway, and is nice to sit on to put our shoes on and to put our shoes under!

This is a view of our back entryway. It is so much more organized than it was before!

These hooks are the only thing I bought for our entryway! They are perfect for hanging up my purse and jacket.

My mom gave me her indoor tree that she has had for forty years. It was extremely top heavy, and drooped, so I pulled it back with some ribbons and attached it to my curtain rods. I love plants in my house!

Here is a bigger view of the tree in our dining/living room.

This hook is in my bedroom. It hangs up my robes!

Here are my robes hanging up on my new hook!

Happy organizing!