Meal in a Pumpkin

This was so cool! I was really really sick from morning (all day) sickness and couldn't make it to my Relief Society Halloween Enrichment. I was really bummed, I think it's the first one I've ever missed and after hearing about it I was REALLY REALLY bummed! My sweet friends brought me the dinner presentation that one of the sister's did. It was so neat. Here sat on my counter a pumpkin gutted and used as a baking dish! Since I was pretty much absent from the kitchen for a month and a half and Jed had tons of homework, we didn't garnish the pumpkin.

Medium sized pumpkin (4 pounds)

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1/3 cup chopped green pepper

3/4 cup chopped celery

3/4 cup chopped onion

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoon brown sugar

1 (4-ounce) can mushrooms

1 (10.5-ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup

2 cups cooked rice

Black olives

Steamed carrot

Whole cloves

Fresh parsley

1. Using a sharp knife, cut lid from pumpkin and scoop out pumpkin seeds and excess membrane with a scraping tool.
2. In a large skillet, combine ground beef, green pepper, celery and onion; cook over medium heat until ground beef is browned. Add next seven ingredients to skillet. Mix well and place mixture into pumpkin cavity.
3. Place lid on pumpkin. Place pumpkin on a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350*F (175*C) for 1 1/2 hours.
4. 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 the opening.

To serve, scoop out part of the baked pumpkin, along with the meat mixture, onto each plate.

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/gmeat/meal-in-a-pumpkin-recipe.html