Dinner In a Pumpkin By Julie Wilson

1 small to med. pumpkin
1 onion chopped
1 1/2- 2 lbs. gr. beef/sausage
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 (8 oz) can water chestnuts, drained
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 (4 oz) can  sliced mushrooms, drained
1 (10 3/4 oz) can cream of Chicken soup
1 1/2 c cooked rice

Cut off the top of pumpkin & thoroughly clean out seeds & pulp.  Paint an appropriate face of the front of the pumpkin with a permanent marking pen or paint.

Preheat oven 350 degrees.  In a large skillet, saute onion and meat, drain drippings.  Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms & soup.  Simmer 10 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add cooked rice and water chestnuts.  Spoon mixture into the clean pumpkin shell.  Replace pumpkin top & place entire pumpkin on a baking sheet.  Bake 1-2 hours until inside meat of the pumpkin is tender.  Put pumpkin on a plate.  Remove pumpkin lid and serve meat.  For your vegetable, scoop out cooked pumpkin and serve.  Serves 6.

For the Dinner club night I doubled the recipe, using a bigger pumpkin.  I added salt 1 tsp per recipe.  I added French style green beans.  On the pumpkin, before adding rice and meat mixture, I sprinkled it with pumpkin pie seasoning.