I LOVE pumpkins!

I love looking at them, cooking with them (I make at least one new pumpkin recipe every October), and mostly, carving them and roasting the seeds.

I'm even drinking pumpkin coffee at home this month.

Here are a few pumpkin pictures from past Halloweens. I've been using the carving kits for almost 20 years - wish I had digital pictures of all of my Jack O'Lanterns!

Lee



Church sells pumpkins to benefit the southwest Native Americans who grew them



Stuffed pumpkin





I do the simplest designs when I'm pressed for time.







I had more time to do this one

Wow! You are a master carver, Lee! Those are simply spectacular! I'll bet there are neighbors who come by your house year after year to see your Jack-O-Lanterns!

The stuffed pumpkin has me drooling. I want that on my Thanksgiving table. Do you have a recipe for it?

wowzers!!! very cool, qsis!

we are pumpkin fans also. i was just teasing my boy yesterday with pics of him when he was 2, kissing a pumpkin that he picked.

we already have a huge 20+ pounder and 3 mini punkins out on the stoop for a decoration. got all of them for $11 last week.

also, we're going punkin pickin' and a hay ridin' tomorrow. will post pics tomorrow night.

do you use the stencils in the kits, or do you draw the designs out yourself?

Oh, heavens, I use the kits, BT!!! It makes everyone, even my nephew when he was 5, look like a carving savant!

Yes, FM, the kids and adults who come trick or treating are far more intrigued with our pumpkins than they are with the candy, LOL! We use real candles, and that always adds to the mystique.

Terry, the photo is of a recipe that GB posted on DC. I believe it was called "Dinner in a Pumpkin". I don't have it anymore because it sucked and I'll never make it again. It was ground beef, rice, onion, and I don't know what else. Bland and blah.

However, a great stuffed pumpkin idea is meatloaf in a pumpkin, which I have been making for years.

Just get a SMALL pumpkin, clean it out and stuff it with your favorite savory meatloaf recipe. Take a magic marker and draw a Jack O'Lantern face on it. Bake it at 350, with the top, until it's done. It takes a long time for the pumpkin flesh to be tender (like 2 hours), but when it's done, you scoop out hunks of meatloaf and pumpkin flesh onto each plate, and it's delicious! With butter, s and p on the pumpkin.

I bake potatoes and apples along with the pumpkin the last hour/half hour, respectively. I present them all on a platter.

I haven't made this in years, so I don't have a picture of it. If you get a large pumpkin for this, be prepared to bake it for hours!

Lee

Love the vampyre pumpkin!

One of my favourite ways to prepare pumpkin is a savory pie dish - pumpkin, caramelized onions and feta cheese between phyllo dough. It's like spanikopita but with pumpkin instead of spinach.