Dinner in a Pumpkin

I am sooooo going to rock your world with this recipe (courtesy of my mom)! We made this for dinner tonight and it was incredible, not to mention just FUN. I was going to save this recipe for next Sunday, but the missionaries came over for dinner and I figured they probably don't eat out of pumpkins too often. It is surprisingly easy and seemingly foolproof. I hope you will try it!

You will need:

1 medium pumpkin

1 box Zatarain's jambalaya rice mix (mild)

1 kielbasa or other comparable sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 lb. shrimp, peeled

1 1b. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces

½ C. celery, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Using a sharp knife, carve a circle around the pumpkin stem to create a lid. (Make sure it is big enough that you will be able to scoop dinner out!) Scrape and clean out the gooey insides of the pumpkin. Place the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and place in the preheated oven while you prepare the rice mix.

2. Assemble the rice mix according to the box instructions—add the meat and vegetables to the water as it is heating to a boil. Continue following the instructions. Once the rice is done, remove the pumpkin from the oven and add the rice mixture inside. Place back into the oven and continue baking until the pumpkin flesh is soft inside (test with fork). ENJOY!

*When I made this, the pumpkin had been in the oven 45 minutes by the time the rice mixture was ready. When I took the pumpkin out of the oven, I realized it was soft enough. I ended up just scooping the rice mixture into it, placing the pumpkin top, and letting it steam for a few minutes. (Which also reminds me, I had to bake the pumpkin minus the top since it was too tall...hence the mismatched pumpkin/its top).

*When served, make sure you scrape up some of the pumpkin with your dinner. It is super delicious!

We opted to paint pumpkins instead of carving them this year. (Too messy!) At the time, Olive wanted to be held--so I attempted a simple "Nightmare before Christmas" character (Jack) on mine. (We only had red, yellow, green, or blue paints to choose from--so my coloring is odd-looking...) Kevin made a freaky clown. Then you have Olive's pumpkin. This is what happens even when we try to "be her arms" and let her dictate where the paint brush goes. It reminds me of when Mikey transformed his blank cloth doll into "Swamp Thing." Good times!

This week, Olive almost brought me to tears. (In a good way, don't worry!) Kevin got her laughing and it was such a delight to hear that sound come out of her. As soon as I realized what was happening, I ran for the camera. And luckily, I captured the tail-end of it!

Despite this “fun” development, it was the week-of-a-thousand-curse-words (not to be confused with the quilt-of-a-thousand-curse-words). Alright, maybe that is being a TAD dramatic. But the fact remains, I got hardly anything accomplished in the vein of quilting. (The house is clean, though, so I can't fully complain...) Here's the problem:

Olive likes to be held. Period. Olive likes us to hold her in a standing position. Olive likes us to assist her to a seated position. All variations of holding her. None of these allow me to get much else done. SO, I got to thinking that I needed to find a contraption that would allow her to sit and stand (and allow me to get stuff done). I enlisted Craigslist to help, and found this jumperoo! I think it will do the job! I tested it out while creating the grocery list yesterday. I think we found success! I had to take a little break and get this on camera. It is so funny to see her jumping around already!

This is what happened ten minutes after putting Olive in the jumperoo.

The Teddy Bear Family Tree quilt is slowly coming along. The appliqué leaves and framed pictures have been ironed in place and just need to be stitched on. I am going to use dark thread so the contrast will make them stand out more.

Olive's $3 Halloween shirt from Walmart. It says "wickedly cute" on it.

My $3 shirt from Walmart!