Pumpkin Stew

I have never really known what to do with pumpkins, other than put them on my porch in the fall. They looked so pretty in the produce section, that I decided I'd try to make something edible. This was a happy imagining gone right.

Ingredients:

*Small pumpkin
*Ground Chuck
*Onion
*Shallots
*Sweet bell peppers--read, yellow
*Milk
*Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer--1/2 cup
*Pumpkin Pie Spice--1 tsp
*Garam Masala


Wash pumpkin and carefully split it with a butcher's knife. Gut the meat and seeds. **Set aside the seeds to wash, season, and bake in the oven. You can eat them later as a healthy snack.** Cut the pumpkin meat into small chunks.

Saute the ground chuck with minced garlic, and add finely chopped onions and peppers. In a separate pot, simmer pumpkin chunks in water until soft. Put softened pumpkin in blender and puree with milk until creamy. Combine creamed mixture with the meat and veggies, then stir in pumpkin creamer, pumpkin pie spice, and a dash of garam masala. Simmer until flavors are blended.

If you want to really embrace that fall feeling, put the soup mixture in the shelled out pumpkin and place it in the oven to bake at 350 degrees, rather than cooking it on the stove. I think I put a tin foil collar around the top so it wouldn't burn, but can't promise on that tidbit. Either way, the kitchen got nice and toasty. I made enough that we enjoyed left-overs the next day.

**This could probably be served with some spicy shredded cheese--a Monterey Jack with jalapenos--sprinkled on top. I imagine a few of the toasted pumpkin seeds might make a nice garnish, as well....as long as you coarsely chop them with a large knife, so as not to choke on them!  :)