Halloween Traditions

We wanted to start some fun Halloween Traditions this year besides and including carving pumpkins, which we finally did last night, the day before Halloween.. Rich stated us off this morning by making pumpkin pancakes. He put little bowls of "parts" on the table so we could decorate and create our own jack-o-lantern pumpkin pancakes. We had walnuts, bananas, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and cool-whip. It was awesome. The kids loved it. Then for dinner tonight we had dinner in a pumpkin. I had so many questions about it but couldn't really answer them because I had never tried it before, but in the name of holiday tradition I was willing to try. Rich said he had had it before and didn't want me to make it, but his sister Kim said she loved it and had a really good recipe, so we tried it. I thought it was really good, and Rich said it was good enough to have once a year for Halloween. So after our hearty dinner we were off to trick-or-treat the neighborhood for candy, the best Halloween tradition. It's not about the candy because he got more than enough at our ward trunk-or-treat (another loved tradition) and Rich pointed out, after I realized we didn't get any skittles, that we can always buy some candy at the store. Trick-or-treating is about dressing up in your fun costume and running around the neighborhood with all the other kids ringing doorbells and yelling TRICK-OR-TREAT!!!!!!! as loud as you can! It is so fun! We were supposed to make our delicous and rich carmel apples, but got home too late from trick-or-treating. We were sad, but we'll do it tomorrow night instead.

For any of you wanting the yummy recipe for dinner in a pumpkin or pumpkin pancakes:

Dinner in a Pumpkin

-Take one small pumpkin / or spagetti squash and hallow it out the way you would to carve it for a jack-o-lantern, and keep the top.

-Brown 1 pound ground beef.

-chop 1 onion and add to the ground beef while browning.

When bowned add:

-1 can of cream of chicken soup

-2 TBSP soy sauce

-2 TBSP brown sugar

-1 can sliced mushrooms

-1/2 of a green pepper, cubed or chopped

Simmer together for a few minutes.

Take your pumpkin and put inside:

-1 1/2 cups of COOKED rice (1 cup dry rice, cooked)

-meat mixture

Put the pumpkin lid back on and bake in a 350' oven for 1 hour, or until pumpkin meat is tender.

Scoop everything out, including the pumpkin, eat and enjoy!!

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups flour

3 TBSP brown sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
2 TBSP veg. oil
2 TBSP vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients seperate from the wet and then combine. Pour onto hot griddle, just like regular pancakes. Yummy!!

Serve with coolwhip and maple syrup and jack-o-lantern toppings like stated above!!