Sunday Dinner

Ellen, you were looking for ideas for what to do with pumpkins? Here's what I did: I baked beef stew in one.




Dinner was going to be shepherd's pie in a regular old baking dish. I had a small mountain of mashed potatoes left over from last week, with the specific purpose of making it per Tim's request. But then we got company for dinner, so immediately everything had to be BIGGER (read: a more theatrical production). And then I saw all these beautiful pumpkins at a favorite produce market in Fenton this morning, and I thought, hey, I've read how you can bake stew in one of those.

A little heavy cream whipped into the potatoes, and a large star tip on a pastry bag and a little time under the broiler...





That's an apple crisp in the background. I made port caramel sauce to drizzle over it. One of the joys of autumn is good, fresh apples. And excuses for making that damn port caramel sauce again.