Sunday Dinner Menu

Sunday dinner menu for 10/16

My mother-in-law likes to get creative with her cooking every now and then. For Halloween she came up with the idea of serving stew out of a pumpkin. It's quite the hit with the kidos.

So on the menu for Sunday is:

Homemade bread: I would love to give this recipe but my MIL will not allow me to give ALL her secrets away. Too bad because her bread sure is something!!

Apple Spinach Salad: Spinach with cut up apples, strawberries, and sugared almonds with a apple cider vinaigrette mixed with sugar, oil, and onions. My favorite salad!

Pumpkin Pot Stew:
-one medium sized pumpkin (12lbs)
-1 lb small white onion
-4 large carrots
-1 tbls salad oil
-2 lbs beef (stew meat)
-1 14 1/2-oz can beef broth
-1/4 ketchup
- 1 tsp salt
-1/2 tsp pepper
-1/2 tsp dried thyme
-2 lbs potatos
-3/4 lbs mushrooms
-1 12oz package frozen cut Italian green beans, thawed
-2 tbls flour

Cut top of pumpkin, discard seeds and membrane. Place pumpkin in a pie plate in a roasting pan. Place in oven @ 450 degrees. Pour boiling water in roasting pan up to pie plate. Cover loosely with foil. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until tender.

Peel onions and carrots. Cook over medium heat on stove until golden. Set in bowl. Brown stew meat in pan. Stir in broth, ketchup, salt, pepper, and thyme. Simmer about 20 minutes. Peel potatoes and cut into pieces. Add potatoes, already cooked carrots and onions, and mushrooms. Heat to boiling. Simmer for about 40 minutes. Stir in green beans until warm.

Skim fat from stew. Blend flour and 2 tbls of water in bowl. Stir into liquid in pan. Boil 1 minute.

Place pumpkin on platter. Spoon in stew. Serve.

Pumpkin pie & Halloween Candy for dessert:
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
4 large eggs
1 can pumpkin
2 cans evaporated milk
2 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shells

Preheat oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Then reduce to 350 degrees. 

Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture . Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shells

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center come out clean. Cool for 2 hours. Serve!

This is going to be a very Fancy Halloweeny dinner =)