Here’s a recipe I tried on my family this weekend. It would be especially fun for Halloween night.
This is adapted from a recipe from cooks.com.

Dinner in a Pumpkin
1 small or medium pumpkin
1-2 lbs. ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 c. green pepper, chopped
1/4 c. soy sauce
2 T. brown sugar
1 8-ounce can water chestnuts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 4-ounce can sliced mushrooms, drained
2 c. cooked rice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut top off pumpkin and clean out insides. Draw a jack-o-lantern face on pumpkin with a permanent marker, if you’d like.
Brown beef, onion and green pepper in skillet; drain. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, soup, rice, water chestnuts and mushrooms. Put into pumpkin and replace pumpkin lid. Place on baking sheet and bake 1 hour.
When serving, scoop out pumpkin with meat mixture.
Serves 6-8.

“Eeewww.” That was pretty much my response as a kid whenever squash appeared on the dinner table.
In recent years, though, I’ve come to like squash. There are so many kinds to try - and there’s something very cozy and homey and fall-like about the smell of baking squash.
Just now I have spaghetti, butternut, acorn, turban and carnival squash sitting around my house looking festive.
My question: What kind of squash do you like best, and how do you cook it?
I’d like to find some simple recipes to try. Please share

By Heidi Bell Gease
There’s nothing better than coming home on a cold day to the smell of a hot meal in the crockpot.
Unfortunately there are plenty of days at our house when 6 p.m. rolls around with nothing cooking and nothing planned.
When I don’t feel like going to the store I fall back on a few standbys that I almost always have the ingredients for.
Omelettes. If you’ve got eggs, shredded cheese, some lunch meat and a red pepper, you’re set. (And if, like me, you didn’t grow up on omelettes, here’s a tip from my omelette expert husband: mix the eggs with water, not milk, before pouring them in the pan.)
Spaghetti. We have a freezer full of buffalo, which I sometimes use with jarred sauce. Other times I prefer this meat-free version: Saute a few cloves of minced garlic in olive oil for a minute or two, then add canned tomato sauce and canned tomatoes (either diced or whole cut into large chunks, partially drained). Add some halved black olives, dried basil and a little Italian seasoning and let it simmer until it’s as thick as you’d like.
Pancakes. Sometimes they taste best for dinner - especially if the chef makes them into animal shapes, like my mom always did
Anybody else have any quick-fix ideas that don’t require a trip to the store? Please share!

By Lynn Taylor Rick

My father-in-law and mother-in-law are arriving for a visit on Friday and I’m looking for some good meal ideas. My father-in-law eats very healthy and mostly vegetarian. Any ideas?