Recipes & ATC Update

I have had several emails requesting kits from this past weekend's 7Gypsies ATC holder class. I'm sorry--I am officially sold out at this time. For those of you interested, I do make kits for classes I teach locally and ship (and thanks to Ali, those are a pretty hot commodity right now!)

Thanks to all the lovely gals who came out to take classes and crop on Saturday. I haven't laughed that hard in quite some time--and I loved seeing all your fun projects in progress as well! Good to see you all--and I'll be scheduling more classes and posting them on the website soon...

Molly, this one's for you!One of the great things about doing a blog is that I get to share all these lovely good tidbits with you guys. And this is just what I'm talking about...

I have amazing crafty friends. I do not come up with all these ideas on my own--and I surround myself with great people, so it looks like I'm Martha (but if you saw the condition of my house right now, you'd understand...).

Last year around this time, my dear friend Jen Bueck created a masterpiece in the kitchen. Dinner in a pumpkin. Now, before you wonder--it is like a stuffed pepper (meat is cooked before it enters the vessel) and it is the most amazing thing ever! Not only does it smell heavenly, it tastes divine. And the presentation is amazing! Be sure to pick a pumpkin with a short stalk so it can enter the oven...

Or, do what Shelly did, and give each person their own individual pumpkin and serve it at a dinner party!
Dinner in a Pumpkin

INGREDIENTS

• 1 small sugar pumpkin
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 cups diced celery
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 5 pounds lean ground beef
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 (20 ounce) bottle ketchup
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• 5 teaspoons salt
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 
  
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 (4.5 ounce) can mushrooms, drained
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
• 2 cups cooked white rice

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 Degrees C). Cut off top of pumpkin, scrape out seeds and pith.
2. In a large deep skillet, saute vegetables in 1/4 cup shortening until soft. Add beef; cook and crumble until evenly brown. Add the pepper, ketchup, garlic, salt, Worcestershire sauce and tomato sauce. Simmer 15-20 minutes.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups of the beef mixture, soy sauce, mushrooms, brown sugar, soup and rice. Mix well, pour into pumpkin and replace lid. Cover and freeze remaining beef mixture.
4. Place filled pumpkin on a baking sheet and bake for one hour or until pumpkin is tender. As you serve dinner, be sure to scoop out a little of the cooked pumpkin too.

And this one was a total hit as well! I'm making this for a big bash we're throwing this weekend--and I can't wait to share it! (Sorry you have to eat it again this coming weekend, Jen!)

Swiss Vegetable Medley
2 packages of frozen broccoli/carrots/cauliflower (California Blend) veggies
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 C. sour cream
2 C. swiss cheese, divided
1 large container french fried onions, divided

Mix all ingredients except 1 C. cheese and half the onions. Put into a large greased 13x9 pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Add the remaining cheese & onions on top, and bake for an additional 15 minutes more.

(And for you folks who purchased the recipe book, these are not in there, so feel free to print these out and add them to your collection!)

Happy Friday!