I find that Samhain really kicks off the start of holidays with a bunch of people jammed into a house that you wish you could escape. Sadly, I am far too masochistic to take the far more reasonable misanthropic solitary approach to the holidays, so to my grove I go, pumpkin in hand! I find food helps make up for personal social akwardness, it acts as a pre-emptive apology. “Sorry I can’t feign interest in the boring topic you have trapped me into conversation about. I made you a pumpkin!” At the very least, I can always be grateful that Samhain is hosted at our Señora Druid’s house, enabling me to leave before I  turn into a pumpkin and/or say or do something that brings dishonor to my family. Oh and I don’t cook like this for every Sabbat because that leads to heavier drinking and high covenmate expectations which should both be avoided. This is my big “ta-da” for the year.
 
 
Stuffed Pumpkin Recipe
 
1 large cheese pumpkin
1 box cornbread mix
3 stalks celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 shallots, diced
1 pack Italian turkey sausage
2 cups chicken stock
3 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
1 large aluminum roasting pan
Olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
 

Make the cornbread according to the directions on the box the night before. Cut cooled corn bread into small cubes. Leave out overnight.

 

Delegate. Carving open the top of the pumpkin is a huge pain the butt. Find another sucker who doesn’t mind potentially losing fingers to the surly pumpkin. Make sure the diameter of the opening is almost as large as the top of the pumpkin. A cheese pumpkin puts up a bigger fuss than a regular pumpkin on being carved so make sure your special helper uses a very sharp implement.

 

Scoop out pumpkin guts. Cheese pumpkins have less seeds and less guts. Have your special helper pick out the seeds.

 

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

 

Mix seeds with a teaspoon of salt, pepper and fresh chopped rosemary and 3 capfuls of olive oil. Spread out on a baking sheet.

 

Gently score the inside of the pumpkin with a knife. Brush olive oil on the inside and outside of the pumpkin. Salt and pepper the inside.

 

Put the pumpkin in its pan and put it and the seeds in the oven.

 

Move the seeds around every ten minutes until they are to your desired crispiness and then remove from the oven.

 

Roast the pumpkin for an hour.

 

While the pumpkin is roasting, warm up 2 capfuls of olive oil in a frying pan. Decase the sausage by squishing it out of its casing like a tube of toothpaste. Crumble it into the frying pan with the carrot, celery and shallots. Cook until vegetables are softened and the sausage is browned.

 

In a mixing bowl, mix sage, chicken stock, vegetables, corn bread and sausage together. Salt and pepper.

 

Put stuffing into pumpkin. Roast for another 30 minutes.

 
Ta-da!