Thanksgiving Stuffed Pumpkin

I have a Thanksgiving recipe that everyone asks for, so I've decided to put it up here for all to see.  It's one I've adapted it from a recipe on Epicurious, and since I didn't take a picture of mine, I'll use the one from the original website.  Here is the original recipe and below is my adaptation this year.  Enjoy!

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Thanksgiving Stuffed Pumpkin

Ingredients:

• 1 pie pumpkin, about 6 pounds.  Not a Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin, a pie pumkin.
• Salt
• 1 cup wild rice (I used trader joe's wild rice medley, but anything will do), cooked to package instructions
• 1/2 pound Fontina cheese, cubed
• 1 package of Wegmans garlic and herb chicken sausage, removed from wrapping and browned
• 2-3 handfuls of uncooked chopped Kale
• 1/2 bunch of snipped chives
• 2 tbs minced fresh thyme
• 1/3 c light cream
• 2 generous pinches of grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Like you would hollow out a Jack-o-lantern, cut off the top the of the pumpkin and scoop out the guts, leaving the meat of the pumpkin in tact.  Then generously salt the inside of the pumpkin and place on a cookie sheet.

In a bowl, combine the sausage, rice, cheese, kale, chives and thyme, leaving out a bit of the cheese to top it off.  Adjust more or less of these ingredients to taste, then stuff it into the pumpkin.  You will have to push it down into the pumpkin and pack it well.  Top with the last bits of cheese.  Stir two generous pinches of nutmeg into the cream and pour over top of the stuffing.  Replace the top of the pumpkin and bake for about 1 1/2 hours.  If a knife pierces the skin (don't go all the way through, just poke at it a bit) easily, take off the top and cook for another 20 minutes or so.  Taste the flesh of the pumpkin inside the lid to be sure it's cooked all the way through.

When its done, I use a large spatula to get underneath and an oven mitt to hold the pumpkin to transfer it to a plate.  Take a large spoon and mix together the stuffing with some of the pumpkin flesh and let guests spoon into their plates.  I don't do what it shows in the picture and slice it up, but that's just because I love the way the pumpkin looks at the table. 

I've done this recipe many ways, with varying cheeses, vegetables, meats, and this one was a big hit last night.

Enjoy and Have a Happy Thanksgiving!