Pumpkin stuffed with everything good…

I am so excited to get back to the USA to celebrate Halloween with my friends and family. I wanted to re~share with you this great recipe that is easy to prepare and can be quite satisfying on All Hallows Eve {or any Autumn evening} with a small salad and a bowl of warm tomato soup….

How very splendid is “Culinary Guru” Dorie Greenspan who kicked off the IFBC event? She shared how she’s seen food writing change during her tenure of being one of the leaders in this profession; the ups and downs of her career and the importance of working hard. This petite, prolific baker has written 10 cookbooks, many with other prominent chefs, including Julia Child. She’s also written for newspapers and gourmet magazines. In her speech, she celebrated the immediacy, spontaneity and interactive opportunities we enjoy today as we share notions through blogs.When she got to the part about how she used to submit articles, by calling “the desk”, after writing and refining a story for hours {on an IBM electric typewriter}, then basically kissing her creation goodbye after she read the piece into an automatic tape recorder at the other end of the line, it made me very thankful to have this venue to express my notions, look back on what I have written and photographed and to learn about so many things that my fellow bloggers and readers are are discussing and thinking about.

As interesting and entertaining as it was to listen to Dorie, I found myself to be quite distracted by an image that appeared on the screen behind her, something from her cookbook Around My French Table {she’s part-time Parisian}. I had to ask her about it during the Q & A and she shared that it’s a combination of day old bread, earthy cheeses, herbs, cream and nutmeg, all stuffed in a hollowed out pumpkin and then baked for 2 hours {click on the caption below the image above to see the recipe.}. When finished, she places it in the center of the table to slice and serve, though I am sure many a fork goes straight into such a well filled gourd.Wouldn’t this be the cat’s meow next to a tureen of steaming hot tomato soup for an autumn lunch??

The conference was action~packed, so after taking note of this dish, I moved on to the next event. But since then, this recipe has haunted me. It especially comes to mind when I am half~way through tennis practice, and have only had a few berries and nuts for breakfast {true cavewoman diet, unless you count the lattes}.While practicing my backhands,

I start thinking how this beautiful bake would be droooolingly delicious for brunch, dinner and midnight snack.

When I’m supposed to be focusing on being more aggressive,

I’m trying to categorize it, oftentimes deciding that it’s like an incredibly decadent quiche, and I imagine how soft and melty and full of a complexity the flavors and textures must be.

During volley practice,

my mind drifts to how wonderful it would be for brunch, topped with poached eggs.

While we’re playing out points,

I start imagining the contrast between the flesh of the sweet baked pumpkin and the rich, cream infused filling….

I’ll stop there, but as you can tell, I’ve thought about this #waytoomuch. Making it very apparent that Dorie Greenspan and her recipe are So Very Splendid and deserve the SVS award for the Most Bewitching recipe/centerpiece of the IFBC.