One of two "stuffed pumpkin" recipes, this one was shared by Nancy, from a heritage cookbook:

Stuffed Sugar Pumpkin

1 (3-4lbs) sugar pumpkin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 medium onion, chopped
1lb ground beef
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup cooked rice
3/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 cup water

Cut lid out of pumpkin, remove seeds. Prick inside cavity with fork. Rub inside with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp mustard.
Cook onion and ground beef in skillet until lightly browned. Remove from heat. Add eggs, rice, pepper, 2tsp salt and 1/2 tsp mustard. Stuff pumpkin with mixture (amount you need may vary depending on pumpkin - we had a bit more rice). Replace pumpkin lid.
Place pumpkin in shallow pan with 1/2 cup of water. Bake in oven at 350F (175C) for 1 hour 30 minutes or until pumpkin is tender (ours just took 50 minutes!). Add more water if necessary. Makes six servings.

This was our "Friday family tea" yesterday - thank you so much for sharing, Nancy!

We are one pumpkin short of achieving our "five things to do with a pumpkin" challenge (note for future: never try and buy a pumpkin *after* Halloween - it's hard work!) We ordered pandan leaves for Kung's Thai custard a couple of weeks ago...hopefully, they'll get here soon!

We are always curious to find out what and how other cultures celebrate, so when we discovered that the Latin American community here in Sheffield was running activities for the Day of the Dead, we couldn't wait to take part! 

There were loads of activities, from decorating sugar skulls to colouring, making masks, making flowers and face painting. Through it all, we learnt how the Day of the Dead is a much happier celebration than we might be used to when it comes to "death"! 

Once we got home, we continued our exploration and baked "Pan de Muerto", which, we were told, is one of the traditional foods to go hand in hand with the festivities. Here are some pictures, and the recipe we used - enjoy!

Pan de Muerto

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees
F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons orange zest
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 tablespoons white sugar
DIRECTIONS:
Heat milk and butter in a saucepan, until the butter melts. Add warm water and take off the heat. In a large bowl combine 1 cup of the flour, yeast, salt, and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Add milk and beat, then add eggs and orange zest and mix well. Add remaining flour until you have a dough you can knead. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Proof the dough in a covered bowl in a warm place for about an hour, or until doubled in size. Knead again and shape into a large round loaf with a round knob on top. Use additional dough to make bone shapes and decorate around the outside of the loaf. Place dough onto a baking sheet, loosely cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until just about doubled in size.Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 35 to 45 minutes. 

Glaze: Warm sugar, orange juice and zest in a saucepan. Bring to the poil and boil for two minutes. Brush over bread while it is still warm, and sprinkle with caster sugar.

We are continuing our pumpkin challenge! Thanks to Colette, we tried pumpkin gnocchi! Here's what she said:
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I like to make pumpkin gnocchis. They're like big pasta so everybody eats vegetables without even knowing it! You will need 500 g of pumkin flesh, 1 egg, about 100 g of flour (not self raising one!), salt and spices to your taste. Once the pumpkin is cooked mash the flesh with a fork. Salt the purée, add spices if you like them. If it's too wet dry it for a while in a saucepan.
Add the egg and mix. Then the flour. You could add more than 100 g of flour until you have a smooth paste , compact and soft .
Divide the dough and roll it between your floured hands until 1cm of diameter . Cut into small pieces .

Plunge the gnocchi in plenty of salted boiling water. Let them cook until they rise to the surface (2 to 3 min) .
Drain the gnocchi , place them in a warm serving dish, with butter on them and sprinkle with parmesan. Or put you could put them in the oven with plenty of your favorite cheese on them to make a gratin!

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We had ours with some peppers, chorizo sausage and sun-dried tomatoes - Toby declared them super-yummy Thank you!!!

Our pumpkin bread, as suggested by Amy. Here's what she said:

Here's one of our favorites from Texas, & we always make our own purée 
Pumpkin Bread Recipe

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups (200g) flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (240 ml) pumpkin purée*
1/2 cup (120 ml) olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup (120 ml) chopped walnuts
* To make pumpkin purée, cut a pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff, lie face down on a foil or Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 min to an hour. Cool, scoop out the flesh. Freeze whatever you don't use for future use. Or, if you are working with pumpkin pieces, roast or boil them until tender, then remove and discard the skin.

METHOD
1 Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.

2 Mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. Stir in the nuts.

3 Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until a thin skewer poked in the very center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
Can easily double the recipe.

...we didn't wait for it to cool down, and it is absolutely yummy!!! Thanks, Amy! 

This morning, we came across two countries with interesting flags. Apparently, the parrot on the flag of Dominica (left) is sometimes shown in blue, and sometimes in purple. And when it's purple, it's the only flag in the whole world to have purple on it! And the Papua New Guinea flag (right) was designed by a 15-year-old school girl, but that was in 1971, so she's a grown-up now. It shows a raggiana bird of paradise, and the Southern Cross. That's a star formation, but we can't see it, because we're north of the equator!