A Fun Day

My sister-in-law Wendy invited everyone over to her house for a playdate today, but I was the only one who could make it. So, we went over to my new house to see it and do some measuring. Alicia and Tanner met us there to see it as well. Then, we headed over to Alicia's new house to see it. Then, Wendy and I and the kids headed back to Wendy's to hang out and let the kids play. The kids ended up in the irrigation:



(Bridger put on swim shorts but didn't get wet or dirty at all. Funny kid.) The weather was gorgeous. It felt so good (in the shade with a breeze, but still). It reminded me of Utah summers with the kids playing in the grass and water and the air feeling nice.
They had a ton of fun and Wendy and I had a ton of fun chatting and cooking. We made taco soup for dinner and she made homemade pumpkin pie for me to take home. Was such a fall meal. I mentioned my mom's Meal-in-a-Pumpkin so Wendy asked for the recipe. In honor of the first day of fall (yesterday...) here are two nice fall recipes. Both easy, delicious comfort food.

Taco Soup (this is actually thick for a soup - we served it on top of chips, with sour cream and cheese)
1 lb ground beef (we used ground turkey)
1 large onion, chopped
1 (1 1/4 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
1 (1 ounce) package hidden valley ranch dressing mix
1 (16 ounce) can pinto beans
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
1 (16 ounce) can whole kernel corn
1 (16 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1 (16 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (4 ounce) can green chilies, chopped

Directions
1 Brown the beef and the onion together.
2 Drain the grease, if necessary.
3 Stir everything together in a large pot and heat through.


Meal-in-a-Pumpkin
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 can sliced mushrooms
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup (or more) cooked rice
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large pumpkin, cut a lid on top and clean out the seeds and strings

Brown hamburger and onion. Add soy sauce, brown sugar, mushrooms, and soup. Simmer 10 minutes. Add cooked rice. Spoon the beef mixture into the pumpkin. Place pumpkin on cookie sheet. Bake 1 hour or more at 350. The pumpkin should easily pierce with a fork or toothpick from the outside of it. We serve it in the pumpkin and people scoop out the beef mixture and then slice off some of the pumpkin to eat (we serve butter and brown sugar on the table to eat on the pumpkin, or you can just eat it with butter, salt and pepper, or just with the beef mixture or however you like :)