Apollinas

I hosted a Fall dinner party last weekend and tried out Martha Stewart’s Pumpkin Pot Pie recipe which was a hearty hit! After watching these two videos from Martha (1 & 2), I set out to create the pumpkin cuties for my lovely guests. On the guest list were the beautiful D.C. bloggers and great friends, Sara, Rosa and Katalina. They are by far 3 of the best things to come out of this little blog adventure of mine. There were 10 of us total so 10 sugar pumpkins, also called pie pumpkins, were needed to act as the festive fall vessels for this delicious chicken stew. They are pretty easy to prep, especially when there is a big, strong man in the kitchen slicing off pumpkin tops and scooping out guts. After that part was over with, I brushed melted butter inside the pumpkins and on the rim, sprinkled salt, pepper and nutmeg inside and baked them at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Oh man, the kitchen smelled good…

We then got to chopping the veggies. Once the pumpkins were out of the oven, we roasted the chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper for 45 minutes and left the pumpkins to cool. All this, by the way, can be done in advance. You can fridge/freeze the stew and then just stick them in the pumpkins when you’re ready to bake.

photo via the lovely Rosa Loves DC

Once the stew is done and the pumpkins are cool, load the stew inside and cover with the pastry dough. Now, M.S. makes her own Pate Brisee (which I had to look up) but instead of messing with all of that, I bought Pepperidge Farm’s puff pastry sheets and called it a day. They are easy ( you thaw them, roll them out and cut them) and they’re dairy free in case you have any guests with allergies. I kind of messed up this part though because I was afraid of running out of dough. I rolled them out too thin so they didn’t rise as much as I wanted. It’s so cute cause Martha covers the pumpkins with the dough, twists up the center to mimic the stem and then draws little lines with a knife to line up with the creases on the pumpkin. If I had used more dough they probably would have appeared clearer coming out of the oven.

images via the very talented Sara from High Fashion 4 Less

And the chatting and drinking and munching ensued while the PPPs baked. Also on the menu, was Spiced Rum Apple Cider, Warm Brie with Walnuts and Caramel, Frisée and Apple Salad with Dried Cranberries and Walnuts, Apple Cobbler and Pumpkin Carrot muffins (dairy free). Oh, and another beautiful friend made some delicious pumpkin bread.

photos via the lovely Rosa Loves DC

And then the oven timer buzzed and we were ready to eat!

photos via the lovely Rosa Loves DC

And they were delicious! Scraping the sides and bottom of the pumpkin as you eat the warm, savory stew was SO GOOD. Next time I make them I’ll only put a quarter of the pearl onions in, they took up way too much space. And I’ll make a thicker dough top.

It was so much fun to try out this recipe and much more fun to have friends around to help me eat! And may I just say how great it is to have blogger friends who take great pics?