Pumpkin Week!: Roasted Pumpkins with Bacon and Brown Sugar

Ingredients:

6 slices bacon, cooked until crisp and drained, reserve the drippings (according to my daughter and her boyfriend, everything’s better with bacon!)

2 2-4 lb. pie pumpkins

1 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. coarse black pepper

¼ cup packed brown sugar

2 tsp. fennel seeds, crushed

2-3 green onions, sliced on a diagonal

Directions:  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Cut off the tops of the pumpkins and remove the seeds and stringy bits.  Reserve 2/3 cup of pumpkin seeds.  Place the pumpkins cut side up on a foil lined baking sheet.  Brush the insides of the pumpkins with some of the bacon drippings and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and brown sugar.  Replace the tops on the pumpkins and roast the pumpkins in the oven for about 20 minutes.  In an ovenproof skillet, stir together the pumpkin seeds, fennel seeds, green onions, and rest of the bacon drippings.  Place the skillet in the oven for the last 10 minutes that the pumpkins are roasting.  Remove everything from the oven.  Sprinkle the seed mixture and crumbled bacon into the pumpkins.  To serve, scoop out the pumpkin mixture or you can use a knife to cut up the pumpkin into wedges.  Makes 8-10 servings