The reincarnation of the Great Packer Pumpkin

Like Linus Van Pelt, there are three things that we’ve learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin.

So, we’re not going to talk about the great pumpkin dip that rose like a phoenix from our tailgate in the shadow of Lambeau Field and brought joy to all the Packer fans assembled there.

(We’re also not going to talk about how a gritty fourth quarter goal-line stand by our defense left our Packers 6-0 heading into the bye week. Shhh. We don’t wanna jinx anything).

And, we’re not going to talk about how we married that pumpkin dip with a couple of leftover cranberry oatmeal cookies to create a second act dessert good enough for company.

We’re not going to talk about any of those great pumpkin dishes that sprang from the foam of the Molly B and Me imagination.

But we will leave you the recipes.

Happy bye week, everyone!

Packer Pumpkin Dip

1 baking pumpkin

Olive Oil

Kosher salt

1/2 can pumpkin puree (or 15 ounces)

1 block low fat cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cup confectionery sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin spice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1) Gut the pumpkin and save the seeds for toasting. Rub the inside of the pumpkin with olive oil, salt generously and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Cool completely.

2) Mix softened cream cheese, pumpkin purée, powdered sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin spice and vanilla together. Whip until fluffy.

3) Fill baked pumpkin with cream cheese dip.

4) Sprinkle with ground roasted pumpkin seeds

5) Serve with pretzel chips, pita chips and apple slices

We made double this recipe and should have brought it all to the game, but, it was an experiment and we didn’t know if people would like it at all. So, we had a whole bowl of pumpkin dip left at home. We also had some delicious cranberry, oatmeal cookies leftover from the tailgate. So, we made…

The Great Pumpkin Mini Cheesecakes.

All we did for this is add 2 eggs, whipped, to the pumpkin dip.

We ground up the oatmeal cookies and mixed them with melted butter.

Then, we lined muffin tins, pressed the cookie mixture into the bottom and filled it to the rim with the pumpkin cheesecake mixture.

We baked for 30 minutes in a 375 degree over and voilà! fancy, schmancy dessert.