I know how that pumpkin feels!
My best friend has a wonderful, awesome, gun slinging wife. She is very much a Midwestern matron, and DAMN... Can she cook!
The pumpkin reminded me of her cooking, because she had a recipe for a light, complex beef stew that was cooked inside of a pumpkin, and you would scrape the cooked pumpkin off into the stew. That was about 20 years ago and I still remember it.
There is some GREAT cuisine in the Midwest.
But those... _things_ made with jello...
*shudder*