Thai Pumpkin Stir-fry with basil and fried polenta

*Or: “Pumpkin. It ain’t just for pies anymore.”

I was actually looking for an interesting way to use a sugar pumpkin I had included in a decorative arrangement, when…okay let’s just pause right there and address the implied insanity of this first sentence. I was looking to eat a pumpkin I had been using as a decoration for over a month. Why would I do this. This sounds like the culinary equivalent of Scarlet O’Hara making a party dress out of the drapes. Am I that broke? No. (Mom, Dad, I promise I’m really not.)

Reduce, reuse, recycle…

Another possibility is that I have gone completely over into conservation-insanity and become one of those people who washes, dries, and reuses paper towels. Nah. Okay sometimes I reuse tin foil, but that just makes sense. Nor am I one of those people who look at you accusingly in restaurants when you don’t eat the unidentified green garnish that served as a bed for your crab cake and say, “That’s edible, you know. You’re not going to eat it? Fine just give it to me, I’ll take it home in my purse and eat it later so it doesn’t go to waste.” (If that example seemed overly-specific, it’s because it’s practically a word for word transcript of an actual incident.)

Anyway, what actually happened was, I got all inspired by falling leaves and football games, and I made an autumnal centerpiece, and a sugar pumpkin just completed it.