Pumpkins - for Decoration and for Food

I love pumpkin pie and squash pie - but I've also enjoyed pumpkin as a vegetable in Moroccan-style "couscous" stew. 

(The Moroccan friend whose mother made the couscous couldn't imagine using pumpkin in a sweet dessert. It was so deeply entrenched as a vegetable in her mind.)

While traveling around in fall, I've noticed pumpkins for sale in many places.

Most will end up as decorations - something that partly makes me sad. I hate to think of an edible vegetable tossed after its use as a decoration is over.

When my children were young, we'd carve out jack-o-lanterns -  but when Halloween was over, we'd scrape out the melted wax inside the pumpkin - then chop the pumpkin up and cook it... for pumpkin pie.