beardedbruce - baking the pumpkin whole is a good idea but just a word of caution. I once attended an emergency situation where a family decided to pop the whole pumpkin in the oven and then serve it whole. They brought it to the table and when mom poked it with a fork to see if it was done, the damn thing exploded. The entire family and the kitchen was covered in hot pumpkin!

The burns were very bad and needless to say, they were in shock.

d