Happy Halloween

When we were little, living at home, we celebrated Halloween simply. We had stretchy black witches dresses that Mum sewed and seemed to grow with us, and she always did a special tea. In fact, one year, she made it look so gruesome that none of us would eat it! We never went out trick-or-treating as I don't think it was so popular back then, but would have a lovely time at home. Mum had a ceramic cauldron which really was a casserole dish which she would fill with pick and mix size sweeties, and stick plastic bugs to the outside. We always had a carved pumpkin alight as well. In later years, when we were too old to dress up, she always made some kind of Halloween display, and we had the cauldron ready for trick-or-treaters.

A few weeks ago, I was telling her how much I would like to have trick or treaters visit, btu we never do. Our old flat was tucked around a corner, so unless you knew it was there, you would never find it. Our new flat is upstairs and you have to buzz to get entry, which I suspect is offputting to trick or treaters. So, Mum said, why didn't I go to hers this year? I don't know why I haven't thought of it sooner, as I did, and it was the most lovely day I have had in a long time.

I spent the morning with one of the girls I used to work with in my little library on the hill. We haven't seen each other for ages, so it was really good to catch up. We drank several pots of tea, and watched the sky become sharp with sunlight and then cloud over, the wind whipping dried leaves and branches against the windowpane. From there I met Mum from her work, as she was on a half day, and we shared a pot of tea in the most delightful teashop, Truly Scrumptious. It is the kind of teashop with flowery tablecloths and mismatched vintage china - in other words, the best kind! Upstairs they had rooms full of vintage clothes and china and all sorts of vintage bric-a-brac for sale, and we had a lovely time browsing.

On the way home, we stopped to buy a large tub of marshmallows for the trick-or-treaters. Our plan was to make up little tissue paper pouches of sweets. We had to form a little production line in the end. Mum cut squares of orange, black, and orange-with-black-spider tissue paper, and I filled them with a few wrapped sweeties and a pair of marshmallows, then Dad cut a length of raffia for me to tie them with. We made lots, and filled a little wicker basket with them.

I loved how Mum had decorated the front porch for the evening - there was a Halloween wreath on the door, a pile of pumpkins (not carved, just heaped in the corner, looking beautiful) and a spiders web with a glowing spider in it. In the window burnt the carved pumpkin. It looked very Country Living. I was so excited when we had the first knock on the door! We had so many trick-or-treaterss that we ran out of pouches and had to make more, twice!

I have to say that I know a lot of people don't like trick-or-treat and think the children are all rude and horrible and will throw eggs everywhere...but my experience couldn't be more different. Our youngest visitor was a four month old baby called Grace dressed as a pumpkin in her mother's arms, visiting with her big sister, and our oldest were some teenage witches. Without exception they had all made the effort to dress up beautifully, they all said thank you, they all said halloween, and were perfectly delightful. There was no silly string, no eggs, no toilet paper, just fun. Their eyes were so wide when we offered them the basket of tissue paper bundles, and it was so nice to see something so simple bringing so much pleasure.

Mum cooked a delicious chicken casserole for dinner. I really miss her cooking, living away from home. She is very kind with sharing her recipes, but there is definitely something special about your Mum's cooking.

Carl came over after he had finished work, and knocked on the door with a 'trick or treat' as I had promised him some sweeties if he did! I hope that your Halloween was as lovely as mine.

Love Mimi xxx

Pumpkin Pleasures

Just over a week ago, I walked to work and smelt wet leaves for the first time; along with cinnamon and cedar, that is the real scent of autumn for me.

The leaves seem to have fallen from the trees almost overnight, and there were at first lofty piles of them which would get caught in the breeze and scatter about, but now are damp and stuck flat to the pavement.

The days seem to be passing so quickly, that we seem to have moved from the first stirrings of autumn to the sudden crisp cool days of deep autumn almost overnight. We went to see the new Bond film on Friday night, and when we came out of the cinema it was late, and cold, and the moon was dazzlingly beautiful and bright. It had seemed to burn a hole in the clouds almost, and lit our way home.

As we walked home, with the wind nipping my nose, I was thinking of pumpkins, because we had two days of entertaining this weekend, and pumpkins were the order of the day. Yesterday we had Carl's sisters and their partners to visit, and today was our annual Pumpkin Carving Brunch Club.

One of Carl's sisters lives in London and eats in a lot of lovely restaurants, so I wanted to make things extra special. I thought about things and decided to go for several courses of tiny portions rather than my usual serve-yourself-buffet-style cooking. I made my signature hot mulled apple punch which I keep warm in the slow cooker, and serve in teacups with a jug of rum or brandy so people can spike their own drinks to their own taste. I like that it is communal and the drinkers and non-drinkers can share the same drink.

I made a pumpkin dip (roasted pumpkin blended with cream cheese and a pinch of dried chillies) with celery, carrots and seeded crackers to scoop it up with, and then roasted a camembert to go alongside. When people had settled, had a drink and a little graze on the nibbles, I served the first course, which was pumpkin soup served in teacups with a little swirl of cream in the top. Next followed rolling pin ravioli (so called because you don't use a pasta maker) stuffed with roast pumpkin. I served 3 little cushions of ravioli tossed in a little butter, pine nuts, crispy bacon, sage, spinach and sprinkled with a little cheese. Next came overnight slow-cooked lamb stew with dumplings. I found tiny casserole dishes, slightly bigger than a ramekin, to serve it in. I nestled a single dumpling atop the stew with baby chantenay carrots on the side. After that came Nigella's hazelnut and chocolate cheesecake, but rather than making a large one and serving it in slices, I made them in little glass ramekins. They are beautiful, but very, very rich. Definitely one to serve with a cup of tea on the side! I had planned to make marzipan acorns to serve with coffee at the end, but I realised too late I did not have any green food colouring. Instead, I served mini doughnuts! I had seen in the Lakeland catalogue that they had a little silicone tray to make them in, and that you could bake them in the oven, so I decided that they would be the perfect thing to try making.

I am pleased to report that they were a total success! Although the recipe on the Lakeland website said that the mixture would make 8, it made 16! I tossed half in caster sugar and the other half in cinnamon sugar, and they all got eaten within minutes! They were very quick and easy to make and I can't recommend the tray enough!

It was really good to catch up with the family again and we spent a happy day talking, although there was a lot of washing up to do afterwards! Today has been pumpkin carving brunch club, and I got a head start on the catering by making twice as much pumpkin soup as I needed yesterday, so served that as a first course again today. I made pumpkin macaroni cheese for the main course, and blended ciabatta, dried sage, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and cheese to sprinkle over the top before it was baked. I served a big dish of sausages alongside, and another dish of bitter green leaf salad, with my favourite beetroot and balsamic vinegar dressing on the side. I was really pleased with the macaroni cheese, as I concocted the recipe myself. My dessert was an 'impossible vegan pumpkin pie' which turned out much better than I hoped.

My guests today are some of my favourite people in the world, and it was a pleasure to have them with me for the afternoon. One brought delicious pumpkin and chocolate brownies, and the lovely Annastasia came bearing the most amazing mini cupcakes which looked like they would bite back! Each cupcake had a strawberry jam mouth and macademia nut teeth, and looked scary but tasted delicious.

Inspired by apple day at the farm a few weekends ago, we had our first apple peeling competition - Annastasia is the reigning Miss Apple Peel 2012, but I shall be practising ready for next year! I used a lino cutting tool to carve my pumpkin this year - while it is really effective I think I need more practise to perfect controlling it.

And so we come to Sunday evening. What a difference a week makes...I remember last Sunday I did not feel so happy at all. But this morning, I needed to pick up a few last minute ingredients, and strode out into the cold, the leaves scuttling about my feet, the air cool in my lungs, and just felt happy. It is a good feeling, and I hope that it lasts for me and that all of you feel happy yourselves.

The extra hour in bed last night was much appreciated, but it means I am feeling very sleepy now, but want to finish off catching up with Strictly Come Dancing on the iplayer before bedtime. I wonder if I will have time to knit up a tiny pumpkin before Halloween on Wednesday?

I think that tonight will be a hot-water-bottle kind of night, and tomorrow will be a scarf and gloves kind of morning. Wherever you are, I hope you are wrapped up warm and had a lovely weekend,
Love Mimi xxx

A Pumpkin is For Life, Not Just For Halloween....and Happy November!

Reading over my last few posts, you really cannot miss my fondness for the culinary uses for pumpkins! Yesterday being Halloween itself, I had a small gathering of friends round for dinner, and of course, the theme was Pumpkins!

I made a Thai Green Pumpkin Soup which I served in teacups with crispy croutons as a starter. It was simplicity itself, just roasted pumpkin blended with a tin of coconut milk, some thai green curry paste and a pinch of dried chillies, then heated through to serve.

Next I trotted out my old faithful Pumpkin and Sage Risotto recipe. My secret to a great risotto is to take some of whatever vegetable risotto you are making, blend it with a little cream cheese, stock, cheddar and seasoning, then beat into the risotto at the end. It makes it really creamy and flavourful.

For dessert I was going to make Chocolate Pumpkin Creme Brulees with Salted Caramel, but I watched a snippet of This Morning, and Phil Vickery demonstrated a really easy but heavenly looking pumpkin loaf cake, so I made that instead, and I am really glad I did. As long as you have pumpkin, everything else is store cupboard, and the results are really stunning. I served mine with cream whipped with vanilla and a little sugar, and a pinch of edible glitter!

The recipe can be found here: http://www.itv.com/thismorning/food/pumpkin-cake/

I still have lots of pumpkin recipes I want to try though! In particular, Hugh has a recipe for Pumpkin Fold Overs in his new River Cottage Veg Everyday book....they look like an easy but delicious lunch. Then I found this post http://thequincetree65.blogspot.com/2011/11/pumpkin-recipes.html which has given me more food for thought! Although there is something extra nice about cooking with Pumpkins at Halloween, they really are too good and too versatile not to use throughout the autumn months. While I don't like to think of carving pumpkins going to waste, I do think it is worth buying culinary pumpkins where you can. They are smaller and more flavourful, and also they are really quite cheap. One medium pumpkin made all the dishes for my Halloween Dinner, which served 5 with leftovers of everything except the soup!

When I left home for a training course this morning, it was very lightly drizzly and grey. I had my big white shawl with me to wrap up and snuggle in, which was nice, but what was really lovely was spotting here and there the carved pumpkins smiling (or frowning, in some cases!) out from windowsills, doorsteps and gardens. I know that a lot of people don't like trick-or-treating or Halloween in general, but I think that if the former is well supervised it can be really nice, and the latter is what you choose to make it. Sadly we don't get trick or treaters, but I really wish we did. Mum gets quite a lot, and really enjoys planning her treats. She buys a big tin of Quality Street or similar when they are on offer, perhaps a big bag of marshmallows or other Halloween sweets too, and makes up little crepe or tissue paper bundles to hand out. She gets lovely little children knock on the door, and I think she gets as much pleasure out of it as they do.

I still have not got round to one Halloween craft that I have always wanted to do...somehow, every year, time slips away! I want to take a small pumpkin, remove the seeds and put in a vase filled with bronze and orange and red chrysanthemums, so it looks like the pumpkin is the vase. Maybe next year will finally be the year!

One thing I did do this year which I have not done before is to buy a small selection of Halloween chocolates (including the Cadbury 'Screme' Egg which has green goo instead of a yolk in it!) and hide them about the flat for Carl to find, Easter Egg hunt style. That was lots of fun for both of us, so I will be doing that again next year.

So, Halloween is over, but happily Pumpkin season is not. I cannot believe that today is November. Suddenly the year seems nearly over, and Christmas is just around the corner (I do believe I read that it is 54 days!). Autumn is suddenly glorious, the trees are blazing with colour, and the air has that brittle hazy November quality to it.

Wherever you are, I hope you had a spookily perfect Halloween, and enjoy the many delights that November has to bring.