Happy Halloween!!

I love Halloween!! Its one of my favourites.

It starts with pumpkin carving one or two nights before:

This year we were a bit disappointed we didn't get to grow one like last year.

Miss boo enjoys having more and more responsibility each year, she's already excited that she'll get to use the drill next year!

And she wanted to do hello kitty this year, she didn't have  that much responsibility though, this design involved various knives (and some very bad swear words when boo want in the room!)

Then on Halloween we all get dressed up:

(This is me (the white rabbit) and my lovely bestfriend. We've known each other since we were 4)



We get loads of trick or treaters coming to our house and we ply them with various E numbers equally we (myself, mr husband and our friends) go out trick or treating with our children - 6 of them last night and they spend the entire evening as giddy as kippers (it's the only night in the entire year they are allowed to gorge on sweets, I half expect them to eat far too many, feel ill and regret their decision, but it never happens, equally the line "don't get to giddy you'll make yourselves ill" not only falls on deaf ears, but never happens). We seem to have a good unwritten policy on our estate (maybe it's like this everywhere) where if you leave lights on trick or treater's are welcome. The kids are really good as well, they respect that if there are no lights on people don't want to be bothered.

After trick or treating we all come home and enjoy pumpkin soup or corned beef hash or both! (Just not together!) I found a delicious pumpkin soup this year and modified it slightly:

All the pumpkin innards (of two pumpkins)
Olive oil
1 onion
1 leek
1 sweet potato
2.5 pints of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
1/4 point of double cream

Thinly chop onion, and slice the leek and fry in the olive oil until soft, peel the sweet potato and chop into small cubes add to oil. Fry until soft for 5 minutes and the cumin and add the pumpkin, add the chicken stock. Bring to boil, then turn down and simmer for 25 minutes until veg is soft. Then take of the heat.  Because I like soups to be quite thick I strained the veg from the stock and blended it, then add a bit of stock at the end to get the right consistency. Stir in the cream, and add salt and pepper. I served mine with the chilli flake grinder, in case people wanted an added kick!

So there you go!

I'm aiming to get to the allotment tomorrow!!! And this week will be about making plans on what to plant next year. And I might even look at getting that greenhouse up over winter!

Bye for now and happy planting! Xx