PuMpKiN sOuP & cUpCaKeS fOr A sToRmY dAy

I don't know about you but chilly autumn days make me want to snuggle up indoors with hearty comfort food, especially as now is the perfect time for one of my favourite seasonal veg the pumpkin. So I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen yesterday whipping up some lovely warming pumpkin soup to eat with some homemade fresh honey bread for lunch today.

500g pumpkin, skinned and cubed

1 med onion

1 med potato

1tsp dried cumin

1 tsp dried coriander

150g spit red lentils

1.2l veg stock

2 tbsp sunflower oil

chop onions and fry in the oil until just soft, add the spices, chopped and skinned pumpkin, potato, lentils and veg stock. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 3o mins. When cooked blend with a hand blender or put in a food processor, return to pan to reheat and season to taste. yummy!

I also felt that some baking was on the agenda for today so whipped up a batch of cupcakes with pale pink icing. A bit extravagant when they are not for any particular occasion but as it's the last day of my week off work I thought what the hell. I had all the ingredients in the cupboard, and felt like something sweet and naughty. Not that I'll be eating them all though!

I found out today that I've also won a giveaway in blogland. It's a giveaway from Gill at The Vintage Gardener. Her lovely bunny Archie picked my name out of the trug so a big thank you to Gill, can't wait to receive my goodies.

I've had Halloween on my mind in the past few days. I'm a bit of a Halloween-aholic and love decorating the house for the spooky season. Carving pumpkins is a bit of a speciality of mine and each year I like to try something more artistic than the year before. I'm on the lookout for some new pumpkin carving templates so if you know of any good ones please let me know. I'm having the girls over on the 30th Oct for a witches tea party, fancy dress is a must, although I haven't decided on my costume just get, but there are some wicked wigs on e-bay.

I hope everyone is tucked up in the dry today out of this stormy weather, please help yourselves to a cake, and have a lovely weekend.

TTFN

Happy Halloween - Pumpkin Soup Recipe

Greetings witches and wizards. I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen yesterday whipping up

some lovely warming pumpkin soup to eat with some homemade fresh bread later today. I did have a bit of a taste yesterday to sample, :o) here's what i did........................

500g pumpkin, skinned and cubed

1 med onion

1 med potato

1tsp dried cumin

1 tsp dried coriander

150g spit red lentils

1.2l veg stock

2 tbsp sunflower oil

chop onions and fry in the oil until just soft, add the spices, chopped and skinned pumpkin, potato, lentils and veg stock. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 3o mins. When cooked blend with a hand blender or put in a food processor, return to pan to reheat and season to taste. yummy!

I had enough pumpkin left to make pumpkin puree too. You can never seem to get pumpkin puree in the shops and I've so many lovely recipes that require it.

Pumpkin Puree

Put 500g pumpkin skinned and cubed in a pan of boiling water, when tender drain, then pat dry with kitchen paper, then blend to a puree and refrigerate until ready to use. This make approx 300g puree. I'm hoping to make a nice pumpkin pie later. Even after the soup and puree I still had a little pumpkin left which got put into yesterday lambs stew which was scrummy.

hubby and I went for a lovely walk in the woods yesterday with the dogs. Beau has only been allowed to start going out this week and he's loving it, so many sniffs lol :o). (Isn't he growing fast).

My boys!!!!

I love the autumn colours in this pic. Woody blends in well. I think Beau is a winters snowy day kinda dog lol.

I hope to be back later to show you my ginormous pumpkin that I would have calved. :O)

TTFN

Pixie xxxx