The latest pumpkin food

On a rare visit to Chav-da supermarket... sorry Asda, I noticed a couple of pumpkin related foods that seemed worth a try. I was expecting the pie to be better tasting and for the goat's cheese to provide a stronger contrast to the squash so I was disappointed a little with the pie's blandness; but the soup... and there are many different pumpkin or butternut squash soups that are often watery, was the surprise. The cumin and paprika really kicked in and I wouid buy this soup again. So go and try the soup but avoid the pie!




Thursday 29th September 2011

Rocky Horror

With the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury soon to be reopening and with me going through some old scrapbooks of the sadly defunct Folkestone Rotaract Club, I found this flyer from March 1994.



Wednesday 28th September 2011

The run up to Halloween 2011...

Well, the evenings are drawing in and the best month of the year is about to start. My local church youth group has decide to hold a 'Light' party to celebrate All Souls Day rather than the traditional pumpkin carving evenings I've helped with over the past few years - oh deep joy!

Anyway, my 20th anniversary Halloween party ticket is designed and will be sent out to the relevant guests in due course. So in terms of a Halloween countdown, I'll endeavour to load an image on here every day until the day of that dark satanic feast that the local church is expecting. I wonder if any of the more right-wing local Christians will be holding a prayer meeting too, just to seek redemption for those guests that are lured through the soft door of Vince's Halloween party! I can feel the need to watch the classic Halloween episode of 'King Of The Hill.'

So to today's image...

There's been nothing exciting in terms of Halloween decorations in the shops. All I've picked up so far is a £1 copy of the DVD of 'The Munsters' Revenge' - a 1980s TV movie reunion of 3 of the original cast. The plot and acting are nothing special, but it's still a nice trip down memory lane.

Last week I spent a day in Calais, expecting to see some different and rather tasteful decorations that the French are often renowned for, but it seems I may have been somewhat premature with my visit as all I could see was a display in a jewellers that featured a knitted pumpkin!



Tuesday 27th September 2011

The first Halloween decorations of 2011...

Well, now the children are back at school, the shops are changing their 'Back To School' displays to something more autumnal and today I saw my first Halloween decorations... well, mostly sweets. Marks & Spencer had a small bin of chocolate eyeballs and fingers, and John Lewis had their usual fare of overpriced biscuits and lollipops - although they did have some paper cupcake holders and a vertical decoration spelling Halloween below a black bat. So not much yet... and these shops will have more in time.

Anyway it prompted me to cook up some pumpkin pasta when I got in from work. Waitrose for some years now have sold the pasta detailed below (originally with a small portion sized bottle of sage flavoured olive oil), which I have always rated as the best pumpkin pasta on sale in the UK (although I've since changed my mind to the Tesco Finest pumpkin pasta - which lacks the pine nuts and cheese, but has a much richer pumpkin taste.)


Tuesday 6th September 2011