Asda Halloween magazine

Strange that in the lead up to Halloween I didn't see this in any Asda supermarket, but now after Halloween has been and gone it appears! (Albeit dated as a November magazine.)

Mind you we are talking about a supermarket that caters mainly for the lower classes and puts anything healthy, such as fruit & veg, or vital ingredients such as sugar, flour, eggs in obscure hidden locations in the store in case the obese customers have palpatations when they can't see their processed prepacked jumbo sized junk food when they come in!

So, not a bad cover, lots of adverts for Halloween products no longer on sale but a couple of good recipes inside (Halloween lasagne & mini cheese pumpkins made primarily from cheese scones being of note).

If you're in an Asda try to pick up a copy... it's just a shame you'll have to embrace the Wallmart generation of shoppers that frequent the place! So don't forget to wear your HazMat suits!

Wednesday 16th November 2011

Thanksgiving Snoopy

Saw this on a website as a header... I'm sure it's not official but it looks good anyway doesn't it!

Wednesday 18th November 2011

Halloween Food & Drink

Here's just a collection of mainly pumpkin flavoured foodstuffs that I was given or that I bought over the festive season.

The packaging on the Halloween fudge box was probably the best thing about the box of fudge - but then I don't have a very sweet tooth!

It was great to get some more pumpkin seed butter in a Whitstable health food shop - similar to peanut butter but a lot richer in taste so you use far less on your bread.

The pumkpin spiced tea that I was given has the usual spices you'd expect for a wintery brew but does have some actual pumpkin flakes in there although you'd be hard pressed to distinguish their taste. But overall a nice 'cuppa' and I would buy the teabags again.

But the gem is to be able to find pumpkin seed oil. I haven't seen this for sale for about 4 years now. The brand that Waitrose and Tesco used to sell was very rich, perhaps a bit too rich. Then I found another brand that was rather tasteless and bland. This is variety I picked up is about right in terms of not being too overpowering... although it is a little pricey!

Finally the pumpkin speltotto (like a risotto but with spelt) tastes quite sweet due to the shallots and is very filling, but just needs that extra punch... so don't forget to add chopped parsley and shavings of a hard cheese at the end as the packet states or you may be a bit underwhelmed. This pumpkin product was found in the UK supermarket Waitrose; so should be readily available.

Tuesday 8th November 2011

Whitstable Witch

Must admit I forgot to add this photo in with yesterday's entry. Bridge House Art Supplies in Whitstable High Street had this little witch sitting in their shop window so I thought I'd take a picture of it and give their shop a small plug as they made an effort for Halloween. (The witch apparently came from the store TK Maxx.)

Sunday 6th November 2011

Peter Cushing

It's been a busy week and I have a backlog of pictures to put up on here of different pumpkin related food and drink, but I thought I'd start with a post about my activities on Halloween itself.

(And if you feel the need to sing along to The Jellybottys' song 'Peter Cushing Lives In Whitstable', please do... and if you have no idea what I'm talking about... google it!)

So, anyway, I went with a couple of frined to the quaint and quiet Kentish town of Whitstable that still retains it's sleepy local charm and hasn't succumbed like many other towns to being a high street full of the same large corporate chains of shops. And being Halloween we thought it appropriate for a pilgrimage to the town that Peter Cushing called home in his latter years.

Usually our trips start with a brief look around the Whitstable Town Museum which has a small display cabinet of Peter Cushing memorablia. (They had a lot more, but it was auctioned off a few years back!) The museum was always worth a visit and had always been free in the past, but upon our arrival we were told there was now an entry fee and as we were only intending on looking at one display which we had seen before anyway, we passed on the museum.

(We had also previously done the Peter Cushing guided walk for which there is a booklet and I would recommend that any fan does this on their visit.)

However amidst our meandering around the town we did stop off in the recently opened Wetherspoons pub in the town. This impressive building was a formed art deco theatre and later a bingo hall and Wetherspoons have done a great job in renovating it and naming it after Whitstable's most famous resident. We also stopped off in the Tudor Tea Rooms where the late great horror actor used to dine every day in his retirement,and saw the memorial over the table where he would always sit.

So in all a great day out and a wonderful way to remember one of England's finest actors and a true gentleman.

So below are just a few photos of the aforementioned memorials to one of Horror's greats.

Saturday 5th November 2011