Pumpkin soup

I love this time of year when the supermarkets stock pumpkins ready for Halloween at great prices; at the beginning of the week I picked up a medium sized pumpkin for 87p to make some soup with. Last night I whipped a batch up to eat at work at lunchtime. I also wanted to use a few fresh ingredients up in the fridge as I'm heading home for the weekend in a few days time.

Ingredients 

• Half a medium pumpkin
• One white skinned sweet potato
• A small handful of shallots
• Some sliced onion
• Two cloves of fresh garlic
• One stock cube 
• Dried Italian herbs
• Peanut butter
• One yellow pepper 

I chopped all the ingredients up, boiled them for approximately 15 minutes and blended with a hand blender (£5 from Asda smart price, which was a moving in present from my mum). This made three portions of soup which was poured into old (clean!) glass jars, as well as one portion which I poured into a Heinz baked beans fridge pack carton which I'll probably freeze for next weeks lunches. I haven't tasted it yet- oopsy!- so I'll let you know how I get on at lunch. 

Has anyone noticed how the papers (or is it just one I pick up on my commute?) has been full of doom and gloom over the last few days- first energy is predicted to go up by 10% in the new year, then petrol prices are ever-increasing, and then I read this morning that food prices are set to rise due to the heavy rainfall. Ergh! We'll just have to keep plodding on with it all. 

A spooky Halloween weekend in London

My very own green Jack-o-lantern x

This weekend I spent most of my evenings soaking up the spooky atmosphere in london town.
After work on Friday one if my best friends came to meet me. We enjoyed a rather rushed dinner (which unfortunately came on a tray and in a basket) at a small BBQ restaurant just off of Oxford street before tottering off to Covent garden to the Fortune theatre to see 'A woman in black'.

My friend was nervously awaiting the spooky tale after reading reviews on the net. The play had only three actors in it, who played a number of different
characters each who depicted the story of a woman in black who haunts an old mansion set up in the Yorkshire moors. The story unfolds, and the woman in black makes a number of appearances throughput the play cursing her spell over anyone who is unlucky enough to catch sight of her dark figure. The highlights were the war piercing screams which make the audience jump out of their seats.

I then found out there will be a remake of the old film starting Harry potter actor Daniel Radcliffe

released in February next year which I want to see
and might have a browse on Amazon too to see if they stock the book. I'd highly recommend seeing it if you're in town and tickets are only about £12 too.

On Saturday night I had been given tickets to go and see a special showing of 'The Blair witch project' at The Union Chapel in Highbury Islington. I'd never seen the film when I was younger and as the free tickets included two complimentary jamesons cocktails I thought it would be a fun thing to do. The chapel was all decorated for Halloween with low green lighting, spooky decorations and Jack-o-lanterns casting their eerie glow across the pews. In front of us there was a stage which had a set from the film built on it, including some trees and three pop up tents to bring the film to life.

I sat there waiting for the film to get scary, and then when it did it finished suddenly. A little disappointing but enjoyed the spooky surroundings and cool setting. Getting the tube back to Waterloo we encountered ghouls, ghosts and other dressed up party goers.

What are your plans for Halloween? Are you a fan? Or do you plan on bolting down the fort, turning the lights off and hiding from trick-or-treaters?

Xx