FLOWER POT KITCHEN: HALLOWEEN. THE SPOOKY HOUSE IS SMELLING OF CARAMLISED PUMPKINS THAT ARE ALL GLOWING IN THE DARK, SPOOKY SHADOWS IN ALL THE DOORWAYS AND COBWEBS AND CREEPY CRAWLIES EVERYWHERE, FABULOUS HALLOWEEN

31 Oct 2012

HALLOWEEN. THE SPOOKY HOUSE IS SMELLING OF CARAMLISED PUMPKINS THAT ARE ALL GLOWING IN THE DARK, SPOOKY SHADOWS IN ALL THE DOORWAYS AND COBWEBS AND CREEPY CRAWLIES EVERYWHERE, FABULOUS HALLOWEEN

We love this time of the year, especially our 11yr old son, we love the cold, dark blistery evening of Halloween, we turn off all the lights in the house and pretend we are in the 1600's where you only had light from flickering candles, it is very romantic and very eerie with all the motion set talking ghouls, talking picture frames and floating cobwebs blowing in the drafts.

The house smells so wonderful from all the fresh pumpkins sort of cooking a little from the candles inside them, I just love the smell of caramelising pumpkin's, our puppy makes us laugh as she runs around growling at the pumpkin faces, only the scary ones! We spend the day making eerie slimy jelly's, spooky cupcakes and putting up all the decorations in Oscar's room.

Oscar's bedroom door covered in cobwebs and spooky black rags, Oscar's creepy butler who says ghoulish comments as you walk past, the picture frame tells a story as you pass and then sticks his eye balls and tongues out of the picture at you!!!

Fun cupcakes for the effect.

Ginger and chocolate cake, a first try for us topped with chocolate icing and our ghoulish cupcakes.

Mr Chilli dog he insists on his photo, as soon as we get this frame out he runs and sits behind waiting for us to take his photo.

Puppy Lottie taking part in the fun, last year when we took Lotties photo she was 9 weeks old arrh...

In all a lovely Halloween evening, we are the only house in our street who lines the driveway with pumpkins, puts the banners out and has candles flicking in all the creepy cottage windows with cobwebs hanging over the front door, when our son sees the house he loves it, such a spooky house! This we can confirm as often if we get up in the early hours to check on our son, you will hear the sharp intake of breath and then the eeeek scream as our eyes adjust to little wrinkled slightly green faced creepy man standing in the corner of our sons room lol!!!

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.