Secrets

Oh Gosh... I'm really late with this one. I suspect that it is because I have fully returned to the regular grind. Here is a question for those of you who have not been involved in the school system for quite some time; does September still feel like the start of a new year to you? Why is it that September feels like the start of something... not nine months in and you should be feeling sick of it? You are fresh off of your summer holidays and you start new back at work again. Or, start back to school. Or, start your harvest for the rest of the winter/ year. Yes, January is the 'start of the year', or that Spring is the start of nature's life cycle, but to me, my life cycle seems to start in the Autumn.

Autumn is progressing lovely here. All the colours that we have at home are in full array, except with green grass! The foliage is a welcome break to the eye with the grey backdrop of the sky. It hasn't been particularly rainy, but it also hasn't been very sunny. The days are most certainly getting shorter and I am once again dressing in the dark in the mornings and typing in the dark on my way home on the train.

So why have I been so busy the past six weeks?  I had a tour of the chocolate factory in September, which was fabulous! Not as wondrous as Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, but I seemed to get giddy watching the pumping and squeezing of viscous chocolate from the gadgets and the bits and bobs move around the production line and into their packages. I saw the production of Creme Eggs, Dairy Milk, Fudge, strawberry filled Roses, and Wispa (sort of like Aero but WAY better). And dare I say for fear of a gigantic letter falling on my head, I now know THE SECRET! What secret, you ask. I know the secret of how they get the caramel in the Caramilk bar :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouSukfRtCOU

Feeling a bit nostalgic (not homesick, let me make this clear) this month, I decided to spice up life a bit... with some pumpkin pie. Not a bit thing over here and I knew the only way to have my fix was to make it myself... from scratch because canned pumpkin is just not something that is done over here. For any of you wishing to do this yourself, I now know that one 10 inch pumpkin makes about three pies, one loaf, one 8-inch cake, and ten UK sized tartlets and I still have one more pumpkin to use. Key learnings from this exercise were:
1)Have your mom send you tinned pumpkin
2)Have your mom send your her pumpkin pie recipe because yours will never match, and when it still doesn't match...
3) Just send your mom over at Thanksgiving the next year.

But seriously, preparing the pumpkin wasn't too difficult, except for that I didn't realise how difficult it was to cut a pumpkin because I think that is usually dad's job (next time I will import my dad ahead of time to cut my pumpkins for me). I halved my pumpkin, placed the halves in a baking dish face down in water, and baked for about an hour. The pumpkin meat (??) was perfect and the skin peeled off nicely. I then let it cool, chopped it up and blitzed it ready for baking. Of all of my goodies, my loaf/ cake turned out best and would have been perfect with a pumpkin spice latte. Again, not a popular thing here so I give you full permission to double your pumpkin spice latte intake to account for my quota and please throw some pumpkin scones in there for good measure. In the end my pies just didn't measure up to my expectations and I really blame the pre-made pie shells, but I have some more ideas for my next pumpkin and will give it a go next weekend!

Other than experimenting with pumpkin in the kitchen, I have filled most of my weekends socialising; birthdays, pre-wedding, and wedding parties and it appears that my social calendar is booked nearly until 2011. I'd like to say happy birthday to my friend Kirsten who had a fab birthday at a 70's themed night club with all of the girls and congrats to the new Mr Dean and Mrs Faye Healy! Again, the girls had a great month and a half run-up to the wedding with her two hen nights (cider festival and a night out in our LBDs) and their wedding was wonderful- ultra glam!

Halloween this weekend and Tracy is coming down to Reading to come to my staff Halloween party while the boy are going to a stag-do weekend in Dorset (zorbing and cliff diving-eek!). Equally as fun, and potentially as scary, Tracy and I are going to London on the Saturday to let loose... pictures to follow in next month's report and I'll fill you in on how the Brits do Halloween.

All the best and Happy Halloween!