A change of plan...

Although today started off foggy, it soon became a beautiful Autumnal day with sunshine and blue skies and temperatures of around 16c! Wonderful!

Keith and I took Sophie to uni and popped to Jones's to stock up on some essentials before heading to Tesco. We needed to get some more chicken for the Jerk dish I'm cooking tomorrow as the tray we bought in the shopping the other day went off rather spectacularly! We discovered the plastic surround had cracked, letting in the air and I'd noticed the smell on Saturday morning when I made myself a cup of coffee. It was horrible! I also needed to try and get the normal Jerk paste we use in the recipe, as we couldn't find it in the Tesco's in Kettering and I had been given dire warnings from Sophie that if we didn't obtain it, she would carry out all sorts of nasty things to me!

I'd bought a Levi Roots Jerk Chicken marinade but Sophie had discovered that the third ingredient in it was Cinnamon, something she cannot abide! Luckily, after a lot of searching we found the jar so that was a relief! Tomorrow night's dinner can go ahead!

I had a busy afternoon as I'd changed mine and Sophie's bed in the morning and Keith ironed all the bedding for me to put back. Mark, our window cleaner, arrived and suggested I leave the roof of the conservatory until the Spring as it would cost a lot to clean and within a week it would be covered in leaves again. I agreed, so he set to and cleaned all the windows of the house and the conservatory. It all looked so much better after he'd finished and definitely saved me a job! We had a good chat with him before he left, which was lovely, but as he's lost some weight recently, he's no longer a dead ringer for Ray Winstone!

As well as changing the beds, I swept up all the leaves from the front of the house and arranged our pumpkins on the front steps. I also put out our light-up skull and the little Halloween lantern. Some of the other houses really went for it with lots and lots of decorations (cobwebs, ghosts, skeletons, scary music) so the whole place looked really festive!

After picking Sophie up from uni we popped to the Co-op and I bought some crusty bread and a packet of cornflour for the recipe I was making tonight - Baked Pumpkin Fondue. Sophie was off out for the evening so bought herself a pizza...anything rather than have dinner with us! I also bought a pizza for Mike in case he hated the fondue!

The Halloween celebrations started quite late and the first Trick or Treaters didn't appear until about 6.30pm. I had my bowl of sweets and chocolate all ready and we had a good crowd throughout the evening. The one good thing about the children was that they were all so polite and friendly. Keith took Sophie to her friend Hannah's house while I stayed at home to welcome the children and make the Pumpkin fondue. I had to cut the top off, take out all the seeds and stringy bits and then bake the whole thing in the oven for about an hour and a half. I then grated Emmental, Gruyere and Cheddar cheese and layered them inside the pumpkin with creme fraiche, shallots and white wine. This was then baked for a further thirty minutes until it was hot.

I served the fondue with roasted new potatoes, crusty bread and frankfurter sausage and although we all enjoyed it (even Mike!) we agreed it was a bit too heavy for a starter. I was also a bit worried about the pumpkin itself as it sort of collapsed when I was baking it and I was convinced it was going to split when the cheese was inside!

So it's back to the drawing board to find a suitable starter for Saturday night and I have to practise before then! My money is on a Spiced Butternut Squash soup, a la Mary Berry!