An Autumnal Weekend

This weekend we both took the Friday off work and we enjoyed a long weekend up north. We started at a place called Shugborough in Stafford – an estate and grounds. We rolled up on Friday, the estate was closed and the whole place was deserted so we played Lord and Lady of the manor and enjoyed the autumnal surroundings and the various lakes and canals

We had lots of fun playing in the dry leaves and running around the paths and past the follies to stay warm.

I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the swans, they were so graceful and elegant. I really like this picture, though a bit blurry, because it looks so serene. It was freezing cold though!

As we were strolling up and down the canals, we saw this travelling cheese boat!

and duly bought a pickled onion and a chilli variety of the Welsh wax-wrapped cheese. Can’t wait to have some wodges of it with crusty bread or a long-baked jacket potato.

The next day we braved the British weather so TLM could go on his special driving day. I was so cold, I could barely move my fingers. It was a true test of love and devotion!

But it was all worth it as TLM sped round the track

We then made our way up to Manchester for a friend’s firework party (she made some delicious leek and potato soup and some peanutbutterchocoaltethingies and I will try and wrest the recipes from her).

Unfortunately, I got a rather nasty vomiting bug from somewhere… (dodgy Chinese buffet?) so the 4 hour drive back from Manchester was -ahem- interesting. But the whole weekend was delightful, and I’m really glad we took in the autumnal goodness before the torrential rain that seems to have invaded.

Warming Lamb and Pumpkin Stew

Perhaps it shows that I was never allowed to partake in all things Halloweeny (I wasn’t even allowed to watch Scooby Doo because it was ‘demonic’) as a child?

On Friday we decided to have a low-key evening in, watching the Buffy Halloween specials and eating some warming winter fare. During the day, I picked up some small edible pumpkins (99p a kilo rather than £2 for a big carving pumpkin or 79p each for a little pumpkin!) and on the way home I made a good deal with the florists over the church candles and orange-and-white bouquets.

To make the stew, I used the FLESH of two small children pumpkins and improvised:

Ingredients

• 1 red onion
• 1 carrot, cut into large cubes
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• flesh of two small pumpkins, shredded
• small packet of diced lamb
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• black pepper and salt

How to Make It

Simple stew drill, really: brown lamb, remove. Fry onions and pumpkin together with sugar and a little salt. Add tomatoes and spices. Cook for an hour and a half.

With it we ate couscous with black pepper, paprika, diced sun-dried tomatoes and toasted pumpkin seeds.

I also made some Halloween biscuits, to come in the next post!

[usual run-of-the-mill reasons for lack of posting: 1. busy 2. computer still not got all programmes e.g. picture editing software 3. dark weather really dampening my motivation]