It seems that the Halloween pumpkin Evan and I carved has somehow contracted Single Parent Dad’s hideous body wasting disease. I think it must have happened when we took it down to his house last week. I think I may even been able to pinpoint the exact moment of infection:

Thankfully I’m not worried about the health of any of the Hughes family as the disease is only transferred from vegetable to vegetable.

But this pumpkin is certainly rotting at quite an extraordinary rate, far faster than Amy’s one. Even renowned pumpkin expert Professor Beryl Chicken says it’s beyond hope:

I’ve still got three healthy and uncarved pumpkins sitting out in the front garden however. I did have four but I used one on Monday to make a pie and some soup.

I was particularly pleased with the pie (made from a recipe very kindly sent me by DJ Kirkby). I even made the pastry from scratch and everything. Of course it took me about six hours in total to do it, and when I’d finished the only person who actually liked it was me (Kerry and the kids not being too keen on cinnamon). But I enjoyed myself and that’s the main thing. Plus I got a thrill out of the fact that both the pumpkin and the eggs I used were purely the product of Old McHughes farm. Tom Good has nothing on me.

On the other hand he soup was ok, but nothing special. I think it suffered from the fact that the variety of pumpkin I planted is intended for carving rather than cooking – the bigger ones are less tasty apparently. Again I was the only member of the family who was willing to eat it, but even then I ended up throwing half of it away. Don’t feel too sorry for me though as that’s the outcome of much of my “cooking” efforts so I’m very much used to it.

My next culinary project is going to be a Christmas cake, something else that I’m the only one who’ll eat (my family are both picky and weird). I put a call out on twitter for recipes and got a gratifying number of replies. I think I’m going to go for the one given me by Jane from Nine Long Months; mainly because it’s one handed down to her from her mother and I like the provenance that goes with that.

However, judging by the fact it took me so long to make the pumpkin pie, I think I’m going to have to clear a full week in my calendar for the cake. Maybe it’d be wise to aim for next Christmas rather than this so as to avoid disappointment.

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Related posts:

1. Vegetable Week: Pumpkin Bed
2. Who ate all the pies?
3. The end of Fat Club and a few pumpkins

1. Vegetable Week: Pumpkin Bed
2. Who ate all the pies?
3. The end of Fat Club and a few pumpkins