Halloween Party

[Tic Chick]

Hi all

I'm going to be having a Halloween party and was wondering if anyone knew a nice and simple pumpkin soup recipe. Or any other interesting things I can make with the pumpkin flesh actually.
I plan to roast the pumpkin seeds and serve these as witch's fingernails!

Also looking for good, ghoulish finger food ideas and just any other general tips for decorations, party games etc.

Any help is most appreciated!

[badger]

I did make pumpkin soup once but can't find recipe, if I do I'll post it. However there are lots on the web - have you tried searching? You'll probably find lots of other Hallowe'en suggestions as the Americans are much more into this than we are. Have fun.

[squidge]

Hiya

Delia has a good recipe in her winter collection cook book. I made this last week and it was delicious.

1 pumpkin
1 tbsp oil
1 onion chopped
1 pint of stock veg or chicken
15 fl oz milk
1oz butter
grated nutmeg and pepper


Cut the pumpkin into pieces brush it with the oil
and roast in the oven (240degrees) for 30 mins til tender.

Melt butter and soften onion and cook slowly for about 20 mins til cooked but not caramelised. Add stock and milk to onions then scoop out flesh of pumpkin and add to stock and milk with salt and pepper. Simmer for 20mins or so. Puree the soup and serve.

Enjoy




:D

[Gizmo]

As the chief cook in my house i have to say that this sounds wonderful, i shall be trying it out asap :)

[Tic Chick]

Thank you Squidge that looks perfect.
I had searched on the web but mostly found American recipes that involved lots of ingredients. I just wanted something nice and simple, leave me plenty of time to get all the decorations and my outfit sorted!

[daviddd]

looks good, but I'm confused - in the first para it says to cook and roast pumpkin, then in the second says "scoop out flesh..." ? :eek:

[squidge]

Davidd

You cut the pumpkin into quarters, brush them with oil, put them on a baking tray with the skin still on it. When you have roasted it then you use a spoon to scoop the cooked flesh out of the skin and add that to the soup

S

[Naefearjustbeer]

But that leaves nothing for the lantern!!! :eek:

[Jenni]

I found this recipe on an American website for witches fingers. The picture looked very effective and although I have bought all the ingredients I have yet to make them.

Makes about 5 dozen

1 cup of softened butter
1 cup of icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 2/3 cups of flour
1 tsp baking poweder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup blanched whole almonds

Beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla in a bowl. Beat in flour, baking soda and salt. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Working with one quarter of dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll heaped teaspoon of dough into a finger shape for each cookie. Press an almond firmly into 1 end to look like a fingernail. Squeeze in the centre of finger to look like a knuckle shape. Using a knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.
Place on lightly greased baking sheets, bake at 325F (16oC) oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until pale golden. Once cool you can add red squeezy icing under finger nail to look like blood and you can also add red icing into slashes to look like cuts.

[Jenni]

With regard to my earlier recipe for witches fingers, I can now confirm they were a success. I made them this morning and they look quite effective. I did not bother with the "blood" and they still look great. One or two of the "nails" came off when I went to put them in a storage tin but I just used a small amount of icing to stick it back on.

They were really simple to make, even for me :)