PUMPKINS WITH PURPOSE.

Recipe of the week... Pumpkin Soup!

Hello readers,

How are you this evening? Are you feeling well? Has it been a good weekend? Did you get to see any friends or family? Launch your Halloween celebrations? Crunch any autumn leaves?

However you’ve spent your weekend, I hope it’s been a really good one, readers. Can you believe it’s almost the end of October?? And the clocks have turned for winter?? It's crazy how time flies!

As I write, we’re two days off November 2016 (which sounds very wintry to say!) and the clocks have gone back an hour so it’s seven in the evening and it’s been dark for hours now. Crazy! Titanic is on TV (*weeps*) and my house is filled with cobwebs as I threw a Halloween party last night!!

I really got into Halloween this year, readers, and I’ve had fun this week party prepping. It’s been quite the project – every lunchtime at work I’ve gone out and picked up something new – booze, shot glasses, jelly, gummy eyeballs, candles… was determined to be the hostess with the mostest!

Finally, it all came together last night. Me n CoolyColey carved some (sort of) frightful pumpkins to light party goers way and I decked out the livingroom with spooky decorations! The guests arrived in some super impressive costumes and we launched a triple assault of Halloween drinking games.

Pierre and Frankie greeting the guests

The house all trimmed up for Halloween

Though I may have put more thought into the house décor than my actually costume (a sign of aging!), and ended up going out as a sort of skeleton/mime/panda, it was great to see everyone. Any excuse for a get together with the friends!

How’s your Halloween, readers? Did you do any partying yourselves this weekend? Or are you saving all the fun for the 31^st tomorrow? Whatever you’ve been up to and whatever you may have planned for tomorrow, I hope you get to see your friends and have a grand old spooky time!

Your guess is as good as mine

Some cracking costumes from the girls though!

Once you’re all partied out, readers, my Recipe of the Week this week is here to provide you with the ultimate solution to your what-to-do-with-the-pumpkin dilemma! If you find Hungover You thinking ‘maybe I’ll just chuck it’… don’t do it!!! That’s one giant vegetable you’ve purchased right there, readers, what a shame it would be to throw it away.

Let’s not be wasteful, readers. I say save that pumpkin til you’ve recovered from the jelly shots and you’re well enough to stand at length. And then do something great with it! Maybe scroll back to my last blog post and check out the recipe I shared for maple roast roots? Pumpkin can definitely be roasted! Get it in the oven!

Don't let your pumpkin go to waste!

Or think of all the things you can buy in the supermarket that come in a pumpkin flavour. There’s pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin ravioli… why not have a crack at making one of these at home? I ate out this week at an Italian and tried a pumpkin risotto from the specials menu… blew my mind! Who know you could put pumpkin in a risotto?? But so good.

Or, if you’re heading into the office this week, why not turn your pumpkin into a delicious soup that you can heat up for your lunch some days? This is what I’ve done! Rolling out a ChefBeHere classic recipe for Pumpkin Soup… which you can find HERE.

This is a really simple recipe, readers, you just need to make sure you have onions and stock cubes in and nip out to the shop for some double cream. There’s very little skill required and it’s quite fun! If you didn’t get all your aggression out, when you were carving the pumpkin earlier this week, well now you get to go to town and hack it into tiny little pieces.

A very straightforward recipe

Go for it, readers! I think homemade soup is in a whole other league to soup from the shop. You know there’s nothing weird in there, and it’s so flavoursome and tasty! You’ll be hard pressed to find a pumpkin in a week or two, once the supermarkets kick them back out, so make the most of your pumpkin… and I hope some of you have a go at transforming it into Pumpkin Soup.

Meanwhile, readers, once I’m done weeping over Jack and Rose I think I might run a bubble bath and have an early night. That’s enough excitement for one weekend. Wishing you all a lovely, calm week ahead… and some scrumptious pumpkin recipes in your belly.

My Pumpkin Soup all Tupperwared ready for work

Soup safely,

Hayley

RAISING THE ROOF & ROASTING ROOTS

Recipe of the week... maple roasted root veg!

Hi readers,

It’s Fridayyyyyy!! Finally, an end to the working week. How’s the week been, readers? Have you gotten much done at work, or in your studies, or in life?? Have you had some fun along the way? Have you braved the dark mornings or the dark nights, for a bit of exercise? Have you braved the heating dial and turned the radiators on?

Whatever you’ve been up to this week, readers, I hope you’ve been having a good time! For me, it’s been a pretty good, fairly uneventful week. I’ve swam and run and done some yoga. I’ve finished reading a Danish crime book and I’ve seen some of my family. Went out for a Nandos and caught up with some friends. Remembered how much I love Nandos.

On telly, I watched the Bake Off semi-final… how good is it this year?! Gripped! Can anyone imagine buttercreaming for 3 hours?! And I also watched the Stand up to Cancer celebrity special of Crystal Maze – what a classic show! Crystal Maze brings back memories of me and my brother, parked on the settee together, watching back to back shows on Challenge. Fort Boyard, Takeshi’s Castle, Robot Wars… what classics!

This week is also the week, readers, that I made it to the Donor Centre for my final blood donation of the year. I know I might get high and mighty about this every three months but, once again, may I say… that it’s such a good thing to do!! You’re saving lives! Real lives of real people! The lives of babies just being born and mother’s giving birth and people who have been in the most terrible accidents and people who are surgery needing your blood.

Those people are having such a hard time and, without people donating blood, those people might not be here tomorrow! Simple as that. No one likes needles and everyone has some excuse or other. You’re prone to fainting, you’re not sure whether they’d have you or not, you can’t find an appointment after work, you did it once before and it didn’t go very well… EXCUSES.

I don’t like them! I don’t like needles, my blood pressure is erratic, it’s hard to find a vein, I have fainted before… it isn’t enjoyable for me or for the nurses fannying over me and yet I go and give blood. Half an hour of drama and it’s done. A pint in the bag, and a cup of tea and biscuit for me. The nurses can move on to someone with tremendous veins and health. Someone out there has life-saving blood coming their way.

Unless there’s a definite medical reason you can’t give blood then I don’t think you have a reason at all. Tough love from ChefBeHere. C’mon readers! I’ll stop now but please do the right thing, and make an appointment to go donate something that costs you nothing and that gives another person the chance to be alive and to live a wonderful life. Maybe one day you’ll depend on them to save your life?? Just think. 

ALSO READERS just think of all the perks of giving blood! I’ve already mentioned tea and biscuits, haven’t I? Not to be missed out on! Then there’s the next 24 hours… you aren’t allowed to lift anything heavy, you can’t attempt strenuous exercise, and you’re charged with ‘taking it easy’. Like music to my ears!

Honestly, readers, if you’re the kind of person like me who needs telling straight to give yourself a break, then giving blood is a brilliant. The nurses literally insist that you chill out! It’s their mantra. Should you get the dishes done, put some laundry on, run the vac around? Nooooo! Should you run a bath, read a book, eat some tasty food? Yes!

Readers, regardless of whether or not you’ve made a blood donation in the last 24 hours, my top tip for you this weekend is to eat some tasty food. Something hearty and autumnal and nutritious. One way or another, you’ve earned it this week!

On Monday, post-blood donation, I rolled out a ChefbeHere classic recipe and decided to maple roast some root veg. Normally, in the evening when I get in from running, or from the pool or yoga, I’m starving. Like I’m never really at risk of starving but I am an eat-your-own-housemate sort of hungry. I don’t have time to be roasting things in the oven. I do not. There’s no time. I want food NOW! Can you relate, readers?

On Monday, everything was different because I hadn’t been out exercising and, instead, I’d been munching biscuits. So I had time to roast! Nipped to the shop for some root veg – got carrots and parsnips and some shallots (small fancy onions) – and chucked some oil and syrup and seasoning on them when I got in. Spent the best part of an hour ‘taking it easy’ and building up an appetite, then had a really delicious tea.

If you’re feeling up to trying out a recipe this weekend, readers, then click HERE to find out how you can make your very own maple roasted root veg. These tasty vegetables could make a lovely addition to your Sunday roast. Jazzing it up Canadian-style. Or you could pop a dish of root veg out on the table with any meal, really, for people to help themselves to? Or they could be the seasonal centrepiece of your buffet, maybe, if you’re having people over! Why be boring? Do anything you like with them. So long as you enjoy.

Meanwhile, readers, I’m heading off up to the Toon for a uni reunion with the geography gals (and Dr Davies). I’m anticipating much alcohol and silliness, and it’s likely I’ll survive the weekend on chips and overexcitement alone. If I do indeed survive the weekend. You’re far wiser sticking inside where it’s warm, readers, with some tasty maple-roasted root veg.

Wishing you a lovely weekend, readers.

Roast safely,

Hayley

BEFORE: Here are my veg ready for the oven

AFTER: A tasty tea with a goat's cheese tart :D

A TREAT FOR TODAY. FOR YOU.

Recipe of the week... Bliss Balls!

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re having a supertastic weekend!

As I write, it’s a sunny Sunday morning in Sheffield. It’s officially October now and we’re rolling quite quickly into autumn. I’m sat with a cuppa in a comfy armchair, in a wonderfully clean living room (!!!) as CoolyColey took procrastination to the next level yesterday… and cleaned the entire ground floor of our house. I’m very thankful for this. And for the spectacular things that people can achieve, when they’re procrastinating, and failing to do something important instead.

This weekend has me thinking – a lot – about how fleeting life can be. Yesterday, me and a dozen or so other members of my family, took part in a Memory Walk event held nearby to us at Clumber Park. Over 4,000 people walked on the day, to show support for loved ones suffering with Alzheimer’s, and to raise fund to help the work of the Alzheimer’s Society.

My family at the Memory Walk yesterday

Lots of walks were held around the UK and over 100,000 people were walking in total. It was immense to be a part of such a big show of support, walking alongside all sorts of people, all uniting over our shared experiences with this one illness. It was very touching to read the messages fellow walkers had pinned to their backs about who it was they were walking for. Their loved one with Alzheimer’s.

My family were walking as my grandma is ill with Alzheimer’s at the moment. My grandma has been there for every one of us for our whole lives. For over 50 years she’s been a source of stories, advice, gossip… buffets! She’s laid on a spread SO MANY TIMES. And she’s put the kettle on and produced a loaf cake, seemingly from nowhere, for us all every time we’ve nipped over. All we’ve had to do is knock on the door. Or just walk in!

My grandma is the lady that taught me the steps for putting on lipstick. And she got my mum’s old bridesmaids dresses down from the loft so I could try them on. And she let me drape myself in all her beads and jewels. She was my audience while I sang karaoke in the living room! She always took me and my brother to the shop for sweets and magazines. She looked after us so often over the years, and she let us lick the bowl every time.

All down to my grandma

I remember my grandma being a little muddled over people’s names at our Christmas dinner last year. And now she’s in hospital really confused, and she struggles to recognise family when they come to visit her. There is no dignity to it. Hopefully, my grandma will be able to come home next week and then together we can look after her – as she’s always looked after us. But it won’t be the grandma from my memory who is coming home, really.

All this concern for my grandma, and the Memory Walk yesterday, have got me thinking about just how fleeting life can be. It could begin to fade away – or it could dramatically end – for any of us at any moment. And so we should make the most of lives! We should take care of ourselves and treat ourselves, and spend as much time as we possibly can with our friends and family.

Me and my mum at the Memory Walk

And so, today, me and CoolyColey have booked ourselves into a spa in Sheffield for 70-minute aromatherapy massages. Ultimate indulgence? YES. We’ve gone for it!! There’s no occasion and no real reason for this sudden need for a massage – but pay day came around and we fancied a treat. And so we’re going to have a verrrry luxurious afternoon. Why not?!

If you fancy a treat but don’t want to break the bank, maybe you could treat yourself to something a little luxurious from the kitchen instead? This morning I revived a classic ChefBeHere recipe… and got my hands messy in the kitchen making Bliss Balls! These are a raw, vegan, chocolatey treat that I used to make as an incentive to get me writing during the dark times of my dissertation at uni!

Bliss Balls are reeeeally rich and tasty and they’re also good for you! A treat for your taste buds and also a treat for your insides. Fancy a go? You can check out the recipe HERE.

I hope you all take a moment to think about what it is that’s important in life. And then focus your life on what it is that’s important. Because the other stuff doesn’t matter at all, really.

I hope the sun sets after a great day for you

Have a lovely rest of your weekend,

Hayley