Halloween…Dates all the way back to the ancient Celts and was known as the festival of Samhain…pronounced (Sow-in). It marks the end of the summer and the harvest and marks the beginning of the cold, dark winter…

I have many happy memories of  Harvest Festival when I was young with all the lovely produce and how the church displayed it all such lovely colours oranges, golds and browns and I loved the harvest festival hymns especially ‘ We plough the fields and scatter” such a joyous hymn.

 

Halloween also has a darker side and the ancient Celts believed that on the night of All Hallows the world and the boundaries between the living and the dead became blurred and the night of the 31st was when ghosts of the dead were thought to return to earth.

The colours of Halloween Black, Orange, Browns and Golds are beautiful with the orange symbolising Strength, endurance, harvest and autumn in contrast the Black is a symbol of death and darkness and Halloween marked those boundaries between the two.

It wasn’t until about the 1930’s that the custom of trick and treating began and it still continues to this day…

The Pumpkin features very prominently in today’s celebrations of Halloween, however, the very first Jack O ‘ Lanterns were carved out of turnips.

Did you know that the largest pumpkin recorded in 1993 was a massive 836 lb… That’s a lot of pumpkin pies…

Pumpkins also look very pretty and some of the carvings are awesome but quite difficult to do so be careful you don’t cut yourself the incidence of accidents is very high and that includes traffic accidents where children get excited and just run/walk across the roads.

How to carve a pumpkin?

 

 

Did you know Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween????

Enough of all this I am sure you want some recipes?? 

Pumpkin Sage Sauce…by Tori Zigler…

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• A large handful of sage
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• 2 cups of milk
• Grated nutmeg, to taste
• 1 cup of pumpkin puree

Let’s Cook!

Sauté’ the onion with the butter. Add some cracked black pepper and sea salt and stir in the sage.

Sprinkle with the flour, and stir for a couple of minutes. Then add the milk and the grated nutmeg.

Once you see the sauce thickening, stir in the pumpkin puree.

When well combined, remove from the heat.

Serving suggestions: serve with pasta and cheese.

Thank you, Tori this recipe sounds delicious I can’t wait to try it…

 

 

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://blondieaka.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great weekend 🙂 xx