My Perfect Halloween Dinner Party

I love Halloween  fancy dress dinner party. It so much fun and very scary. The food is so exotic.

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I have just entered the Atlantic Shopping Halloween Dinner Party competition to win the jackpot prize of £500

Guest List For My  Halloween dinner Party:

Dracula Christopher Lee
Vampire Tom Cruise
Psycho Anthony Perkins
Sweeney Todd Johnny Depp
Hannibal Lecter Anthony Hopkins

My dinner menu:

 Starter:
Vampire Blood Red Pumpkin Tomato Soup
Serve with:
Scary face garlic bread
Follow by:
Monster eye balls in Slimy Sauce
Blood Red Beef pot
Vampire Bat Wings Tomato Spicy Rice
Sweeney Todd's Meat Pies
Finish:
Sticky Chocolate Coffin Cake

Sweeney Todd's Meat Pies

My Halloween Dinner is on the table waiting for my Guests to arrived

Vampire Blood Red Pumpkin Tomato Soup with Scary  face garlic bread

Green Eyes Monster Balls in Slimy Sauce                                  

 

Blood Red Beef pot

Vampire Bat Wings Spicy Rice

Sticky Chocolate Coffin Cake

Chocolate Carrot Apricot Nutty Cake

Chocolate Carrot Apricot Nutty Cake

3 eggs

200ml Sunflower oil

200g dark chocolate (melted)

80g dark brown sugar

200g dark chocolate (melted)

200g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon mixed spice

200g grated carrot

50g Dried apricot (shredded)

70g cashew nuts, pecan nuts, hazelnuts (toasted and chopped)

Decoration on the cake:

200g Mascarpone cheese

2 tablespoon lemon juice

70g icing sugar

2 tablespoon grated carrots

150g dark chocolate (melted and make into shapes)

Roast mixed whole nuts

Icing sugar for dusting

Method:

1.      Grease and line a 15cm.(6 inch)round cake tin or two sandwich tins

2.      Whisk egg and sugar together till light and fluffy. Add in oil and melted chocolate. Mix well.

3.      Mix in carrots and all the dried ingredients. Mix well.

4.      Transfer the cake mixture into the prepared cake tin. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 minutes at 180C/350F/ Gas mark4. Cool on a wire rack.

5.      To decorate: cream the cream cheese, lemon juice and icing sugar together. Spread the cream on top of the cool down cake. Decorate with roast mixed nuts, chocolate shapes and grated carrots and apricots. Dust with icing sugar.

To make the chocolate shapes: Spread ½ of the melted chocolate on a greaseproof paper. Leave to cool. Cut in shape using a knife or pastry cutter shapes.

 Place the other ½ of the chocolate in a paper cone. Draw shapes using a template on a greaseproof paper. Pipe round the shapes with the chocolate ( in the paper cone). Leave to cool.  When cool, peel off the paper and decorate the cake.

* Omit nuts if you have a nut allergy *

Home Made Trebuchet Games

We built this Trebuchet from scrap pieces of wood from the skip. We were lucky because our next door neighbour was building an extension at that time. We collected all the off cuts of wood, skirting boards and bricks that they throw away.  We then cut them to size and screwed them together. The sling for the golf ball was make out of a piece of leather cut from an old handbag tie with two pieces of strings. The weight is made of pieces of recycle broken bricks.

The finished project was amazing. The whole family had lots of fun building and playing with it. We take turn to see who can fire most number of golf balls into the bucket.

In the Summer the children take the Trebuchet to our local park and have competitions. We certainly had lots of fun using recycled scraps pieces of wood and bricks to build this toy.

 The frame is made out of scrap pieces of wood that we can find from the skip. We cut them to size and screwed together.

 The sling is a piece of leather cut out from my old handbag with two pieces of strings tie on to it.

 The wooden box for the weight is made of 4 pieces of planks screwed together.

 The runway for the golf ball we made it with some skirting boards. 

 We filled the box with pieces of broken bricks.

Healthy Turkey Upside Down Pie

Healthy Turkey Upside Down  Pie

This post is an entry for #FluffyMarisPiper Linky Challenge sponsored by Potato Council. Learn more at bit.ly/18rWnaB

250g turkey mince                  

1 small onion (chopped)                   

1 clove garlic   (chopped)                   

1 large carrot  ( diced)                     

100g  swede (diced)                           

15g plain flour                                      

100g Savoy cabbage (shredded)          

2 teaspoon cornflour                                       

1 drop gravy browning                         

500g Maris Piper potatoes (cut into pieces)        

50ml milk                                              

30g butter

1 tablespoon cooking oil

1 pinch of chilli powder

¼ teaspoon mixed herbs

Salt and pepper

Mix turkey with onion, garlic, chilli powder, herbs, plain flour ,salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix well. Divide turkey into 12 portions. Make each portion into a small ball.

Heat oil in a large sauce pan. Fry the meat ball gently for 2-3 minutes. Add in swede and carrot and cook for 5 minutes. Add a cup of water into the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes till the meat balls are cooked. Blend cornflour with a tablespoon of cold water and the gravy browning. Add to the meat balls to thicken the sauce.

Put potatoes in a large pan of boiling water. Cook the potatoes for 20 minutes till soft. Drain. Add in butter and milk. Mash the potatoes till light and fluffy. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the potatoes into a piping bag.Pipe the potato around the edge of the dish. Put the dish in a preheated oven Gas Mark 6/ 200C for 20 minutes till the potato is golden brown on top.

Cook savoy cabbage in a pan of salt water for 10 minutes. Drain. 

Remove the dish from the oven. Place the cooked cabbage in the centre of the dish. Place the cooked turkey ball and vegetables on top. Pour over the gravy. Serve and enjoy.

Potato Dauphinoise

Potato Dauphinoise

500g Maris Piper potatoes( peeled and sliced)

200ml double cream

200ml whole milk

1 clove garlic (chopped)

75g Emmental cheese(grated)

1 pinch nutmeg (freshly grated)

Salt and pepper

Heat the milk and cream in a sauce pan. Bring to the boil. Add in chopped garlic, salt and pepper.

Stir in the sliced potatoes and nutmeg. Bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Pour the potatoes and the cream into a baking dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese and a bit more nutmeg. Bake in a preheated oven Gas mark 3 /170C for 30-40 minutes until the top is golden brown and the potatoes are tender.

This post is an entry for #FluffyMarisPiper Linky Challenge sponsored by Potato Council. Learn more at bit.ly/18rWnaB

Chorizo and Turkey Hotpot

This post is an entry for #FluffyMarisPiper Linky Challenge sponsored by Potato Council. Learn more atbit.ly/18rWnaB

300g turkey cubes

2 tablespoon cooking oil

50g/2oz plain flour (with salt and pepper)

2 onions (sliced)

200g Chorizo sausage (sliced)

100g sundried tomatoes

500g Maris Piper potatoes (peeled and sliced)

1 carrot (cubed)

100g swede (cubed)

50ml dry sherry

½ teaspoon mustard

1pich of nutmeg (grated)

3 bay leaves

½ teaspoon rosemary (chopped)

 1 teaspoon thyme (chopped)

350mls vegetable stock

15g butter + 1 clove chopped garlic

50g chorizo sausage (chopped)

50g Cheddar  cheese (grated)

1.     Heat the oil in a frying pan. Coat the turkey with flour. Fry turkey till brown. Layer turkey, Chorizo, tomatoes and the vegetables (except the potato slices) in an oven proof dish or a casserole. Season with salt and pepper.

2.     Add in the bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, mustard and nutmeg.

3.     Cover with potato slices then pour in the stock and sherry. Spread with garlic butter, grated  cheese and chopped chorizo. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

4.     Cover with foil and cook in an oven (160C/Gas mark 3) for 1 hours. Remove the cover and cook for further 30 minutes (200C/ Gas mark 6) till the potato topping is golden brown and the cheese is melted.

Love Food: Family Favourite Cottage Pie

Love Food: Family Favourite Cottage Pie: “This post is an entry for #FluffyMarisPiper Linky Challenge sponsored by Potato Council. Learn more at  bit.ly/18rWnaB ” and linking to  bi...



(makes 4 individual cottage pies)

600g Maris Piper potatoes ( peeled and cut into wedges)

25g butter

50ml milk

500g minced beef steak

1 teaspoon cooking oil

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 teaspoon cooking oil

1 large onion ( chopped)

1 small carrot (diced)

500ml beef stock

A handful of chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon cornflour

100g grated  cheddar cheese 

Salt and pepper

1. Place Maris Piper potatoes in a large pan of boiling salt water fr 20 minutes till soft. Drain. Add in butter and milk. Mash the potatoes using a potato masher till light and fluffy. Season to taste. Set aside.

2. Heat oil in a sauce pan. Fry the onion  till golden brown. Add in mince beef and carrots. Cook for 3 minutes. Add in chopped parsley. Stir in the beef stock. Cover and leave to simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Blend cornflour with a tablespoon of cold water. Stir into the minced beef to thicken the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Transfer the beef filling into 4 individual pie dishes.  Put the mashed potato in a piping bag wit a star nozzle. Pipe the potato on top of each cottage pie. Sprinkle the top with grated cheese.

5. Place the cottage pies in a preheated over Gas mark 5/ 190C for 25 to 30 minutes until the top is golden brown and the cheese is melted.