Happy spooky season people! Hope you've had a lovely month full of lovely things! I've got lots to tell you all about our new issue that's launching on Sunday, BUT before all the promo stuff, I've got to share my latest kitchen creation in honour of Halloween.
I present for your consideration... a pumpkin pie!
This baby is a hot water crust pastry case filled with Sweet Potato and Squash daal and is 100% delish. My boyfriend works in a pub, and basically never has Halloween off so we make a point of making time in the run-up to carve pumpkins together. This year, I upped the ante and added spooky food to the to-do list too, as well as, apparently, a very unimpressed cat. The pie may be gone by Halloween, but I'm sure Marco's disdain for us will not.
What we've loved this month:
As well as spending lots of time staring at InDesign and moving images around by a millimeter at a time to get to the finish line with the magazine (Issue 2 pre-orders open on 1st of November), I've also spotted some more lovely things! All the recommendations are my own opinion: no one's paying us, I just like them!
Look, Bake Off is great. And I'm sure most of us who are semi-regular bakers have looked at some of the creations on it and thought "I could do better than that!" (looking at you, Week 1 Bowie cake). But if you're up for a bit of competition but don't feel like you've got quite a quirky enough back story for Channel 4 to be getting in touch any time soon, I would highly recommend taking part in Middle Lane Market's Instagram Bake Off instead. Every week has a theme and you've got until Sunday dinner time to submit 4 photos of your creation to them. They'll pop them on their stories and people will leave comments about their favourite ones, and then a winner will be announced! You get lovely feedback about your Bake, without the death stare of Paul. This week's theme is Halloween so pop on over to their profile to get the details!
Lauren's a friend of mine, so I am biased but I absolutely love her most recent Still Life, Still Here illustration. If you haven't seen the hashtag and are a fan of foodie illustrations I would highly recommend a look through. Every week a new photo (usually of food) gets posted as a reference and lots of incredibly talented illustrators create their own versions.
I just feel like when I own things like this I'll really have my shit together, you know?
I did a highlight earlier in the month on Instagram asking for other food zine recommendations and Filler was one of the ones I found then. It looks at the topic of food and mental health, and their latest issue is all about Food and Love. It looks beautiful, definitely something I'm putting on my to-buy list. Get it here.
Speaking of Christmas, have you seen the Indie Roller Christmas markets that have been going around on Instagram? Potluck's taking part in the foodie one (on the 10th of December) but every Thursday night between 7 pm and 9 pm you can browse and shop the hashtag #indierollerchristmas and see what's on offer. It's a really easy way to shop if you want to buy from more small businesses for your Christmas gifts but don't know where to start, and a lot of the businesses will include fun extras or a wee discount if you shop on that night. Take a look and see what takes your fancy!
Look, I know it's definitely something you'd see in Waitrose and not an everyday snack, but if you fancy treating yourself this popcorn is bloody good. I had the Cinnamon Apple one recently and it has little chunks of dried apple in it too. 10/10, even if it is a bit posh.