Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Kathryn Witts

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

6 oz pl flour , Pinch of salt, 3 oz butter or marg
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl, rub in the butter or marg and mix into a stiff dough with cold water. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured board and line a 9” pie dish. Trim the edges and put into the fridge while you prepare the filling.
8 oz demerara or brown sugar, 14 oz of cooked pumpkin
2 teasp ground mixed spice 1 teasp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs ¼ pint of milk
¼ pint single cream 1 oz walnut halves (optional)
Serve or decorate with whipped cream.

Whisk the sugar into the pumpkin, add everything else and turn into the pie dish. Bake in a hot overn 425 F /220 C for about 30 mins. Decorate with nuts and whipped cream.

Sheri's Chicken and Pumpkin Couscous

This seems a good place to store my recipes...

Warm Smoked Chicken Salad with Mango Curry Sauce
Ingredients:
750-1kg Pumpkin
1 Red Onion
2 Pears (peel core and cut into chunks)
Grated rind & juice of one lemon
2Tbsp Honey
2Tbsp Oil
2tsp grated fresh ginger
1 Tegel Smoked Chicken
1 Cup instant couscous
120g bag of baby spinach leaves
Dressing:
¾ Cup watties Bit on the Side Mango Curry Sauce
½ Cup coconut cream

Method:
1. Cut the pumpkin into 1cm chunks and the onion into thin wedges. Toss the pumpkin, onion and pears in the honey, oil, ginger and lemon. Place the vegetables and fruit on a foil lined tray and fan bake at 200˚c for 20 mins.
2. Pull the meat from the chicken, discarding the bones and the skin. Cut into large chunky pieces.
3. When veges have had their 20 mins add the chicken to them and return to the oven for a further 7 mins. 
4. Pour 1 cup boiling water over the couscous, stir then leave to stand for 5 mins, before fluffing with a fork.
5. Mix together Watties Bit on the Side Sauce and the coconut cream.
6. Arrange the cooked couscous, hot veges, pears & chicken on a platter with the spinach. Pour the sauce over the top and serve!

The Dummy Fairies

With his digger and hat I made which also goes most places with him now :)

We warned Zach a couple of weeks ago that when he turned 3 he would have to give up his dummy.  However, on Saturday I notice his dummy was broken so thought I'd seize the opportunity and told him he'd have to give it to the dummy fairies that night.  We told him he'd be a big boy and really grown up like Leilani and he seemed pretty happy about the whole idea.  And Lani helped too because she could remember when she gave her dummy to the fairies and they brought her some ponies.

In the evening I was expecting some problems but he was actually quite excited and decided to leave his dummy on the kitchen side for the fairies.  Went to sleep fine, slept through the night with no problems and woke up in the morning to find a toy digger from the fairies for being such a big boy.  He's carried it around with him everywhere since :) And he only mentioned his dummy once the next night, we reminded him it was gone and he had his digger and that was that.  No problems.

The *perfect* Double Chocolate Cookies

This recipe was originally from a Bero recipe book that Amy Andrews had and was called Melting Moments.  I have fiddled with it and tweaked it over the years (starting by tripling the quantities because it called for 1/3 of an egg - who's going to use 1/3 of an egg?!?) and am now fairly confident I have perfected it.  So here it is for all to enjoy:


7oz marg
1/2 oz oil
9oz sugar
1 egg
5 oz plain flour *
5oz SR flour
2oz cocoa
packet of choc chips

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Cream marg and sugar. Beat in egg. Mix in flour and cocoa. Stir in choc chips. Roll in to balls in your hand and flatten.  Place on greased baking tray. Bake for 8mins. Watch closely as they're best soft and can overcook easily.


Mixture can be kept in the fridge for a day or two.  You can also freeze it - best done shaped as a fat sausage and wrapped in cling film, then you can just slice off the cookies and cook from frozen.

* You may need 1-2oz more of flour depending on your flour.  If the dough comes out too sticky to be able to pick up a piece and make it into a little ball, add a little more flour

Zach's OCD

Zach turns 3 on Saturday and is at that age where he has a few things he's a bit OCD about.  I know Lani went through a similar phase too, but I don't remember what she did anymore so thought I'd write down some of Zach's.

- when he goes to bed you have to sing him "the penguin song".  This started when he had just turned two and asked for it at bedtime - we had no idea what he was on about so made one up just to get him to be quiet and it stuck.  It's the same as "I love you, you love me... etc" except with penguin added in here and there so it goes: "I love penguin you, you love penguin me, we're a happy penguin family, with a great big penguin hug and a penguin kiss from me to you, won't you say you penguin love me too."

- after the penguin song, when you're leaving he has to say "penguin love you too" back to you.

- at the end of bath time he has to be allowed to stack the bath boats before he gets out. Lani is not allowed to do it or even help

- when we drop Lani at school he has to give her a hug and a kiss.  The kiss has to be done where she bends down so he can hold her head in his little hands and kiss her on the cheek.  And there's not allowed to be any hair in the way.  He will scream if she forgets and starts to walk in to school.

- whenever we leave the house and Adam's not coming with us he has to go give him a kiss on the cheek.

- at bed time (or any time you want him to go somewhere he's not keen to go) you have to tell him it's bedtime soon, you're not allowed to say it's bedtime now.  Even if you are actually walking up the stairs, putting his pjs on or putting him into bed.  He's in denial 'til the end :)

- he has to sit on the same side of the bed next to Adam in the morning when they come in for scriptures and prayers.

- at the doctor's waiting room he likes to play with the cars and has to park them in a particular place before we can leave to see the doctor when we're called.

- in the playground he must be allowed off the buggy board and get back on it only when we are right at the school gates on our way out again.

- when going to sleep, if I'm putting him to bed, he has to have his "bappy" (special blanket) placed on his pillow for him to lay his head on.  Strangely, he doesn't insist on this if Adam puts him to bed.

I think there are more, so will add as I am reminded of them.

Primary Panto Day

Today we went to the stake primary activity in Hull.  We decided to all go and do it together as a family thing and really enjoyed it.  They did little fairground stalls around the cultural hall and had an area to do circus skills - juggling, diabolo, spinning plates, a unicycle etc.  Around the hall they had shooting basketball hoops, knocking over stacks of tins with bean bags, fishing for ducks, apple bobbing, throwing beanbags into holes, decorating cookies, making toffee apples and face painting.  Leilani chose to be a ladybird (and was very pleased to be the only ladybird while there were lots of butterflies and flowers wondering around) and Zach chose a Tiger.

After that we had lunch and then a panto - Dick Whittington, put on by Becky and Dave Burns who run a production company that go round schools and things doing them.  It was really, really good.  The kids loved the whole day.  And to top it off they have come home and played nicely together on the trampoline and are now sitting peacefully together snuggled up watching an afternoon movie on tv - they chose James Bond :)

Other things that happened today - when we got back Adam and I were both *really* tired.  Adam was about to go lie down for a bit, while I was setting up the computer to listen to something while I tidied up the kitchen.  He asked why I was bothering when there wasn't that much to do and I said I'd be spending about 20 mins doing it.  His response: "What?!?" looking around, "that'll only take 5 mins".  I spent the next 5 mins with a timer in hand watching him speed around the kitchen to prove his point :D.  He spent the whole time saying "I know what you're doing, I know it's reverse psychology..."  yet he still couldn't bring himself to lose the argument and carried on doing it.  Sometimes the two of us a just too competitive :)

Well, as payback for that while he's been napping I've mowed to lawns.  Don't know what came over me, but have a strong feeling it may have had something to do with the glass of Pepsi Max I had.  Especially since I have been cutting back on having it and haven't had it in a while.

Thank you photoshop

I am very grateful for photoshop and people who give away their advice on using it for free in the internet. I am mostly self taught (although Adam started me off in the days when I could barely even open something in photoshop without getting frustrated!) and have used various websites and forums to learn to use this very complex software.  I would be a pretty mediocre photographer without it.  I just did a baby photo shoot and am working on the pics for it. The shoot went really badly, very grumpy baby who just was not interested in playing along so I felt quite disappointed with the resulting pictures.  But by using some clever little tricks I've been able to pull out some images I'm happy with.  Where would I be without it?  I'm very lucky to be a photographer in the digital age.  And to have a husband who already had photoshop as a necessity for his work :)

Crochet Copy Cat

It's been a while since I posted something, so thought I'd better do an update before it gets to be too big a job.  Things are very busy, the added factor of early morning seminary meaning that I spend a lot of time either preparing it, teaching it or recovering from it!  Tilly is STILL not walking although last Sunday she tried it and took 4 steps on her own as well as a couple her and there as well, but hasn't tried it since.

It's Zach's birthday on 23rd and he has requested a space rocket birthday cake after looking through a book of children's cakes.  Shouldn't be too hard I think.

I've really gotten in to crochet and so far have made 2 headbands and 4 hats and am now working on a scarf of flowers for Leilani. I'm copying this one from Monsoon ------->
(Sandy gave me their children's catalogue because it's full of crochet stuff at the moment)

I will put pictures up of my creations soon.

Not much else to report really, just trying to survive the onslaught of birthdays that we have at this time of year and then it will be Christmas! (Good luck with your shopping....)