Polka-dot pumpkin

Ever since I was amazed by a colleague's Tinkerbell pumpkin, my eyes were opened to the array of pumpkin carving possibilities which didn't involve a big gurning toothy grin. The thing, my patience is as lacking as my artistic abilities, and so I came up with the idea of a polka-dot pumpkin. It's foolproof, with absolutely no skill involved, just a good apple corer. I've also seen some good results using a thick nail or skewer on a smaller pumpkin, making lots of little tiny holes.

{polka-dot pumpkin}

If you're interested in trying something more adventurous, there are loads of stencils available online. Some of them look, er... tricky (things you'll need: hot knife, hand saw...) so good luck with that.

{Tink, looking lovely as ever. Instructions here, stencil here.}

And then because I had all my scooped out pumpkin leftover, I tried to make I soup. Except most of the recipes I could find asked you to roast two halves of a pumpkin rather than just the flesh. And lots of them involved adding a lot of cream, which I didn't want to do. So I took elements from a few recipes and went off piste - not something I ever usually attempt.

{sautéing onions}

{pumpkin soup}

But it tasted lovely so in case you're interested, here's how I made the soup:

1. Saute one large onion in some butter.

2. Add in your scooped out pumpkin, and cook along with the onions.

3. Add 2 fat cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and some garam masala - I think I used about 1 heaped teaspoon, but just go by taste.

4. After about 10 minutes, add enough stock (I used chicken stock, but vegetable stock would be fine) to cover the vegetables well, and leave for about 25 minutes.

5. Add more seasoning according to taste, and then blend when the soup has cooled down slightly.

6. If you'd like to go one step further, there are various things you can top the soup with, such as sautéed mushrooms, a dollop of creme fraiche or some toasted pumpkin seeds.