Ah yes, it's that time of year again - we all get dressed up in ghoulish kit, traipse around the neighborhood (or in the grown-ups case, downtown in ultra-hip fashionable clubs. Er...actually, not in my case at all!) and eat rather too much sugar. I had my head in the books all day yesterday and mid afternoon I decided to embrace the Hallowe'en spirit by spending a few happy hours baking butternut squash muffins for student website Beyond Baked Beans. If you're interested in seeing the recipe, then click on the feature title above...
Lest you think spending a few hours baking on a Thursday afternoon totally frivolous, then my flatmate had words of reassurance: apparently Gandhi said each day one should stop everything and do something with one's hands. Admittedly I haven't verified this statement, and it may very well turn out to be apocryphal, but the spirit of it is one I definitely agree with - if you needed any more reason to bake then perhaps Gandhi's invocation to use one's hands will prove persuasive.
Anyway, I wonder if it's the celebration of primary colours such as bright pumpkin orange which makes Hallowe'en so endearing to kids and adults alike. Or is it the dark side of ghoul - the zombies, the ghosts and horror films - which entices us? Of course there are always grumps and misanthropes lamenting Hallowe'en as a ghastly commercialised holiday corrupting our youth, not to mention rotting our teeth. There's merit to the latter argument, but I can't think of a more fun way to leap into winter - and given how arctic it is in London at the moment, why not embrace the kitschness of it all - the primary colours, the dressing up, the excuse to bake goofy orange-coloured muffins? After all, the kitschness of Christmas far surpasses Hallowe'en, but then again I'm escaping that nonsense for sunshine in the Canaries ;-)
Happy Hallowe'en folks!
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