Pumpkin Pie - the cheats version

As you may know by now, I am not a cook, so when I found I could cheat at making a very delicious pumpkin pie, well I thought, If I can't do that then nobody can. 

Quite frankly, I usually only buy pumpkins to feature in my photos as they make such lovely table decorations, on the odd occasion I have made soup so as not to waste them.  Apparently we throw away tons of pumpkins every year, only having used them to make halloween lanterns and such, so it is rather naughty of me to make this cheats version but if you are either rubbish at cooking, and short of time, this is a great way to produce a 'home made' desert. 

Presentation is everything, particularly if you are cheating (insert winking emoji here), so some unusual and beautiful platters, pots and dishes will make this all the more welcoming and in the true sense of Hygge.

For this cheats version you will need ; a tin of 100% natural pumpkin, (I found the baking buddy one in Waitrose), and this comes with the recipe on the can. Also needed, two eggs lightly beaten, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and condensed milk.  As condensed milk is very sweet I cut back on the granulated sugar and the taste was still sweet.

 I bought a ready made pastry base, the sort you use for tarts. Mix all the ingredients together, pour into the case and cook for about 40 minutes on about 180 Gas mark 4, so not to burn the crust.

The pie will set when it cools down but you need to check that its not too runny before you take it out of the oven.

That hole in mine is where I was checking if it was cooked.  The smell it filled the house with was glorious, very comforting and homely.

In true cheats fashion I also bought squirty cream and then sprinkled a bit of cinnamon on top.  When presenting the dish I put my cinnamon in a little bowl from Rose & Grey, which they had sent me to style. They also have some serving bowls in the stone look design which I quite fancy getting to match, you can find it here http://www.roseandgrey.co.uk/stone-look-nibble-bowl. It's a nibbles bowl really but so lovely in colour and design, quite japanese looking, I can see it taking on many jobs in food preparation or even with a cute cactus in it.

My preparations for Hygge are now well underway, next stop get the fireside all cosy and set the scene for entertaining and welcoming in friends from the cold. 

This post is written and photographed by Janice Issitt Life & Style.

Urban Jungle Bloggers Plants and Blooms

Im so happy to be part of this community of Urban Jungle Bloggers, Igor and Judith are very generous in sharing posts and photos and their appeal is worldwide so it's very interesting to see people from other countries following the same challenges.

This month its Plants and Blooms, very appealing to me as there is usually some floral element in my photos, it's the finishing touch, a way to capture forever the beauty of something transient and fragile.  Below are some of my home grown roses, the bushes were planted this year and still giving me lots of fragrant blooms.

My background colour in these two shots is using Annie Sloan Wall Paint in Duck Egg Blue, but as I painted over a green colour this may have effected its hue. Always consider this when painting, colours will change from that on the tin if you are painting over another strong colour. 

I shall be reviewing this new wall paint soon, with full details of how it differs from Annie Sloan's chalk paint.

Above is a new play thing, a notice board from Rose & Grey. It comes with clips and a finish that looks like old wooden pallets. 

I should also mention that a couple of these small planters are hand made. Above the little pale green one is from Katie Robbins (Ceramic Magpie) and below the mug top left is from the online store The Future Kept.

This large round vase is a vintage one by the company Bitossi, a highly collectable retro range.  I really want one of their lions, and am always on the look out for one.

More vintage goodies in this photo, I attended a truly fab event The Bloggers Vintage Jumble and instagram meet. Fellow bloggers from far and wide congregated on a sunny Sunday afternoon for tea cake and shopping in a village hall in Lindfield. It was lovely to see the faces of social media friends, a too rare occurrence in my opinion.

Jessica Trent sold me the embroidered table cloth and this was one of many great items I came home with, I was unable to show any restraint. Heather Young very generously let me snaffle the hydrangeas.  I'm currently growing a lot of the plants but as it's their first year the blooms are still a bit young and floppy to hold any shape when cut. From what I can work out, the hydrangea heads only look like this when they are quite old flowers which almost dry on the bush before picking. So thank's Heather you have saved me doing a midnight raid on a neighbours garden .... :)

My next blogger meet is in Bristol for the Sisterhood Supper with Toast, not toast to eat, silly, but Toast the great label. The food is being cooked by a well known chef and we will be learning calligraphy and wreath making. 

I hope you are all enjoying the Autumn colours, in the UK we have been blessed with such great weather the last few months making this time of year even more special. 

Styling The Seasons Autumn tables

So I thought I would just show a few images from earlier this year of how I decorated tables and some new ones done for our monthly Styling The Seasons, I hope these inspire you to think outside of the box when it comes to choosing containers. 

I often use Moroccan tea glasses, and hope to boost my collection when I visit that country again next year. Lucky for me though, my local lifestyle store "Holy Cow Home" has stocked some beauties. The ones above have a lovely silver sleeve around the glass, making it easier to hold when full of hot mint tea. Having a few of these in your cupboard will always prove to be handy as either tea glasses, mini vases, or you can even put a candle in them.

To be honest, most regular kitchen utensils end up being used as something else, a boyfriend once had a rummage in my cupboards (as they do) to find some cooking pots, as he pulled one out at a time I pronounced "no thats the one I melt candle wax in", "no thats the one I use for acid baths in jewellery making"  ... and so on, you get the idea.  So, not surprising, my collection of enamel coffee pots are used mostly for flowers, spoons are used to stir and mix paint and baking trays to dry pot pourri in the oven. 

My personal style with flora is very unstructured and wild. I like to mix them up with foraged hedgerow, and even the weeds get used.As I drive around the countryside where I live, my eyes are always out on stalks looking for something interesting to snip and take home.

We all know that presentation of food is an important factor, and the table setting should be too, perhaps using one central centre piece or little individual place settings. Even a buffet wall can be made to look seasonal by hanging up some ivy or creeper.

Colours around food are as important to making the food apetising as the edibles themselves. As a colour lover Im besotted with the psychology of what it does to our brains. Wall colours in rooms can make you calm or hungry, vibrant or rested. It's the same with food presentation, nothing is less appealing that grey food, so what are the colours that make us hungry and get our mouths watering?

Green is associated with health and abundance. Yellow makes you happy and orange stimulates the brain, gets you excited and is also considered healthy and comforting, like Pumpkins, carrots and squash.

Top of the list for stimulating colour is Red, the most commonly used colour in restaurants as it pushes your hunger levels to max.

So here's a thought, why not use food as the container? Hollowed out pumpkin would give you a hit of orange, place it on a circle of autumn fall leaves maybe, the perfect centre piece for a Halloween buffet filled with flowers. I placed a glass inside to hold water and depending on how long you use it as a vase for, you may still be able to use the pumpkin in soup or pie.

So here's my looks for the start of the Autumn, still in transition as there are a few summer flowers around like the hydrangea and rose. The leaves are now turning so we shall have to be more inventive as we head towards winter. 

If you can't get out and about to find flowers or rummage the hedgerow here's a couple of great places where you can organize delivery from;

IN THE USA; https://www.bloomnation.com/

IN THE UK ; https://www.bloomandwild.com/

IN EUROPE ; https://www.euroflorist.com/