All Hallows

Yesterday, the writers' group that I am part of, had a Halloween night. From time to time we have a special evening where we all write something on a theme and we all bring a food item. The pieces of writing go into to basket and everyone takes one and reads it to the group and we try to guess who has written what. I enjoy the exercise of being given a topic or theme to write on, sometimes even a line to begin and or end with, this is good. What I hate about the exercise is having to read other people's writing out loud without reading through it first. People can make what you have written utterly meaningless and you can do the same to them.
For the first time last night, I felt happy with the way my own piece was read and with the piece I had to read. I am a little lazy on these occasions and didn't in fact write my own story, I adapted someone else's, however should you feel the need to read it, you can by clicking on the title, which is Hansel and Gretel.

I am no great cook, passable on certain things but pretty good at two things, one is chilli and the other is soup. Sometimes people even ask me for the recipe for my soups and then I get like the centipede who was asked which leg she put forward first. However, since it is Halloween, here is my soup recipe.

Ingredients.
Some stock.
Some veggies.
Anything else you have that's edible and want to use up.
Seasoning.
Three of Crisp-e's chillies.

Ah....Bisto....er I mean, the magic ingredient. Yep, that is why my soup is good, I do believe a good soup should be hot in at least two senses of the word. It should be hot as in not cold and it should be hot as in bites the back of your throat. It doesn't need to be hot as in sexy, but I guess it could be and it doesn't have to be hot as in stolen. And now you know it, the other ingredients are just for show, for example last night I made a red soup. Toms, a few carrots, sweet peppers, garlic and general onionyness and Crisp-e's chillies. Magic.

Happy Halloween, may you be spared the hyperactive ankle-biters, but may you have the spiritual experience that you wish for.