Well, I was all set to tell you how I made Claudia Roden's filo parcels with pumpkin and feta cheese (excellent) and a pumpkin, bean and corn stew from the Greens cook book (OK but needed more chillies).

Instead, I shall merely relate that in a pumpkin-related incident, I have sliced my finger with a sharp knife, and it is sore.

Poot!

shewhomust requested the end of the cheesecake story, and as she must, here it is. 

It required staggering amounts of philadelphia cheese and whipping cream.  700g cream cheese, 225g caster sugar, 350 ml whipping cream.  After that the 2 eggs and 40g flour are a trifle.  Umm, no, that doesn't sound quite right.  Nugatory, in any case. 

The goop just about fitted into my food processor.  The recipe said blend the cream cheese and sugar, beat in the eggs and cream, and then "carefully fold in the flour and vanilla extract.".  Why?  I tried the carefully folding, both inside and outside the food processor.  The flour rolled itself into gritty little balls which I could tell was Not Right.  Eventually I put it all back in the processor and blended again, and fortunately the gritty little balls disappeared (phew!). Next time I will "chuck flour and vanilla extract in carelessly". After that however there was cream-and-cheese-and-vanilla-and-sugar flavoured goop everywhere.  (Had to lick some of it off, yum).  Then carefully mix in the sultanas and rest of the soaking liquid (now slightly lemon and vodka flavoured goop, more licking, yum.)  Oh, I have to cook it now, OK.  Clean out food processor, mostly with fingers (having discarded nasty sharp blade).

In the oven it puffed up beautifully, filling the whole tin, but then when I took it out, unpuffed again.  But it tasted pretty good, especially with the poppy seeds on top.  My rowing crew, however, are all Ladies of a Certain Age, and they all seemed to know How Many Calories were in it.  Everyone had teeny little slices, so only half of it got eaten.  But then Michael and I finished it off over the next couple of days.  OK, it was mostly me.  But Michael did like the slice that he got.

THE END

Bought a glass jar of bottarga (dried grated tuna roe) in Sainsbury's a few weeks ago, and decided to have a go at using it.  Find recipe for spaghetti with same in River Cafe pasta book.  Looks easy enough, except that they seem to have hard stuff that you grate and I have pre-grated, so I am not sure about quantities.  Anyway, mash up in bowl with lemon juice and olive oil.  OK, looks like mashed brown stuff.  It smells...pungent.  Musky and fishy at the same time.  I mix it into hot, cooked spaghetti with crumbled dried chilli and now it smells like sex.  No, really like sex, in a slightly embarrassing way.  Fortunately Tabitha and I are alone in the house.  Tabitha is very interested in the smell.  I eat the spaghetti.  It tastes all right.  Just all right, hot, fishy.  Not particularly interesting. Tabitha decides that smelling it is enough and she doesn't want to lick the bowl out.  I wonder what it's supposed to taste like.  Oh well, next time I'm in a real Italian restaurant I'll know what to order.