h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The neighbourhood was impressed by my pumpkin efforts last year:
http://www.flamingpie.memebot.com/Pumpkins.htm
(be patient while it loads - I forgot to optimise the jpegs)

This year we're offering to carve other peoples' pumpkins for them, in exchange for a donation to Pakistani and Indian Earthquake Victims. My kids have distributed leaflets to the local families. We'll be taking the proceeds to an Islamic Relief shop.

When I was young, pumpkins were unheard of, and we carved swedes. They were a bugger to hollow out and stank to high heaven when you lit the candle.

Trick and Treat is a relatively modern phenomenon in England, assimilated from watching likes of ET. But Scotland has always had a tradition of 'Guising'. Door-to-door sweetie beggars are expected to say a rhyme or sing a song or tell a joke before they get their booty.

What we did have in England was something caled Mischief Night. A week before Halloween, kids would play random tricks such as wrapping a dog turd in newspaper, setting it on someone's step, lighting the paper, ringing the bell and running away. This was folk tradition of the purest kind because it took place without the encouragement or even acknowledgement of adults.

Beats faffing around with these pesky Gnaarams any day!

Gorgeous (instant too! Hooray for broadband!)

What's the significance of "Rikes"?

It's what Scooby Doo says.

Gorgeous pumpkins! I wish I could have you do mine- I'd gladly make the donation.

What's a swede?

A class of a turnip, white.

That would stink with a candle in it.

And I imagine, being smaller and having denser "meat", they're more difficult to carve?

But tasty.

Ah...there's some confusion betwen swedes and turnips between England and Scotland/Ireland. A Swede is what Mr Bent would call a turnip - big, dense and yellow fleshed. Slim Shady would call it a rutabaga.

Ah, I've had rutabagas before, too, but not in many years. I don't remember if they were good or not.

"Big, dense & yellow fleshed" nah, it's not a Swede, but definitely Nordic. It may be a Great Dane, or simply any old viking.....

Rutabaga is what you are after, same word in frog. Turnip here is "navet"

Loads of types of here, generic term is "potiron" which seems strangely appropriate.

They do the halloween begging kiddies here now, new phenomenon, i tend to just snarl; this year no doubt skankydawg will too; he is *not* fond of unannounced callers.

zdt*in vile mood & with flu or summat*

I thought that French for pumpkin was 'le pompion' ?

Rutabagas/Swedes/Turnips: In England, Turnips are the small, white-fleshed, tinged with pink on the outside, not so dense things. In Scotland, they are also called...err...turnips. Not to be confused with 'turnips', which are swedes, as in haggis wi' bashed neeps and tatties.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

I've a jar or Iranian pickled turnips - the small, white kind - in my kitchen. When pickled they turn a gorgeous shade of fluorescent pink.

One of my favourite curries is turnips (the white ones again) with chickpeas and methi (fenugreek) leaves. Cut into julienne and mixed with salt, lime juice and green chilli they are a substitute for green papaya in a Laotian salad.

'My folks went to Vientiane and all I got was this Laotian T-shirt.'

Swedes (rutabagas) mashed with potatoes are a madeleine food for me. My grandmother used to serve that with liver and onions in gravy.

Clear about that now? Jaysus! I wish I'd never mentioned them. Stick to the pumpkins!

Aww, darn, pictures won't load for me. Maybe cause I'm dial up?

I'm guessing my Dad won't be giving out candy this year, all the doorbell ringing and coming and going would disturb Mom.

To add to the confusion...I've just remembered the swedes/rutabagas were called Turnip Lamps

In spite of Halloween being my favorite holiday, I haven't given out candy in a couple of years, myself. Too much bother getting up and descending then reascending three flights of stairs every few minutes. The first year I lived here, I left a basket of candy and a note on the porch, but someone took the whole thing in one shot, so I haven't bothered since.

And no, you wouldn't want all that ruckus distrubing your mom. That would be a lot of abnormal activity and could be unsettling and confusing.

So, "turnip lamps" are made from rutabagas... I think I've got that down now. Thanks, it's all become much clearer.

I loikes swede n' carrots ruffly chopped with lotsa butter n' cracked black pepper.



Oh and mixed with bubble n' squeak....didn't we have this convo before somewhere....

sorry..Ed..

Are your bairns dressing up Ed?

I got the G-force a gory zombie outfit..which he was fantastically unimpressed with...which serves me right for not consulting him first..so we hurried to the evil store Walmart and got the last Darth Vader suit, which lights up and a mask and black cloak. We did this last Sunday..so he insisted on watching the movie in his suit and flourished his light sabre everytime Darth did.



I am begining to like pumpkin pie.

You should try my recipe for Sweetpotato Pie: http://flamingpie.memebot.com/Contents/Recipe18.htm

Bubble n' squeak! The very thing! In my family, we used to serve swedes chopped/ mashed up with carrots and lots of butter. I still make them that way, specifically so that I can mix them with leftover roast potatoes for bubble n' squeak, topped with a fried egg. It's my traditional Boxing Day brunch.

I carved 10 pumpkins this weekend. Here's four of 'em: http://www.flamingpie.memebot.com/pumpkins05.htm

(As ever - be patient while the too big jpegs load. It's late and I can't be bothered optimising them. Users with a slow cnnection - shift+click and look at them later.)

They're beautiful!!

Very cool!

Quite intricate work on some of those!

Nice Flying Spaghetti Monster!