Cooking pumpkin pie, having had pumpkin soup for a starter, and a meaty rice dish for mains. The fireplace looks nice!
We’re watching an old BBC adaptation of M. R. James’ The Stalls of Barchester. It’s perfect Halloween viewing! Dripping Victorian stuffiness and academic/cloistered mustiness, with just the right touch of creeping horror. Really great!
The Stalls of Barchester has finished, and we’re now into A Warning To The Curious, which is set in Norfolk, and filled with places we know and love.
As Peter Vaughan digs into the sandy soil at Holkham Bay, to find one of the lost crowns of Olde England, defying the ghost of William Ager, spooky music – the music/soundtrack is utterly superb (poss using some Ligeti?) – wiffles away, and our pumpkin pies are ready:
Last time I made the pastry base as well. But on this occasion, with no time and bring very tired from my first day back at work, we opted to use ready made pastry bases. And they are very good. But the filling is completely home made.
God, these M. R. James things are good! They’re the perfect mix of pagan weirdness and Victorian Christo-academic spookiness, all filmed with height-of-the-BBC’s early ’70s greatness… classic!
