the onion and chili in the butter for five mins -- or until nice and soft. Then add pumpkin/squash cubes and four cups of water. Bring to a simmer and cook until squash is tender throughout -- about 15 to 20 minutes. Keep a check on it, basically. Remove soup from heat when done, add the ginger and some sea salt, and puree with a hand blender until smooth (I bought a Kenwood immersion blender on Sunday because I'm rock 'n' roll, and it's ace). If you want thinner soup, add a bit more water after blending, then stir in more salt to taste. Now, add a nice hump of rice to a bowl and sprinkle with seeds, ladle in your soup, then dollop on some Greek yogurt. Now, make yourself a toasted cheese sandwich, using strong cheddar, and pour yourself a glass of cold white wine. Sit down and eat. Mmm, creamy soup with a little bit of heat, cooled down with the yogurt and made even nicer with the addition of wine. I will be doing this again. And with Halloween a thing of the past after tomorrow, maybe there'll be a big sale on pumpkins and squashes. I'm going to really let my gourd down (gourd is a type of pumpkin, I recently discovered). In other news, I made some dry-as-old-bones Halloween biscuits. See beginning and end process, below. I will not waste your time with the recipe I found lurking in an old cookery magazine --