Food & Drink
Carina Contini’s Halloween specials, plus Rose Murray Brown on Portuguese fizz
The excitement around Halloween is by far the highlight of the month in the Contini household. My girls are 12 and 14 years old but they still love dressing up, baking and decorating the house with all things ghoulish.
When I was little I was happy with a plastic witch’s hat and a black plastic bin bag but my children love REALLY scary stuff. The parties now revolve around horror films rather than trick or treating. I’ve never plucked up the courage to watch one, never mind sitting through a trilogy back to back.
While they are screaming, I’ll be cleaning up the mess from the essential Halloween baking. It has to be mince and potatoes with dumplings, homemade sausage rolls and as many combinations of marshmallow with chocolate as possible.
Despite this, I’m pleased to say the low sugar message has got through to my children and their friends. They do eat fewer sweets now than I gave them when they were younger. The sugar and diabetes message is strong, and the sugar will make you fat message is stronger, so body image and peer awareness is a driving force for this shift of behaviour.
Other vices haven’t raised their head yet but I’m sure they will at some stage. Drugs, alcohol and smoking are all around us. Neither my husband Victor or I participated in two of those things and the alcohol was never overdone, so I’m not sure how our children will respond. I’m delighted they are less scared of the horror movies and hopefully more scared of the vices.