Halloween - tricks to treat

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The kids are out trick or treating and you decide to ask the other Frankensteins over for pre-dinner drinks whilst you wait for your little monsters to return. To avoid being chased off the social scene by angry torch wielding villagers, Roullier White has a fool proof plan to make sure your All Hallow's Eve passes with no blood spilled, and with minimum effort.

Fortunately for us, about the same time the dead decide to rise, the Swiss cows of the Alpine meadows of the Mont d’Or decide it is getting a bit chilly and start their descent down the mountains. The cows’ first milking results in the delicious, and elusive, Vacheron Mont-d’Or soft cheese. Nothing is more soul-warming than a baked Vacheron. Remove any wax paper, return the cheese to its spruce bark box base, score and spike with enough garlic to keep away unwanted guests, drizzle with olive oil and bake the whole thing in a pre heated oven for (180C Gas 4) for about 7 or 8 minutes. Plonk it in the centre of the table, still in its box, and let everyone tuck in with spoons and chargrilled wholegrain bread. One 400gm Vacheron Mont-d’Or cheese, enough for 4 people, is about £10 from The Cheese Block, 69 Lordship Lane, SE22 and other good specialist cheese shops.

No Halloween party would be complete without lots of Jack O’Lanterns, but who has the time to carve faces in dozens of vegetables? For a very quick fix print off the facial feature stencils - available free from www.roullierwhite.com - on glossy photographic paper. Cut out the shapes and glue to the pumpkins. Candles placed in front will reflect a spooky glow. If you have time select your favourite stencil, cellotape it onto the pumpkin (you may have to increase the stencil size on a photocopier) and score out around the outline deep into the skin using a paring knife. A rubber washing up sponge beneath will stop your pumpkin sliding around whilst you are doing this. Next scalp the pumpkin and scoop out the flesh, pop in a nightlight and Jack’s your lantern!

To get ahead of yourself you could separate the seeds, steam then mash the pumpkin, allow to cool and freeze; all ready for your last minute Thanks-Giving-Pumpkin-Pie-Party next month!

Whilst your guests are arriving serve Bloody Hell Marys; add a shot of dry sherry and a dash of horseradish to the usual mix for an extra bite. With the cheese dish serve 2004 Roc des Anges Segna de Cor, Cotes du Rousillon, from France (‘Segna de Cor' - 'Hearts Blood'); a very full bodied red from the deeply mystical Cathar region of France, the land of Rex Mundi the demonic being whom the Cathars believed ruled the Earth. £9.85 per bottle from Green & Blue, http://www.greenandbluewines.com

Download load the Thriller video (£1.89 from itunes) roll back the rug and practice your moves to teach the kids when they get back with your free chocolate.

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