By Lara Clark
As the October half term is coming soon, most students will soon either find themselves with a lot of free time which is useful to unwind from the pressures of school, normally during this free time Students start to find themselves bored and lying in bed aimlessly for hours on end and having the days slip away as they are unsure on what to do to occupy their time. Or students from the older years will spend their half term revising for important tests that are on the horizon. Here are a couple of things to do when you need a break from revising or just a simple fun activity to do during the day.
Most people have favourite shows that they often rewatch such as the Office or Gossip Girls etc however if you wish to enter into more of a seasonal watching for Autumn: Gilmore girls is a classic to watch, curled up under a fluffy blanket with some pumpkin pie. Or if you wish to enter into the spooky spirit for Halloween, I would recommend terrifying horror movies such as Insidious, IT, the Exorcist or Hereditary providing you meet the age ratings and for the younger girls there are excellent watches such as Coraline, Hocus Pocus one and two, Ghostbusters by and The witches a movie adaption of the classic Roald Dahl book.
However if movies are not your cup of tea and prefer to stay active rather than relaxing in front of a fire, you could busy yourself making Halloween decorations in order to turn your home into the spookiest house on your street. Ideas for decorations are endless, ranging from carving pumpkins with creepy faces to hanging paper bats from the ceilings to scare your mum and dad. Decorations for halloween include: painting little lanterns dark colours to make lighting candles in your room more eerie, buying a Pumpkin from your local shop and carving the face of a Jack o Lantern on there before placing it on your doorsteps to let trick or treaters know whether they can ask you for candy or not, sketching black and white skeletons on large paper to cut out and stick on your wall, creating witches out of cardboard and black paint, which doubles as a piece of decor or a outfit. Or by simply making fake blood through the mixing of water, corn syrup and a few drops of red food colouring, which you could splatter over other decorations and use to freak out your family members providing they will not get too mad!
If you are a baker or an aspiring baker, there are lots of different sweet and savoury treats to attempt to make for your family and friends during the Half term. However, my top three easy favourite recipes are Apple doughnuts, Cinnamon rolls and toffee apples
Recipes for treats:
Apple doughnuts recipe:
Ingredients:
- Brown sugar
- Cinnamon
- Egg wash ( beaten eggs with milk/water) or the white of the egg (egg without the yolk)
- Puff pastry ( pre rolled out is the easiest to use)
- Apples
Method:
- preheat the oven to 180 celsius
- Wash the apples and cut sideways them up into moderately thick slices, then cut a small hole in the middle of them
- Mix the cinnamon and the brown sugar together in a bowl, until they are fully combined
- Dust an apple slice with the brown sugar and cinnamon mix
- Cut the Puff pastry, into thin slices
- Weave the puff pastry slice through the hole of the apple slice and around its surface, continuously do this until the Apple slices are covered in puff pastry.
- Alternatively, to the previous step you can just wrap puff pastry around the apple slice like you would wrap your hand with a bandage after injuring it.
- Spread egg wash over the apple slice wrapped in puff pastry and then sprinkle move of the brown sugar and cinnamon mix
- Repeat previous steps until you have made as many apple doughnuts as you would like and then place then in the oven and allow them to cook for 15 minutes
- You can pair finished treat with nutella, melted chocolate or Vanilla ice cream
Cinnamon Rolls:
Ingredients:
- Pizza dough or Puff pastry
- Unsalted Butter
- Pumpkin puree (optional)
- Brown sugar
- Icing sugar
- Cinnamon
- Cream cheese
Method:
- Grease the pan butter and place baking paper on it
- Preheat the oven to 180 celsius
- Roll the pizza dough or puff pastry out
- Make the cinnamon filling by mixing the cinnamon, icing sugar and butter
- Spread this evenly all over the puff pastry/ Pizza dough
- Roll this up into a cylinder shape
- Cut into small circles and place on baking tray
- Place in the oven for 25 minutes at 180 celsius
Toffee Apples:
Ingredients:
- Toffee
- Apples
Method:
- Melt the toffee into a liquid solution
- Stick the skewer into the apple
- Dip the apple into the toffee
- Leave toffee apples to cool in the fridge for a couple of hours