Shortbread Witch’s Fingers

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I’ve been called Morticia Addams more times than I can remember. As you know, I’ve always felt an affinity with the dark and unusual and so that is why I embrace Halloween. I’m convinced that I were alive in the dark ages, I would have probably been called a witch and perhaps burnt at the stake so it’s rather fortunate that I live in the 21st century and I can carry a Witches Hat shaped umbrella without incident (although let’s be honest, people do stare).

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So when I make these witches fingers, they are more of an homage to witches. Of course they had to be green after my favourite witch, Elphaba, the misunderstood heroine of the musical Wicked – a character I identify with. I first saw these on Yeah, That Vegan Shit where they called them Bloody Finger cookies and I tried their recipe but my fingers spread out too much and resembled fat Shrek fingers (which my husband thought they were meant to be) so I decided to use a shortbread recipe as that would maintain its shape. As with all of my Halloween recipes, they aren’t just a novelty and they actually do taste fabulous at the same time so anyone reluctant to try a finger or two may find themselves contentedly gnawing on a knuckle.

My Witch’s hat umbrella

As for my “friend” in the picture, well she’s a special treat amongst others for my Halloween party guests. I won’t give away what her role is but if you do happen to be coming to my party, don’t google it and let her be a surprise to you. For those who aren’t coming, google “Donna the Dead” and you’ll see that she’s the real star of the show come Saturday night!

So tell me Dear Reader, what scares the pants off you?

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Cottage Point Inn, Cottage Point

cottage point inn sign

I have wonderful readers – they’re like me and get excited over new food discoveries and want to share them with others and my inbox is full of fantastic reader recommendations, many of which I follow up and/or intend to follow up. Cottage Point Inn was one of those places that reader Wayfarer emailed me about. I saw that it was a gorgeous, secluded spot in Cottage Point, accessible only by car, boat or seaplane it was that remote. I also saw the prices for dinner and accomodation and promptly filed that away for a special occasion.

cottage point inn walk

Fast forward almost 1.5 years later and I’m glad to see that it’s included in the SIFF Let’s do Lunch prgrame which means for $35 we can enjoy a main there, a glass of wine and a coffee! There was a false start, one booking had to be postponed because of apartment renovations so I find myself with my friend MamaMia driving up towards Cottage Point,about 45 minutes drive from the North of the city. We go through the Kuringai Chase National Park and follow the signs towards Cottage Point. Much of the scenery obscured by a screen of trees but the anticipation whets our appetites further. “There are a lot of proposals here” MamaMia tells me and I can imagine the secludedness and the accomodation lends itself to wedding proposals.

cottage point inn wharf

We pull up and she looks down at my feet. “Good no heels, you can’t walk down there in heels as it’s quite steep” she says. Indeed there is a woman that removes her stilettoes before going down the sraitrs. There’s a wharf to the right and a sign saying “Only restaurant visitors past this point” and we head towards the restaurant. A woman walks towards us with a clipboard and greets us warmly and we take a seat. As it’s slightly breezy, the plastic has been erected and blankets are on the backs of chairs.

cottage point inn entrance

I’m one for entrees, I always seem to prefer them to mains and the king prawn dish with champagne cream, butter brioche and avruga black herring roe is just screaming my name so I opt out of the Let’s do Lunch option and go for this entree instead. MamaMia goes for the Let’s do Lunch which is fantastic value as mains range from $39.50-$46. The local tap water isn’t drinkable so mineral water needs to be ordered (there is an option with the Let’s do Lunch to have a 500ml bottle of San Pellegrino with your meal instead of wine).

cottage point inn kookaburra

Kookaburra pose 1: profile shot

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Bloody Brain Pannacotta

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“You’re Not Quite Normal are you?” my friend says staring at my practice brain for Halloween. I’m not offended and agree. I’m a Halloween girl, there’s no doubt about it and I’ve been planning this year’s Halloween party since let’s think… November 1st last year? The one item I really wanted to make was a bloody brain jelly but alas I didn’t have the time to buy a mold last year. This year I was determined to do it though and nothing was going to stop me. I was more determined than Tracy Flick from Election or Rachel Berry from Glee. If I rode a fitness bike, I would have had a picture of the brain jelly in front of me while working out furiously to music. Thankfully no such props were necessary and a purchase of the brain jelly mold was easy.

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At first I wanted to make a glowing green jelly brain a la Dr Frankenstein’s lab but when I saw the effect of a creamy vanilla pannacotta jelly with faux blood clots on top of it I was sold on the latter. And like all of my Halloween food, it’s entirely edible and it tastes just like a regular vanilla pannacotta in a thicker jellied red sauce. The idea of slicing this up did frighten my friend and remind her of that surreal scene in Hannibal involving Ray Liotta but once she tried a slice of it, any protests were quelled with a murmur “Mmm brains” she said. I think I turned my friend into a zombie…

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Donna Hay cupcakes $3.50 each

And I was excited to see two of my favourite stores also share an interest in the Halloween theme. Donna Hay’s General store in Woollahra has a window devoted to Halloween where you can order cupcakes and buy boxes of pumpkin, witch and ghost cookies, lollies and trick or treat bags.

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The Halloween window!

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Ghost, witch and pumpkin cookies

I bought some lollies for my Halloween party and was offered a Gift With Purchase of a box of Donna’s Cookie mix (I chose oatmeal and cranberry) which comes with a purchase of $80 or over (while stocks last for this coming week).

buppas skull

Then Buppa from Buppa’s Bakehouse in Newtown emailed to let me know that she had some Halloween food including Pumpkin Pie (of course!), a rat treat, a mummy cupcake, a ghost cake and a skull cookie. I knew what I had to do with this box of Buppa’s goodness. Share it with my mum who is addicted to them.

mummy cupcake

The Mummy Cupcake was a moist chocolate cupcake topped with buttercream and jaffas for eyes. Ingenious!

buppas rat cake

The rather realistic rat was made of smooth, rich ganache like chocolate coated in finely ground cookie crumbs.

pumpkin pie

The Pumpkin Pie had a lightly spiced pumpkin and a slightly wet crust probably due to the pumpkin.

buppas ghost cake

The Ghost cupcake was a light and fluffy vanilla cupcake taken out of it’s sleeve and coated with a rich buttercream.

buppas skull cookie

The Skull cookie was my favourite with a crumbly chocolate cookie filled with cream cheese icing.

buppas  newtown picture

Happy upcoming Halloween fellow creepies!

So tell me Dear Reader, are you celebrating Halloween this year? And if so, what is your costume?

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Breakfast On The Bridge, Harbour Bridge, Sydney

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The Golden Ticket! I mean the Green Ticket…

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The queue at Milson’s Point

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Queue entertainment

It’s 5.47am and I’ve already been awake for almost 2 hours. Whilst I’m a mixture of barely coherent and half present, I’m also extremely excited. For this morning, starting at the ungodly hour of 6.30am Mr NQN and I are two of 6,000 lucky residents of New South Wales to be breakfasting on the bridge. Done by ballot, 40,000 people (although in some reports up to 190,000 people) in the state entered the draw to secure a seat to have breakfast on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the first time ever that such an event has been held. And the cost? Free to the lucky 6,000 (but at a reported cost of $1 million to stage).

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The entertainment

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The cows!

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Chai Porridge Oats with Rhubarb & Pear Compote

chai oats rhubarb compote

I don’t get up early for many things. Come the weekend, if I must rise before 9am I become a crankypants of the most irritable sort and it takes a lot of good food and shopping to get me back to normal (whatever normal is for me). This weekend was different however. I needed to rise at 4am and not only this, but I had to do it 2 days in a row (but once you hear why, you’ll understand why I didn’t kvetch too much). And I needed to make myself a breakfast that wasn’t too taxing but would mean that I wouldn’t wilt come 8am.

rhubarb

This breakfast was riddled with inspiration. I first read about the idea of Chai Porridge Oats with stewed Rhubarb only a couple of days before on Betty’s site and I immediately thought “what a brilliant idea!” and saved the idea until the weekend. I pondered it further thinking to myself rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb as they say, and then I suddenly recalled wanting to replicate the rhubarb and pear compote I had eaten at Le Grand Cafe a month or two earlier. I had loved the stuff so much I had asked if it were available for purchase even asking Justin North (yes my stomach really does the talking) who said there were plans for it to be made in the future.

chai oats rhubarb compote

Slightly placated knowing that I could at some stage in the future purchase some, the urgency died but the urge didn’t so I decided to make my own. It was easy, rhubarb is in season now and its glorious magenta stems can be seen everywhere at very reasonable prices. The oats were delicious if I do say so rather boastfully and Mr NQN asked for seconds (there weren’t any so I just made a second lot). From begining to end the whole thing took about 10-15 minutes which was entirely doable even on this early, early Sunday morning. And what got me up this early my Dear Readers? Ahh that’s a secret until tomorrow although I’m sure 6,000 Sydney siders can probably guess!

chai oats rhubarb compote

So tell me Dear Reader, what gets you up on a Sunday morning? The promise of breakfast? Children? Or horrifyingly, an alarm?

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