Thursday, November 07, 2019

TRICK OR TREAT....WITCH DO YOU WANT?



It is true!  I’m behind the times – and behind the eight ball.  I’m running late, but I guess it’s never too late rattle the pot.   It's never too late to have a bit of fun.  It's never too late to have lots of fun!

I’m old-fashioned.  I’m a stick-in-the-mud even when there’s no mud about. There’s no point being in denial. I can’t run from the fact.  If I ran I’d trip over a blade of grass, making a fool of myself - a feat easily achieved on any given day, grass or no grass. Even my shadow is an unavoidable hazard at times. 

I’m a boring old tart (I know the other word that rhymes with ‘tart’ is flooding your mind, right now...I don’t mind...go for broke...go for it). Being all of the above and more, doesn’t mean I’m easily tricked...treat with care...tread carefully! The Shadow knows!

I don’t have a mobile phone, nor do I have an iPad or iPhone. I own no Smartphone, Cleverphone, Intelligentphone, Brightphone, or Ingeniousphone.  I say this quietly so as not to hurt the feelings of my landline phone.  Just because it is none of the above, doesn’t mean it is a dumb phone!  My landline does all I require of it. It does the job it is designed to do, remaining in the one spot while doing so.  

Like me, it’s a hermit I frequently admit to being.  It prefers to be at home. Going to the supermarket with me is of no interest to my landline phone.  And, of course, its cord doesn’t extend that far.  Imagine the chaos the extension cord would cause...tripping up cars, cyclists and pedestrians left, right and centre!

I’ve no desire to talk on the phone while wandering along our local supermarket IGA’s aisles; and none while driving. Talking on a phone while driving would interrupt my singing, anyway.

For a brief period I had an el-cheapo mobile, one I purchased when Cyclone Debbie decided to disrupt communications. I used it three, maybe four times. I had to stand at the sliding glass, screen door, almost outside for it to work properly.  Eventually it died a quiet death.  It’s now immobile, having given up the ghost.

Taking selfies is not my “thing”.  The reason for not taking them is glaringly obvious, of course.  It’s not only because I don’t have the necessary equipment, but I have no desire to take photos of myself. I know what I look like, and, take my word - it’s not pretty!  It’s scary enough for me to have to look at me in a mirror if and when the need arises.  The vision I’m confronted with makes me jump and recoil.  I try not to approach mirrors at night because nightmares would follow.  Recording my image for all to see would be classified as cruelty to others, not only to animals. I’d be locked up for such behaviour.  Terrifying my fellow humans should be limited to Halloween. And then, witch-ever witch way, performed in a sense of harmless, good fun.   

Halloween was last Thursday I thought of turning myself into a money-making machine for the day, or longer, if my enterprise proved successful.  Instead of going around banging on doors trick-or-treating in the hope of getting a heap of lollies, I thought of hiring myself out as a witch.    I stayed home, deciding it best not to put fear into the hordes.

When I was a kid we celebrated Guy Fawkes' Night.  We'd race home from school, eager and excited about what lay ahead that evening.  We had a ball - building a bonfire; making a Guy, buying the local Penneys (now Coles) and Woolworths stores out of fireworks - spending our hard-earned pocket money....but "Cracker Night" was banned in 1972...so the younger generations have missed out on the fun we had.  Let's not deprive them of the innocent fun of Halloween.

These days I don’t need a costume or a mask.  I do have a straw broom. A Ferrari, it’s not, but it flies. I’d save on fuel, too. 

Often I’ve related the story how, back in the early 80s, I scared the living daylights out of some kids doing the rounds of the neighbourhood on Halloween night.

At the time, my then husband and I were living at Sunshine Beach, on the Sunshine Coast.  To a party in Noosaville, a nearby suburb, we went...he dressed as a warlock...me, a witch.  Our costumes and masks were fabulous. The poor little kids who, unfortunately for them, were in the street when we arrived at our destination headed for the hills screaming their lungs out at the sight of us.  To make matters worse, I’d put my lit torch up under my grotesque rubber mask - those kids are still running across the Nullabor Plain!  Probably by now they’ve made it to South Africa....having created a miracle by running on top of and across the Indian Ocean! 

Monster Mash Dip: Process until finely chopped 2 garlic cloves; add 2 cans drained, rinsed black beans; process until pureed. Add 2tbs tahina, 3-4tbs lime or lemon juice, 1tsp cumin, chipotle pepper or chilli, to taste, 3tbs yoghurt (optional); season; process until smooth.  Pipe a cobweb on top using either yoghurt or tahina; place plastic spider on web, or make one from black olives.

Cap-O’-Lanterns: Place 1c rice in saucepan with 1-1/2c water’ bring to boil; reduce heat to lowest setting; cover. Cook 12-15mins until water has evaporated and rice is cooked. Finely chop/process140g mushrooms. Melt 25g butter with a splash of olive oil in pan; cook mushrooms 3-4mins; stir constantly; season; set aside. Heat a little olive oil in pan; cook 1 diced onion and 2 crushed garlic cloves, 3-4mins. Add 500g chicken mince; cook, breaking up meat. Remove from heat. Stir through mushroom, 1tbs each chopped thyme and flat-leaf parsley, 1/3c grated Parmesan, 100g crumbled feta and 2tbs tomato chutney. Preheat oven 200C. Cut tops off 8 red capsicums; discard centres, seeds, membrane. Carve jack-o’-lantern style faces into each capsicum. Fill with stuffing; pop tops back on. Pour 1c passata into base of baking tray. Place stuffed capsicums snugly in baking tray; bake 45mins.

Boo-tiful Brownie Pops: Melt 125g butter in saucepan; stir in 1-1/2c caster sugar, 1tsp vanilla essence, 1/2c cocoa and pinch of salt.  Remove from heat; cool. Whisk in 2 eggs; fold through 1c sifted plain flour and 1tsp baking powder; add 1/2c white chocolate chips; spoon into greased, lined 18x28cm slab tin. Bake at 170C, 25-30mins.  When cool, cut brownie into ghost shapes.  Melt 200g white chocolate; then pour into squeeze bottle/bag. Cover tips of icy-pole sticks with melted white chocolate; then insert into the bottom of each ghost brownie to create a pop. Use rest of melted choc to draw ghost shapes on top of brownies. Cut tiny eyes and mouth shapes into 1 sheet of black fondant icing; place on top of white chocolate while still wet. 








31 comments:

  1. Hello Lee. I hadn't seen you around the blogs recently so wondered where you'd been- now I know.....scaring poor little kids out of their minds. It's good to see you back,
    Guy Fawkes night was the big cracker night when I wss growing up in England- except it was the night when we young ones weren't really allowed a say in what went on outside the back door 'my father was in charge'. Rockets in milk bottles- light the fuse and - stand back. Watch it fly into the night sky and watch all the little stars erupt as it exploded.
    Hallowe'en- a product of Celtic and religious festivals has now become unrecognisable - maligned as being an American custom. So few really know it's origins.
    Take care
    Cathy

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    1. Hey, Cathy...yes, I've hung up my broom now for a bit of a break! It needs a re-strawing! :)

      Sky rockets, Tom Thumbs, sparklers, double bungers...the list goes on...such fun.

      Yes, it is a shame few are familiar with the origins of Halloween.

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  2. Anonymous5:41 PM

    Cracker night was great fun for us when we were young, but some truly terrible things happened to people, but worse to so many animals.

    I used to envy characters in US tv shows when they had such long cords on their phones and could walk around the living room while carrying the phone. We were tied to the telephone table in the hallway.

    I'm sure you are far more attractive than you let on but it's rather funny about scaring the kids.

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    1. Cracker Night was great fun. We used to have a ball...and no accidents. My brother and his mate who lived next door, the son of a police sergeant did blow up the letterbox of a neighbour across the street, one year. She was an old sticky-beak, minding everyone else's business but her own! :)

      There are always the idiots around who spoil things. I think there probably are even more clowns around now than there were back in those days.

      Thanks for coming by, Andrew. :)

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  3. I have never heard of Guy Fawkes day. So funny to think by the touch of a few keys I am talking to someone in Australia! So close yet so different. Your food looks good. Love your witch. sandie

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    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes

      The above site should fill you in, Sandie. The story of Guy Fawkes was part of our school history lessons.

      You and I've been communicating for many a long year now. Thanks for coming by...still. :)

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  4. Oh what fun we used to have at Cracker Night - alas all gone now but have good memories.
    Don't do the pagen Halloween.
    Handy for me to have my mobile - was certainly needed when my parents were alive.

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    1. Hey Margaret...Yes...I've many great memories of our Cracker Nights, too...so much fun.
      There a different trains of though re Halloween...as shown below...

      "Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of Hallows' Even or Hallows' Evening),[ also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in several countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.

      It is widely believed that many Halloween traditions originated from ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain; that such festivals may have had pagan roots; and that Samhain itself was Christianized as Halloween by the early Church. Some believe, however, that Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, separate from ancient festivals like Samhain."

      I've no desire to have a mobile...and hope to last out as long as I can with just my landline. I'm not a huge user of the phone, anyway...and certainly not when I'm out and about. I did have one years ago, back in the early 1998 when my brother became very ill with cancer...it was a necessity for me then...but when he passed away...I got rid of the phone.

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  5. I remember Cracker Night well. As so many of us do.
    Halloween? Not for me. An import we don't need.
    Selfies? As a form of community service I don't (and won't) do them.

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    1. Hi EC....I see nothing wrong with kiddies having a bit of fun on Halloween...it's origin goes back a long, long way...long before it hit the US shores.

      I'm not interested in selfies...as I stated in my post. Maybe I'm just too old to understand the desire to be taking photos of one's self all the time.

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  6. The brownie pops look interesting, but I won't be making any. I've just finished eating my way through the treats I'd bought myself, knowing full well no one would be trick or treating here.
    I don't have a landline anymore, but I don't bother with selfies on my mobile either. I certainly don't need anymore photos of myself and who would I show them to anyway?

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    1. I didn't, and won't be making any of those brownie pops, either, River. I couldn't be bothered doing those sorts of things now....I chewing on some delicious liquorice...that will do me...already made for me! :)

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  7. Hello Lee! We are so much alike, it is uncanny! I only got a call phone this year and it is a strictly NO selfie allowed phone!! Also, I once dressed as a witch for Halloween...wore along black skirt and black blouse, fluffed my frizzy dark hair out...looked in mirror and realized I was there already!! No mask needed.😅 See, you had to work at it!

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    1. Hey stranger! Great to see you. :)

      The Wicked Witch from the West has nothing on me!! lol

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  8. When I was growing up and also when my kids were growing up, we had mischief night which was the day before Halloween. Kids would drape certain homes (some teachers) in toilet paper, throw eggs at houses of people they did not like and generally cause a mess. I don’t hear of it anymore and it might have to do with the high fines and punishment that was imposed on those that were caught.

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    1. lol It could be, Arleen...or the price of eggs and toilet paper has soared!

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  9. Hurrah! I have discovered another adult human being in the western world who does not use a mobile phone/smartphone/ cellphone! We are a very rare commodity - like hens' teeth. I am very proud to admit that I have never sent a text message in my life.

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    1. Hey, Yorkie. We're a unique breed....and I've no complaints about being so! I've never sent a text message in my life, or in anyone else's, either.

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  10. Yep, these days i avoid mirrors, too. Your posts are great fun, and your recipes always look so good!

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    1. Hi, messymimi...I'm glad you enjoy my posts...they're meant to be just a bit of fun...no harm intended!

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  11. I don't own a smartphone either but sometimes I borrow my wife's. Usually I get stuck or hung up on something and end up asking her to operate it for me.

    I really could celebrate Halloween all year long. I've been watching old horror movies this week. On Halloween it was rainy and cold here so we set up in the garage with a couple coffins and skeletons to keep us company. Also played some Halloween music to keep us entertained. We had 88 trick-or-treaters. Usually we get 130 or so.

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    1. Hey, Dave. I'm lucky...my two cats don't even fight over the use of the phone. They let me take any calls that come in! ;)

      I've a pile of lollies here...but no one knocked on my door. I'm stockpiling for Christmas...they're not all for me, but for a box of goodies I intend putting together for charity.

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  12. Oh sad to totally ban it! Wouldn't it have been possible to have public firework displays instead? Having said that I miss the bonfires which hardly ever happen now even in public displays. Maybe it's a good idea not to encourage kids to replicate burning someone alive on a huge fire :)

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    1. We still have public fireworks' displays, Jenny. The New Year's Eve Sydney fireworks' celebrations are renowned worldwide. The Gold Coast does similar on New Year's Eve. Brisbane has its Riverfire Festival annually in September, which culminates in a giant display of fireworks...(and Brisbane does similar on New Year's Eve...as do other capitals and areas throughout Australia). Thousands upon thousands attend...and the celebrations are also on live telecast.

      Many areas in Aus are suffering dire drought conditions and bushfires, so it is best that additional dangers aren't added to the situations. Already some of the fires have been lit by brain-dead arsonists/idiots. Those clowns don't need further encouragement. The world is full of idiots, unfortunately...they seem to be breeding faster than rabbits.

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  13. I'm going to steal that dip!

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    1. My Goodness!! What a wonderful surprise to see you, Cosmo! It's been far too long...far too long!

      I hope all is well with you and yours...take good care. And, thanks for coming by. :)

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    2. And today's a cake day, no? Hope it was a good one!

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    3. G'day again, Cosmos. It is my birthday today...but no cake...just a pile of fresh strawberries, black grapes...and a delicious Peter's Connoisseur! I'm trying to fly beneath the radar! :)

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  14. I've been catching up with your post in between all the other odds and ends that have been happening and I've just managed to read the whole post again in a oner. I laughed. I really laughed. I'm the very opposite when it comes to my iPhone. I've had a cellphone since 1992 and I'm wedded to it. However I have enough friends who are phoneophobes or technophobes to understand your point of view. However it was your Halloween descriptions that had me in stitches. Particularly as I'm a Halloweenophobe.

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    1. G'day, Graham. I'm one of the breed that is quickly becoming extinct...re mobile/cell phones and all their relations. I'll be captured and put into a zoo, soon! :)

      The other guests already at the party we were about to attend were out in the back yard of the home...gathered around the pool area...music playing, talking and laughing. Those poor little kids made so much noise screaming, the guests heard the commotion and came around to the front of the house to find out what the hell was going on! lol

      Thanks for coming by. :)

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  15. I'm a bit late getting to this post … but I did enjoy it :)

    All the best Jan

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