Happy Hallowe'en!!!

Short and sweet...Happy Hallowe'en to all!  Be careful, be safe, have fun!

VOTE!

Although not directly Hallowe'en related, I would encourage everyone to go vote.  Times are scary and it is your right, privilage and duty to go vote for who you think would be best to turn this country around.   I voted absentee yesterday (I go out of town a lot on the spur of the moment) and it was very easy.

And the biggest reason to vote, you have a right to %$@#*& and complain.  I voted for that %*&#$@! and he/she lied or I told you to vote for the other guy/gal, now we're all %$@#*&ed because of this administration, or HOPEFULLY, ahhhhhhhhh, everything came out just fine, we needed this guy/gal for the job.

Vote...have a voice! 

Frosty Witch

Took this outside my window this morning, temperature was around 30. I thought it was rather cool (pun intended).

Frosty Witch, sounds like a Halloween cold coffee drink from Starbucks.

Day of the Dead

I don't really believe that the Mexican Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos is related to Hallowe'en but I could be wrong.  Anyhow, it's a really neat holiday.  Rather than give a detailed explanation, just Google it and there's a gadzillion sites dedicated to it.  I am quite disappointed though, we have a fairly large Hispanic/Latino population here and I haven't seen any signs of celebrating, even in the Mexican restaurants.  Probably because it is dedicated to honoring ancestry and that would be a more personal thing.  I bought some chocolate moulds and made some white chocolate bars and pops.  The darker ones are made from Nestle white chocolate and the lighter ones are made from Ghiradelli.  I personally like the Nestle better, for some reason it worked better. Anyhow, I merrily put my moulds in the dishwasher after I was done and will be visiting http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/ for new ones since I melted mine. 

&$^%#@!!! Bad Mr. Macabre! Bad Bad Bad!!!  Handwashing good, dishwasher bad, at least for my candy moulds.

The Day I Became Uncool

I remember it well, the day I became uncool in a child's eyes.  Sausage Von Trapp had brought her two boys over to my house to see the latest creations for Hallowe'en.  They were animatronics, a stirring witch (before you could buy them at WalMart) and the Flying Crank Ghost and the two boys were impressed.  Then the question, "How did you do that?"

Why didn't I say something like magic, oh it was nothing, it was easy, it was hard, a million of other things that I could have said but out of my mouth came vile words of maturity, words of *gasp*, an adult:

"Learn all that you can in school in science, math, and the arts, study hard, make good grades and you can do things like this too."

I immediately went from cool Uncle Macabre to another grown up.

 Sigh why didn't I say magic?

Evolution

Evolution of the flaming scarecrow, (the latest incarnation is at the top, but I would hope that would be obvious, I loaded the pictures backwards).

More evolutions to come in the future...

Ok, I know that this isn't Martha Stewarts blog but...

Several years ago, Nestle or Hershey made a premier line of hot chocolates and one was French Vanilla hot chocolate.  It was deeeeevine, I always doubled the packets in mine, when you're going to have a hot chocolate, make it a good one, rich and creamy.  As luck would have it, they took it off the market (&%$#@!!!) and after many tries, I found the secret:

Hershey's syrup and Coffee Mate French Vanilla.

Make your hot chocolate on the stove with the Hershey's and then lay on the Coffee Mate until it makes your eyes roll back in ectasy, or at least to taste.  I guess you could use any of the other flavors of Coffee Mate but all the rest make me gag, except tiramisu, I could put a straw in the container and down the whole thing in one sitting.

Fall-y Muffins

My dear friend, Sausage Von Trapp, sends me this muffin recipe, saying that it tastes like a muffin version of carrot cake.  I haven't made them yet but if I do and like them, I will promptly call them my own creation and steal all the glory.  I am not above this.

Morning Glories

2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup carrots, grated
1 apple grated

Mix all together. Bake in muffin tins at 350 for 20 minutes

Mr. Macabre should note that Sausage had put 1/4 cup of kerosene in the recipe that was given me that I have wisely omitted.  Apparently Sausage still has some hard feelings from my Ex-Lax brownies that was enjoyed by same.
Apparently, some people cannot appreciate humor.

Product Endorsement-Dark Candles

I sometimes try products that I find especially wonderful and for that reason I submit to you Darkcandles.com, the premier site for all things wonderfully fragrant.  I have personally tried the whole Hallowe'en themed candle and scent line and have liked every one but LOVE Crypt Moss (I use the body wash and the body spray, it's dark, woodsy with sweet undertones).  Helena is a great lady, it takes a day or two to get your order but it is well worth the wait.  

Trunk or %$#@&*!!! Treat

Ok, I'm strong, I can do this without cussing. 

Trunk or treat is a fairly new concept in which people go to a parking lot either in a church or a shopping center and open the trunks to their cars, decorate them, usually cute or (shudder) educational, and provide a safe, well-lit area for children to come, heavily supervised, to get candy.

Whew, I did it, I really got through an explanation of THAT DAMN ABOMINATION THAT IS AS STUPID AS IT IS LAME!!! 

Looks like I didn't get through it after all but I don't care!  I despise the concept and the underlying watering down of Hallowe'en, I have seen one where everyone's cars were lined up and each trunk was an educational thing on different countries.  You learned about the country and got a treat that was respresentative of the country.  GOOD LORD PEOPLE, THESE KIDS GO TO DAMN SCHOOL ALL THE TIME, AT LEAST LET THEM HAVE A LITTLE INANE FUN FOR A DAMN CHANGE!!!  I would have had Australia and given the little nippers vegemite and told them, "Now, you learn from this, trick or treating means sugar and chocolate, trick or damn trunking or whatever the hell this is, means learning more crap and getting lousy crap to eat.  Now go be a little bastard until your mom and dad lets you go to a couple of doors and get something to rot out your teeth and don't let me catch you near a car trunk again. Happy damn Hallowe'en kid".

Do I make myself crystal clear?  I don't like Trunk or Treat.

The other thing is Fall Festivals, Harvest Festivals, Family Festivals, and the like. I grew up going to a Hallowe'en Carnival at my elementary school, Crestmont Elementary.  You could tell when it was October 1, advertisement signs were hung in the lunchroom from strings like garland. We got to wear our Hallowe'en costumes on Hallowe'en and I believe the Friday night before we had the Halloween carnival. Every classroom had an event and you bought tickets to each event. You could go fishing in which you cast your line over a movable blackboard with cutout fish adorning the front and when your line gave a tug, you reeled in a toy!  Or you could visit the witches' house and feel a bowlful of worms (cold spaghetti), dead men's eyes (peeled grapes) or bowl of blood (ketchup).  Maybe you had the hankering to find out what the future held by visiting the fortune teller (who looked suspiciously like one of the fourth grade teachers) or walk through the haunted house (ignoring the Patch the Pony posters and desks lined up to make a path through horrors of volunteers jumping out with rubber masks in the blacklight).  I fail to see where I am, or anyone else that went to our school has been mentally scarred or turned out to be a Satanic priest because of Hallowe'en carnivals.

Then came the 80's where suddenly Hallowe'en was suddenly the devil's birthday and the grand and glorious crusade of imposed rightousness stripped us of Scream in the Dark put on by Campus Life Ministries, Savage House Haunted Hayride hosted by Gordo Methodist Youth and a host of other VERY good quality haunted houses.  Lies permeated about Hallowe'en and the deep evil that it imposed on our children that we must protect.  And I bought into it, for about 1 year and I was miserable that year. 

Never, ever, ever again.

Fall Bread Recipe

I cook, and my favorite things to cook are foods that have a fall feel to them.  This is one of my favorite recipes.  Served warm with butter and a cup of coffee, it makes the perfect breakfast bread or late night snack.

Sweet Potato Pecan Bread (Courtesy Martha White Flour, with my alterations)

1 1/2 to 2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 stick butter, melted

2 tablespoons milk

2 cups cooked and mashed sweet potatoes

2 cups chopped pecans

1 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray Pam in a bread pan liberally.  Combine all dry ingredients.  Combine butter, eggs, milk and stir into dry ingredients. Stir in sweet potatoes, pecans and raisins, mix well.  Adjust mixture with flour or milk to make a batter that is like a thick cake batter. Pour into loaf pan and bake until toothpick comes clean, around an hour or so.  Cool in pan for at least 15 minutes before removing and cooling on wire rack.  Bread is moist but crumbly but oh so good.

Haunting who you are

For years I have been trying to be someone else, always failing (thankfully).  Haunting is no different and thankfully, I have failed at being someone else also.  

There are some that I consider masters of the haunt, Pumpkinrot, Brent Ross,  Terror Syndicate, Vile Things, and Tim Doggett of the Hallowed Haunting Grounds for some.  There are innovators, like Scott Axeworthy, creator of the Axeworthy Flying Ghost and of course, Doug Ferguson of Phantasmechanics, father of the Flying Crank Ghost as well as several other wonderful haunt creations.  I am not one of those people, and that's a good thing.  

When I started haunting several years ago, I tried to copy other's style and couldn't do it, or rather, shouldn't have done it but I didn't know better.   I was going for horror, undead things and it just didn't work for me.  To make a long story short, I went with my personality, playful, happy and more whimsical with a dark twist.  Come to find out, I'm becoming an innovator too, I created the Leer mechanism, Flaming Scarecrow 2.0 and Hitchin' Harry (a derivation of Doug Ferguson's wonderful hitching ghosts, ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS attribute credit where credit is due!) and am about to spring on the world Gentleman Jim.  All these are original pieces.  If I would have tried to be someone or something I wasn't, these pieces probably wouldn't have been invented and I wouldn't have been featured on Fearnet last year as one of the best home haunts.  

Be who you are, be what you are, be true to yourself and everything will fall into place.  

Mr. Macabre

Gargoyle Butt

I have a huge fiberglass gargoyle on my roof.  I recently discovered that he has a butt.  I am amused by so little.

A Beginning....

Hello Gentle Readers...

For some, Hallowe'en comes but once a year, decorations are hastily bought from local discount stores, costumes purchased likewise and when it is done, it is done.

Then there are people like me.

Hallowe'en to me is a 24/7, 365 affair, a hobby, an obsession, a way of life.  I enjoy Hallowe'en for the reason that it isn't demanding (present company excluded, I am expected to decorate my yard each and every year bigger and better than the year before),  Christmas demands that you go out and buy gifts for people to prove your love to them.  If you don't spend enough, or don't buy what the want, you are a bad person. The pressure is horrendous. I don't care for Christmas as it is now, the true meaning is for the most part lost.  Thanksgiving could be my second favorite holiday but I don't mind Easter either, except I usually have to dodge out of going to church.  Thanksgiving is about being thankful and giving thanks and being with family, beautiful stuff.

But this blog is about Hallowe'en (I spell it this way because it's more old fashioned and it's the derivative to All Hallows Eve, and because I like it) and I just wanted to give a little background.  

Now for my first rant...Fall Festivals, Harvest Festivals, Family Festivals--just call it a Hallowe'en carnival like people my age grew up with and quit all this watering down let's don't offend anybody junk!  

Just don't get me started on Trunk or Treat, no, wait I will get started on that abomination, but later...