Trick 'r Treat

Trick 'r Treat

Stars: Brian Cox

This movie has 4 tales of horror that are twisted up and entwined with the other and of course all about and taking place on Halloween night.

This is not for kids at all as there are some very adult scenes and language.

There is some gore to this so it is not a lighthearted film.

The basic gist of the movie is about what happens to people who don't like Halloween or disrespect the common practices. Sam, a seemingly child trick or treater, appears wearing a burlap sack and orange onesie pajama and his jack o' lantern lollipop to dole out punishment to those who are breaking Halloween traditions.

There is a rotten kid for example smashing pumpkins or jack o' lanterns, other kids bullying another kid.

These stories all tie into the other, and you will see the other characters in the next story or woven intricately into each other.

There is some retelling of some of the history of Halloween, tho' it isn't quite right nor accurate.

A lot of twists and turns to the stories so much that it will keep surprising you!

Very well done!

I did like this one as I enjoyed the twists.

Birthday Present--Zombie Knife!

Thought I'd share one of my birthday presents from an Amazon gift card that I received. I love the Amazon gift cards as you can go shopping then and pick out something you would like from your huge wish list. Ok, so from my huge wish list! ;)

 

I saw this on Amazon and thought it was really cool!

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I13HKYW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

 

Now you don't get to choose the color you want as its a random thing. So when you get it, it's a nice surprise.

 

 

So the color I got is....

 

 

Pretty cool!

 

 

 

The above was the front when you open it

 

 

 

and in the pic below is the back where you can see it has a little belt clip.

 

 

The blade isn't bad, a bit sharp and it's just a really neat looking straight edge with zombies printed on the handle. I have a couple knives and straight edges like that, this is the first zombie one however. I love them to help me open up all my Amazon boxes. :)

Ant Covered Devil's Food Peanut Butter Iced Surprise Cupcakes

 

These were just amazingly fluffy and talk about melt in your mouth! WOW!

 

The trick to making a scrumptiously moist cupcake is to make them and eat them fresh. Having worked at a bakery, they tend to make their cupcakes ahead of time and then freeze them. When they freeze them, they are just put in a big plastic bag and tossed in a box and that is that. This allows air to get to the cake and causes freezer burn.

Anytime you refrigerate cake of any kind, it will start to dry it out. It loses it's moistness and freshness.

 

So when I make cupcakes for someone, I always try to make them the day of.

It's the icing that you want to make a day ahead if you wish, especially if you are coloring the icing, you will want to make the icing ahead of time as the color will deepen and set overnight. This allows you to see how true of a color it is and also helps you to not use as much color as you think you need and thereby avoiding the colored teeth and after effects when the color has gone through your body.

 

Ahem..yea...that.

This icing however is not colored, but the natural tan of the peanut butter so you can make it the day of so it will be the most soft and fresh.

 

For the cupcakes, it is a simple Devil's Food box cake mix. You can make it from scratch if you want, go for it, but it's pretty easy from the box. Now the icing, I made that from scratch because it is very difficult if not impossible to find a peanut butter icing and besides, it's not going to be as good as you making it yourself and it's super easy to make! The 'ants' of course are chocolate sprinkles. The surprise is a miniature Reeses' peanut butter cup baked inside.

 

Here's the Recipe:

 

1 boxed Devil's Food cake mix, doesn't matter the brand

Eggs, (according to the back of the cake mix box)

Oil, (according to the back of the cake mix box)

Water, (according to the back of the cake mix box)

24 miniature Reeses' peanut butter cups

 

Icing (From: allrecipes, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/84429/fluffy-peanut-butter-frosting/)

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)

1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used the chunky cause I prefer the nuts to crunch and it adds to the 'ants')

3 Tablespoons milk, or as needed (I just put this in gradually enough to make the icing creamy and light)

2 cups confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar, I added a lil more if I put too much milk in to help thicken it)

 

 

Directions:

Prepare the Devil's Food cake mix according to the instructions on the back of the box using the Eggs, oil, and water in the quantities they list.

Preheat the oven to the temperature according to the cake mix.

Line 2 cupcake tins, 24 cupcakes total with paper cupcake liners.

Pour the cake mix equally amongst all the cupcake portions.

Unfoil the Reeses' peanut butter cups and remove all the paper so they are naked and bare and ready to pop into your mouth but instead, push one peanut butter cup into each of the 24 cupcake batters.

Bake as directed.

Don't worry about the peanut butter cups not being covered up when you put these into the oven. The batter will rise and cover it up for you.

Take them out when done and set them to cool. I left the cupcakes in the pan until they were cooled down well and then I made the peanut butter frosting.

 

Icing Directions:

Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer.

Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable.

Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy. I used the highest speed to really whip it, adding more milk or powdered sugar depending on the consistency you are looking for and then I added a couple more tablespoons of peanut butter to also help thicken it too and make sure I had enough of a peanut butter flavor, the one of choice I used was the Natural Skippy Chunky.

 

Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, I frosted them with the icing. It's important to let them cool completely before you put the icing on so the icing does not melt with the warm cupcake.

Then I sprinkled the chocolate sprinkles (or jimmies if you call them that depending on where you are from), these are the 'ants'. You also want to sprinkle these on right away so that they stick to the icing before the icing dries a bit, otherwise they will just bounce off.

 

Enjoy!! These are the bomb! So light and fluffy and not too sweet. The Reeses' peanut butter cups melt down to a flatter disc inside the cupcake, making them a little crunchy. They also dropped to the bottom but man these were so delicious!

 

America's Most Haunted Village - 1: Amityville House

Leave it to the Bradford Exchange to once again put something out that caught my eye! 

Illuminated village houses of America's Most Haunted places! I was so excited to see these. I just started to collect them and wanted to share these with you so you can see how they look closer up. 

I am not lighting them up for the pics but you can see the detail in each one as I get them. I'll be showcasing them and including a bit of information on these locations. 

 
The Amityville House

I first read the book, The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson when I was a kid and I found it quite scary of a read. 

This book is based on a true story of a family who moved into this house in Amityville, NY on 112 Ocean Ave and all the creepy things that happened leading to the murders that occured. In the movie, the address was changed to 412 to confuse tourists. Believe it or not but as of last year, this house was for sale and a brave soul purchased it in November 2016.

http://pix11.com/2016/11/18/fearless-person-purchases-lis-amityville-horror-house/ 

The house looks a bit different now as the iconic windows have been changed. But the basic shape and look of it remains.

When you do a search on this house and the story and murders that occured, you will get a lot of results.  Here is just one of the many:

http://www.amityvillemurders.com/

I saw the movie as well and it was just as scary when it came out. It starred James Brolin and Margot Kidder and Rod Steiger. I'll do a review on that movie another time.

Some of the history can be found here:

http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/amityvillehorror1979.php

 One of the classic horror novels and movies and location. I haven't visited this place yet but perhaps next time I am in that area, I'll snap a few pics.

You can find these houses at The Bradford Exchange:

http://www.bradfordexchange.com/products/917976_americas-most-haunted-village-collection.html 

Don't forget that if you'd rather not have your cc billed automatically, be sure and call them for payments at:

 1-866-285-1736

*Bugs n Hisses*

GP

Halloween 2016

 
As my first year here in Maine, Halloween was very quiet. 

 

I am located out in the boonies, the deep woods of northwest Maine at the end of a dirt and gravel road with 46 acres of woods. I did not advertise or anything as I was late in getting set up for Halloween for I wanted to put the haunted cave into one of the bays of the 5 car garage. Before I could set up however, I wanted to get that bay insulated so I would not have to remove or take down what I put up later on in the year.

So after a fast paced 2 days, we were able to put together the haunted cave. As we used a single bay, we opted to not set up the middle wall as it would have also taken more time to do that. Not everything got done as far as decorating but it went fairly well.

This year, I had decided to go with full sized candy bars. I normally do not do this but I also knew I was not expecting a lot of kids considering I just moved here and being out in the country. Plus, I also did not believe we had any kids on our road.

Our contractor who has been working on different things in the house and garage did come by with 4 of his kids and wife as he knew what we were doing and the kids were excited to see it.

I also managed to get the video projections going in the window above the garage but our contractor and his kids were the only ones to come by.

I was not disappointed however because I would rather have a regular building just for the haunt built before any crowds come up. He told me he would be putting together signs and getting the word out for me next year, but I am in no hurry. It will take a while to get settled in here and to set up. I was going to put the whole haunt into the 5 bay garage until I realized with all this land, we needed to put regular equipment in there instead and it would be better if I had a whole building just for the haunt. It's an exciting prospect although it will take me a few years to get that built as the house improvements take priority.

The leftover candy bars I had, I took to Hauntcon and gave them away on a Horror Movie Trivia game I played with the all the pre-show bus tour people. More on Hauntcon in another post. :)

Having 46 acres and mostly woods that is backed up to a stream, we have a 1 mile trail through there. At first thoughts of a haunted trail sounded like a possibility and then I was having issues with that idea as I didn't want to do that to the woods, then later, when I took a ride down the trail in our garden cart attached to the lawnmower, I changed my mind again. I began to look around at all the possibilities and I began to get excited! The ideas just poured from my brain as I passed spot after spot that I could make something of interest in one area or another.

So many plans, so little time!!

For now, enjoy the pics I have here of the quickie haunted cave. I'll also be posting of the new famous Haunted Houses that I began to collect from Bradford Exchange. More to come with props and trips and movie reviews and a whole host of things!

*Bugs n Hisses*

GP