Thursday, May 31, 2018

Tears of Shame


Since we are on the topic of Mr. Husband's alter ego, Horror Host /Mexican Wrestler: El Sapo, I dug this up to post,
an embroidered handkerchief I made for him a few years back.
His character plays a blundering goofball always making mistakes so I thought this sentiment would be clever for a hanky..."El Sapo's Tears of Shame"!

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Horror Host Fame


A couple of months ago Mr. Husband Sir was inducted into the Horror Hosts Hall of Fame as his alter ego inept Mexican Wrestler, El Sapo de Tempesto!  He and his best friend, The Baron Mondo Von Doren (along with Mittens the Werewolf) have been doing a horror host show called Nightmare Theatre as a hobby for about 17 years.


 The show has aired on several local TV stations and online over the years.  They have also been guests at conventions, hosted movie nights at local theaters and music venues, and were part of Spike TVs Halloween Movie Weekend in 2006.  


To celebrate his honor of horror, PB and I made a batch of cookies featuring Mexican Wrestling masks and old movie reels (using this recipe).


I am not sure how long the Horror Host Hall of Fame has been around but a few other past inductees are Mst3k, Vampira, and Svengoolie.

Here are several previous posts that involved Nightmare Theatre:

Crafty Wares Selling Suitcase 2018
El Sapo lassos the moon 2017
Criswell Predicts 2007
Scrap Crafty T-Shirt Corset 2006
Peek-a-Boo Tie 2006
Our Bizarre Bazaar 2005

I am not sure why but it's really hard to find any Nightmare Theatre shows online.  Their website isn't up anymore and neither are any video hosting sites that they used to post their movies to.  I was able to locate one video for their newest redo of Night of the Living Dead.  For those interested, I played the role of The She-Creature in the bar and then the zombie date for El Sapo at the end of the movie.

Currently Nightmare Theatre has been working with our local PBS channel to have the show produced and aired possibly making it's return by October. 
Congratulations to my darling person!

Friday, May 25, 2018

Mandatory Fun! Weird Al Yankovic!!


A couple of years back we were able to see one of our fam's favorite singer/songwriter/comedian/performers...
one of our national treasures...

Weird Al Yankovic!


We all dressed in mismatched tacky inspired outfits.


Check out PB's 70s polyester shirt and Mr. Husband Sir's Hawaiian shirt plaid shorts combo!
We brought along our Simpson's Weird Al to the show also.


This . was . the . best . concert . I . have . EVER . been . to !!!!!
It was PB's first concert and he loved it.  We were all amaze.  At the beginning of the concert Weird Al comes from the back of the audience heading to the stage and oh my gosh!!! he was only 3 seats away from us!!!!
For every single song he and the band are dressed in costume, along with props, and corresponding videos in the background.  For "Fat" he wore an expanding fat suit and a double chin thing.  For "White and Nerdy" he rolled out on a segway.  For "Foil" he had the whole infomercial desk set up.


"Smells Like Nirvana"
𝅘𝅥𝅮Sing distinctly...We don't wanna!𝅘𝅥𝅮
I remember when I was in high school and would have MTV on in the morning while getting ready.  I really liked Nirvana's 'Smells like teen spirit' but when I saw Weird Al's version I loved it!  I had a blank VHS tape always in the deck and was lucky enough to record both versions back to back! 


"Tacky"
𝅘𝅥𝅮 Took the whole bowl of restaurant mints . Hey, it said they're free!𝅘𝅥𝅮
A super cool thing I love about Weird Al is how he can take a really crappy song (pretty much anything on top forty the past 18 years)  riff on the original lyrics, and salvage the music to create something actually worth listening to.

The fam and I use lines from Weird Al songs second nature to each other all of the time.  I use them on here too (example: first line: "White and Nerdy"). "White and Nerdy" happens to be our fam song.  PB got a power strip for Christmas once and we even have the Star Wars Holiday Special!

"What Ever You Like" is my and Mr. Husband's "song" because I am a cheapskate and like it!
𝅘𝅥𝅮"Clip coupons all night. Don't be a hater if I grab a bunch of napkins for later. Thrift store jeans on sale half price!" 𝅘𝅥𝅮
 All true!


Weird Al is such a clever guy.  I wish he was my neighbor so we could toast circus peanuts over a duralog together.

For a bit more Yankovic MHICTY style, see our Fam Halloween costumes from 2016,
 we went as
Amish Paradise...hitchin' up a buggy and a beard on our chins.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Avon Giant Rotomatic Food Chopper


"Tested and approved by Lester Morris T.V.'s famous Roto Kitchen Chef
Giant size
 Contains 6 genuine stainless steel chopping blades tempered steel quality
Price 3.98"

While I had my food chopper out for smashing up the peanuts for the Peanut Cream Chocolate Cake in the last post, I decided to snap a pic of it too.

I picked it up at one of those legendary Hospice rummage sales back in 2005.  I don't usually let scarcely used uni-taskers, such as a food chopper, into my kitchen.  A knife would work just as well. But I made an exception for this one because I use the box as kitchen decor.


I have been searching for info on Lester Morris and found very little.  The bit I do know is he was an early infomercial pitchmen mostly for a whole line of "Roto" products (the Roto-Broil with it's multitude of accessories, bak-a-tray, Hi-Fri, deep fry) and thus calling himself, The Roto-Magician.

I did come across this one clip : Lester Morris Roto Magician
Unfortunately he must have diced and sliced everything with his Rotomatic food chopper off camera beforehand.  It would have been fun to have seen it in action by the Roto-Magician himself!



Friday, May 18, 2018

Peanut Cream Chocolate Cake


You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!
And you got your chocolate in my peanut butter!

Chocolate and peanut butter, peanut butter and chocolate.  Either way it's always yummy!

I made this Peanut Cream Chocolate Cake for the Teacher Appreciation Week Dessert Buffet this year, inspired by this vintage recipe:

image source

I say inspired but very vaguely.  My cake is chocolate but not made from the original recipe, I used a pre-fab boxed mix.  My cake is bunt and not a sheet.  I then also added extra toppings: a peanut butter sauce and chopped peanuts.  Basically I only used the recipe for the peanut butter frosting (still tweaked it a bit though!).



The Peanut Butter Frosting recipe is really hard to read in the vintage image up above so here it is with my streamlining:
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup brown sugar (my addition)

Cream butter thoroughly.  Add 1 cup sifted confectioners sugar gradually and cream until very light and fluffy.  Add 1/2 cup peanut butter, a small amount at a time, creaming well after each addition.  Add 1/2 cup confectioner sugar and brown sugar then cream til smooth. 

The Peanut Butter Topping Drizzle is something of my own invention:
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup sweet condensed milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 TBS milk

In a double boiler on the stove top blend together peanut butter, milk, and condensed milk.  Stir in brown sugar til blended.  Remove from heat to cool slightly before using.  I also added a bit of brown food coloring for a more defined contrast against the peanut butter frosting.

 I remake very few "Tried and True" recipes. I like baking desserts I have never made before.  Only that can be a bit of a risk when I make something like this that I am donating.  I came up with an idea this time of how to try out a piece of cake without sending the dessert to it's recipients with a slice missing.  I reserved a tiny bit of the cake batter and baked one small cupcake (along with the big cake) as my tester!   I then slathered the cupcake with the frosting, drizzle, and chopped peanuts as a sample.  It was delicious!   PB told me that one of the teachers stopped him in the hall to say that it was the best cake she had ever had!

 Of course this cupcake tester idea is probably something that all bakers have been doing for centuries and I just got around to figuring it out!

Here are just a few past peanutty posts from the archives:
Super Goober Dessert
Peanuts and Candy Corn Halloween Snack Treat
National Peanut Day
We're "Nuts" about our Teachers
Peanut Goodies
Chocolate Scotcheroos

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Cave City Drive Thru


After we visited Big Mike's Mystery House we did a drive through of several of our favorite sites in Cave City, KY.
The big concrete roosters are from 
Coffey's Concrete Products
414 E Happy Valley St.


I also had to take a spin by Haunted Hotel and make sure it was still standing.


Said hello to the precious Wigwams.

Found this wigwam building off of the side of the road (no where near the Wigwam Village Motel) all by it's lonesome with no explanation or sign.


Near the lonely Wigwam was a closed down mini golf, TW's Redneck Golf.  By the looks of it I don't think it's been open for quite some time. Or maybe looking rundown is it's "redneck" appeal?


Fun photo of Mr. Husband Sir hanging out with Bigfoot courtesy of Coffey's Concrete.

We went by The Watermill Restaurant and ate down on a couple of plates of Manhattans for lunch.  Then checked out a few souvenir shops before getting back on the road heading home.

Our Kentucky Fried Vacation was great on the whole.  Only I could have done without the Paris creepy shack and that 500 dollar traffic ticket we got in Tennessee.
The next time we are in Tennessee we will get our 500 bucks worth back in some way.  We'll be coming home with a bronze statue of Elvis from a public park or something! 

Monday, May 14, 2018

Big Mike's Mystery House


Last time we came through Cave City, Ky we only had a few hours to see the sights.  This time we were able to stay just a bit longer. 

On the top of the list was to check out Big Mike's Mystery House!


In the front of the Mystery House (and rock and gift shops) is a huge concrete life size Mosasaur representing "Big Mo" the mascot.

The Mystery House is a classic style homemade fun house that was built in the 1970s.  It consists of many rooms of optical illusions that lean toward the psychedelic.  I bet back in the day hippies would make a pilgrimage here!  


The room shown above gives the illusion of one person appearing tiny next to another looking like a giant.
There was also another set of rooms I call the Wacky Shack.  The floors are at steep angles and when you stand straight you appear to be leaning.  There is a feature with water that looks like it's running upstream. Chairs can lean against walls with only 2 legs down with someone sitting in them and not fall forward.  There is a hall/maze of mirrors.  Posters with trippy optical illusions along with black lights intensifying the experience. The inside of the place is thus pretty dark so I wasn't able to get any decent photos.  All of them turned out either slightly blurry (see above) or horribly blurry, looking like my last known photograph.


After viewing and being befuddled by all of the mysteries you leave out of the Mystery House area into the gift shop, which is where the real "Big Mo" is on display.


Here is a top and bottom photo comparison of the jaw, for real and in concrete, along with a human head for scale.  Something seems a little off to me, maybe it's just another part of the mystery house illusions! 


We love quirky stuff like this!
Read a bit more about Big Mike's at Roadside America.


Big Mike's Rock and Gift Shop Mystery House
566 Old Mammoth Cave Road
Cave City, KY 42127
270-773-5144

Friday, May 11, 2018

Paris Ghetto Shack


Paris, Kentucky that is.  

After we left the Bourbon Cabin in Mount Eden, KY on Thanksgiving day we had to schedule another place to stay for one night.  PB and I found this adorable cabin on Airbnb that was full of vintage bits and reclaimed materials.  Oh it looked so cute in the listing!  It was located in Paris, KY which we thought was kinda fun to tell everyone we were going to Paris for Thanksgiving.  
Paris was not on the way back home or even going to take us through Cave City, KY which was going to be our last stop, but we thought it was so cute and fun looking.


The kitchen was made from vintage metal/wood cabinets and hardware.


Super cute Formica counters and an enamel bowl turned into a sink basin!


A vintage enamel top kitchen hoosier.


Lots of reclaimed wood, a sleeping loft, a cabinet full of antique odd tools and dishes.


The bathroom door had a moon detail on the front representing an outhouse.  The tub it's self  was a galvanized wash tub, all very rustic Granny Clampett-ish.

So like I said, the photos from the listing made it look great.  My photos make it look ok.  But this place was not ok.  It was located a few feet off of a highway in someone's front yard.  The dinky heater they had didn't warm the whole place.  The sink basin wouldn't drain. The bath tub looked unsanitary, the hot water didn't happen and the bathroom smelled like mildew.

But the worse part was the neighborhood was shady.  The houses across the street were all dilapidated covered in blue tarps.  There was a driveway for another residence right behind the shack and those folks were coming and going all night long.  There were broken down cars parked nearby.  But the final issue came when late in the evening I heard a noise outside the front door.  I jerked the door open and I swear I saw someone on the front porch crouched over peeking through the window that only had a half curtain.  I slammed the door shut and was trying to hold all of my weight against it and work the lock.  I was telling Mr. Husband to come help me push against the door, I just knew the intruder was going to push it open before I could lock it back.   
It was intense.  We waited a bit and decided we had to check it out properly.  I said let's grab some weapons.  The shack was full of heavy duty antique cookware.  I grabbed a massive iron skillet.  And what does my husband grab?!  A couple of freaking forks!  We didn't find anything outside but still propped a chair under the doorknob for the night.  Needless to say, we all slept together in the lower bed for safety and warmth.  The next morning since we made it out alive, we decided to take a few ambush photos to try to make light of the situation.


Here I am with a rusty sickle and some weird tool that we still haven't figured out. 


PB has a skillet and a grater.


And Mr. Husband Sir with his forks.


Around the corner from the shack was this neat old Mountain Dew sign.  Morgan's restaurant isn't there anymore which is just fine.  We weren't planning on staying in the area even for a stack of hot cakes!

The only thing fun that came out of this stay was we watched a bunch of the new MST3K on the shack's netflicks, which we don't have at home. 

Next and last stop, Cave City, KY!

Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Carriss's General Store



While we were staying at the Bourbon Cabin in Mount Eden, KY we happened upon this general store, Carriss's Grocery and Snack Bar built in 1915, while driving into Louisville.


Mr. Husband and I looked like a couple of touristy city folk gawking at the place but the owners were kind and let us take pictures.


They have a bunch of old timey (and dusty) stuff decorating the top shelves.


I was particularly in love with this mid-century rocket shaped penny candy dispenser.


This was the most amazing thing to me to see! A huge metal wood burning stove heater (called the Warm Morning) right in the middle of the store! 

The back portion of the store is a grill selling hamburgers, fries and such.  We unfortunately had already eaten lunch before stopping by.  We did buy a big sack of homemade coconut candy drops and a few regional favorite sodas/snacks :Big Red, SkiAle-8-one, and Grippo's pretzels and potato chips.
The owners told us they had been featured on an episode of  American Pickers, which I tried to find on Youtube but couldn't.  However, I found something far better!

A United States Information Service film from the late 1940s titled "Country Store".   A country store in Kentucky called Edgar Skelton's Country Store, which happens to be known today as Carriss's Store!!!!!!!  You guys don't know how stoked I was when I stumbled on this video.  It shows the interior of the store which is fairly unchanged as is the outside.  It shows folks sitting around the pot belly stove (a previous model than the Warm Morning).  Also the house the family lives in next door is still there today.  And it gets even better!  Near the end of the video when the townsfolk go to church....They Go To Salem Baptist Church!!!!!


The film is just enchanting to me. It talks about the beauty of the area which is still amazing today and the reason we vacationed there.  I did some extra sleuthing and discovered that this film was made as Cold War counterpropaganda for Russia, but I'm not going to let that get me down.

I should have known there was something extra special about this place when it had a golden bust of Elvis in it!

And another extra bit of neatness, 
Both Carriss's and Salem Church are listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
Carriss's Grocery Store
Salem Baptist Church

Visit Carriss's Store:
7 Southville Pike
Shelbyville, KY 40065
502-738-5163

Next stop on this Kentucky Fried Vacation...Paris!

Monday, May 07, 2018

Salem Church 1811


Organized in 1811, built in 1895

While staying in Mount Eden, KY we drove past this lovely church and cemetery on our drive in. 


The present structure was rebuilt in 1895 following a fire in 1894.  They incorporated the walls of the previous 1857 structure into this current one. The original church was made of logs and built by the congregation. 

Beautiful moss patina antique head stones.

Another amazing sight we encountered was this weathered barn with tobacco drying inside.  This was such a surreal moment and something I will probably never see again in my life.  It felt like stepping back in time.

It was truly beautiful in this area of Kentucky.

Friday, May 04, 2018

Bourbon Cabin


During the week of Thanksgiving we decided to go some place far from home and kinda in the middle of nothing. Some place that was not near the hustle and bustle of too much to do.  Some place that didn't have the likely hood of being 90 degrees outside like it is at home.  Some place that we all could actually relax and enjoy the Thanksgiving vacation without family guilt obligations and disorganization.  We found the most gorgeous, amazing, and perfect place in Mount Eden, Kentucky! 


A little cabin nestled in the woods.  PB and I spent some time perusing Airbnb and stumbled on this gem.


 The upstairs loft has a comfy bedroom for Mr. Husband and I, while downstairs has a cushy couch that PB planted himself in. There was also a complete kitchen, which is good because there aren't any restaurants for miles around.  The nearest grocery store is in the next county over so we made a grocery run at the beginning of the week where we all picked out favorite snacks and foods. 


Check out the fancy bathroom!  


So like I was saying we wanted to find someplace in the middle of no where.  This is the view from the front door of the cabin.  Miles of woods and mountainside! 


This cabin was so completely perfect for us.  There were loads of leisurely things to do.  The acres of woods surrounding the cabin are available for exploring.  Right next to our cabin was this tiny lake which PB loved going "boating" in.  On the morning we left it had iced over about a half inch (it was 10 degrees!) and he then had a good time whacking the ice breaking it up.


Isn't this beautiful?  It looks like something from The Hobbit!



PB in nature, crossing the Robert E. Lee natural bridge!



The owner's of the cabin live a bit further down the path and brought us up a big stack of wood to burn in the fireplace or outside fire pit.  I basically lived next to the fireplace for most of the time we were there reading a big stack of vintage home magazines I brought along. We also roasted marshmallows and played a few rounds of Ladder Golf (supplied by the cabin).



And here is the proof.  The goal of the vacation was to "just take it easy" and read the National Geographics like Andy had said!

Here is a link to this cabin:

The unfortunate thing about staying at the Bourbon Cabin was we were only able to stay up until Thanksgiving day.  The cabin had been previously booked for the last bit of the week we were going to be out of town.  We decided to see this as an opportunity to seek out another place to stay the last night (more on that later).  While at the Bourbon Cabin we did find a couple of other neat places nearby in passing that I'll share in the next couple of posts.