Halloween 2009 Review

It's about time I posted a recap of The Legend of Real Spooky Place--2009.

This year's haunt was another success. About 270 souls passed through the gates of Fartwood Cemetery on Halloween night. Even though the weather was great and the holiday fell on a Saturday, we didn't see the numbers we thought we would. Our friends in other neighborhoods said they weren't very busy either. It doesn't make sense to blame the economy--I would think more people would be out trying to score free candy--but who knows?

As usual, we had a "dress-rehearsal" on Friday night in order to make sure the foggers were OK and to fine-tune the lighting and other things. A few friends stopped by and I made some goodies to munch on.

Meringue Bones

Cat Cookies
Green Slime and Cyanide Cider
Hazmat Chili
Braaaaiiiiinnns!

(actually lemon panna cotta and raspberry coulis!)

Dale has more and much better photos and video on his site. Click here to check it out

Black Sunday

Remember that guy or girl in ninth grade who dumped you for your best friend? It's kinda like that.

Or what about that nice guy you worked with for ten years who turns out to be selling secrets to the Chinese? Kinda like that, too.

Mr. Crip doing a little drive-by in Mr. Blood's 'hood? ....yeah like that.

The prodigal returns...except not in a good way. Not to repair the damaged relationship, but instead to break it some more.

What ever way you look at it--Brett Favre returning to Lambeau Field in a purple jersey is just wrong, wrong, wrong. You know it has to be a wrong of epic proportion if Bob Harlan isn't even going to WATCH the game.

The greatest player ever, the storied Green Bay franchise, the amazing 16 year road, with all its twists and turns....should be adding up to a fairy tale ending, not a bubbling cauldron of hurt and animosity. It didn't have to be this way and there is plenty of blame to go around on all sides. I don't think we'll ever sort out the "who did/said what to whom" part of this drama. The reality is that the NFL is a business--a high-stakes one--run by human beings with big egos, agendas, and plain-old human failings. It is just sad that this is what it has come to.

So, is Brett going to be cheered then boo'ed when he comes out of the tunnel? Boo'ed only? It will be interesting to see what happens. My primary care physician tells the story of when he was a student at Michigan and Bush the Elder came to speak....all the students stood and turned their backs to him. I kind of like that expression of displeasure.

Let's hope the Bad Brett shows up--the one that throws all those interceptions, and not the Good Brett that seems to pull something out at the very last second to save the day.

Getting in the Halloween Mood

A scene from Fartwood Cemetery.

This is totally embarrassing.....my last post was over a month ago! I swear there is some cosmic phenomena that is deleting hours from the day.

The haunt is complete--everything is out and set up and waiting for Friday when Dale will fire up the foggers at the pre-Halloween party. We have held off carving the pumpkins and will do that tomorrow and Thursday in the hope they won't completely rot and disintegrate before Friday night.

To get you into the Halloween mood, here's the podcast I made last year. It still works!
This is the scene in the front window--the pumpkin totem with spiders.

The Return of "The Legend of Real Spooky Place"

September is almost over and October is just around the corner. To most people that means back to school, a heavier blanket on the bed at night, colorful leaves to rake, wild fires and football.

Here at Fartwood Manor it means that we've (well, mostly Dale) been fast at work on the yard haunt: The Legend of Real Spooky Place.

This year we are sticking with the Fartwood Cemetery theme and there won't be anything majorly new.....just a lot of tweaking of the existing props. Right now Dale is changing the fence from wrought iron to be more rusty and crusty. The Wailing Tree from last year needs a little patch job from when it blew off the roof where it had been stored over the summer.

We're expecting a big night since Halloween is on a Saturday this year.

If you would like to keep an eye on the progress of the haunt, check out Dale's site, The Gate.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

It's football time again! Yahoo! A lot less drama this year compared to last, that's for sure. This season will be extra special at Fartwood Manor since we finally joined the 21st century and got an HDTV. I have to admit is pretty incredible for watching sports.

This season I have also joined a fantasy football league for the first time--that should be interesting. I'm not too sure how it works, but I hope I can figure it out before I get too far behind.

The little guy pictured above has graced the top of the tee-vee set every fall at my parents' house for something like 45 years. If there is anything like the "family jewels" in my family...this is it.

Imagine my delight when I spotted these shoes in the window of the Vans store! I had to have them. The weird thing is that even though I've lived in SoCal for 29 years...this is my first pair of Vans.

GO PACK GO!!

Chile Today...Chile Tomorrow...Chile Everyday!

It's Hatch chile time! I haven't been this excited about a food item for a while. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I use chiles in lots of stuff. The more, the hotter, the better--that's what it's all about here at Fartwood Manor.

It wasn't until our trip to Santa Fe a couple of years ago that we really discovered the awesomeness of green chile. I swear we ate green chile at The Plaza Cafe three of four times while we were there. Sure, we like the chile verde at El Burrito Jr., but there's nothing quite like a bowl of green chile made with Hatch chiles.

Hatch chiles are basically Anaheim chiles (with a little of hybridization over the years) that have been grown in Doña Ana county in New Mexico. Hatch is a town about 40 miles north of Las Cruces and is said to have the best chiles. It is sort of like the appellation of grapes used in wines in France: this grape grown in this area makes this type of wine. And like in France, it is the terrior that provides the magic that makes Hatch-grown chiles the best. So when I saw a post on Chowhound about Hatch chiles being available in SoCal I knew I had to get me some.

A few weeks ago, Bristol Farms had a big Hatch chile promotion sponsored by Melissa's, the specialty produce distributor. They were going to be selling and roasting chiles at the Manhattan Beach store. I know, I know....it doesn't get any more gringo than getting chiles at Bristol Farm in Manhattan Beach, but you do what you have to do....how bad could it be?

The roasting time was from 4-9 pm, so I got there right around 4 and there were a few people already in line. There was an area in front of the store set up with the roasters and tables where they offered some pre-roasted chiles. Melissa's also gave out CDs and recipe cards. Just before I got there, they had fired up the roasters and promptly set off the sprinkler system....DOH! So they had to move the roasters out from under the patio cover and because of that were running a little behind. That was OK with me, it gave me a chance to chit chat with the ladies in front of me who were originally from New Mexico.

The deal was if you wanted to have the fresh-roasted chiles...you had to buy the whole case--which was about 30 pounds. I think it cost around $35. That's a lot of chiles, but what the heck....

The roasters were smaller than I thought they would be, but this way one case fit perfectly, so everyone got just what they paid for.
It took about 10 minutes total to roast the chiles. The air smelled so awesome! Kind of made your nose tingle a little bit too. On the way home, the aroma in my car was almost overpowering and lingered about 4 days.
OK...so I have 30 pounds of roasted chiles....now what?!?! "Who will help me peel these chiles said Mary-Wary?" Time to enlist Sous Chef Dale and get on with peeling and seeding. It took us about an hour to get it done. Rubber gloves are a MUST. Oh and don't rub your eyes, nose or ANYTHING--or you will be sorry!
After they were all peeled and seeded (for the most part!) I packed them into recipe-sized portions in Ziplocs and stuck them in the freezer.
We had a little green chile frenzy that weekend. First, I made chicken enchiladas with green chile sauce.
Next was a really great breakfast dish of eggs, chiles, sausage and cheese. Super easy to make and it just gets baked in the oven and voila! Instant yummyness. I love to cook, but I really hate to make breakfast stuff--this one was so good I am definitely going to make it again.

I made some green chile cheeseburgers too, but they got scarfed down so fast I didn't have a chance to take a picture. Somehow, I have a feeling there will be another photo op soon. Once cooler weather arrives I will try to perfect my chile verde recipe and I would like to make a sauce of some kind. I will definitely be exploring some of these links I found on Chowhound: links A links B.

I also found this amusing report of another Hatch chile safari from my go-to-guy for all things Mexican, Gustavo Arellano. I guess it sometimes pays off to be gabacho.

I've Got Hang-Ups

One of the things I'd had my eye on for a long time is this Hang-It-All coat rack which was designed by Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller in 1953. Its whimsical design fits perfectly in the studio, where we will use it to hang our coats and stuff. Dale's already got his Irish caps and cane up there. I wish the wall color came out better--it really is a beautiful aqua-y shade of blue.

On another note, I've noticed that the blog is getting a lot of hits lately. Wow...do I really have a following? What's up with that??!?! Of course I immediately fretted over the fact that I haven't been posting nearly as much as I want to. I still haven't posted about my trip to SanFrancisco in June! Yikes.

It has mostly been because of the work thing, which I thought was beginning to get under control, but the projects keep on coming in. I'm definitely not going to complain about these problems of abundance--but it sure would be nice to go back to 8-hour days. And back to the gym.

And I now have Facebook. I sort of resisted for a while, but after my niece's wedding it was a logical decision as a place for posting photos and stuff that was accessible to many people. Sad to say it really fits my short-attention span lifestyle of late. It is just less time-consuming to quickly put up a photo or write a few sentences about what crazy-ass thing happened that day than it is to write a cleverly-written post.

Anyway, thank you readers for continuing to read this 'lil blog....I'm still having fun!