Here we come, into a new year

Chocolate Covered Toffee

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter (+ extra butter to grease pan)
3 tablespoons light Karo syrup
1 tablespoon water
1 Large Hershey bar (7oz I think)
Chopped Nuts (optional)

Generously butter a cookie sheet. Cook first 4 ingredients in heavy saucepan, stirring constantly over medium high heat until hard crack stage on a candy thermometer (300° F). Pour cooked mixture into buttered sheet pan. Place Hershey bar on top of toffee while it is still hot. Smooth chocolate out with a spoon when melted. Cool about 30-60 minutes. Turn out of pan and break into pieces like you would with peanut brittle.

(Optional) If desired, you could add nuts either to the cookie sheet before pouring the toffee, or the nuts could be added on top of the melted chocolate like Almond Roca.

This is an easy recipe and it gets lots of compliments.

Enjoy

The Candy Man Can

I'll post our candy recipes soon.
Chocolate Covered Toffee
Peppermint Bark
Peanut Brittle
Holiday Fudge
Chocolate Covered Pretzels

La Familia, Homies, and Associates

Every Christmas we make a ton of candy to give to our friends and family. We make small bags for our peeps at work, and platters for our families. We always make Toffee, chocolate pretzels, and the candy molds. This is the first year for peanut brittle and peppermint bark. We also made a batch of fudge (not pictured) but that’s only for us and La Familia. I'll post the recipes later, I need to go to bed. Only two days of work and then we're off for five days!!!

Candy Molds

Tons of Chocolates

Jen doing some dishes in between batches

Peanut Brittle Quality Control!

A bunch of Toffee, Heath Bar eat your heart out!

First batch ever of Peppermint Bark turned out delicious!

Checking our Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Illusive Santa

We live in a small town called Mascotte, in an even smaller neighborhood. Every year the Mascotte fire department brings Santa through all the neighborhoods of Mascotte. The fire fighters blow the horn and chirp the sirens and everyone comes out of their houses and Santa throws candy to all the kids. We grabbed our camera to snap some pictures when we heard them coming, but Santa used his magic to stop us. I opened the camera which should automatically turn it on, and it didn't turn on? My wife hit the manual switch to turn it on and the camera decided to take its sweet time turning on as Santa passed by our house. So we went out back to get the shot as Santa passed behind our house (like I said "small neighborhood, around the block is all of eight houses). These are the photos that Jen took of the Illusive Santa riding the fire truck.

You can see his hand and some hair.

You can see his leg.

"Damn you Santa!"
"Damn your magic!"

H2 update (sort of)

Tyler Mane has signed on again for the second Rob Zombie Halloween. More info as it becomes available.

Image Source

H2

H2 was announced by Rob Zombie today, no real details yet. I'll do some research.

Orc Flesh

Morning Spider Webs

Found these dew covered webs all over the dock at work this morning. The picture is off my phone so it doesn’t really do the webs justice. The webs looked like they were full of tiny sparkling diamonds that were catching the morning light perfectly. Nature can be so amazingly beautiful, and show its self in the most unexpected places.

Desecration

1: an act or instance of desecrating : the state of being desecrated.

Desecrated
1 : to violate the sanctity of : profane (desecrate a shrine or grave)
2 : to treat disrespectfully, irreverently, or outrageously.

Gollum

Still searching for more inspiration, creepy, twisted, green, and wet are Gollum's body and limbs. Movie art from the 1977 version of The Hobbit.

Blix

"Higher, higher, burning fire, making music like a choir!"

"Black as midnight, black as pitch, blacker than the foulest witch."


I'm searching for inspiration for next year’s haunt, and Blix has the most evil looking skin.
I’m already excited for next year, so many plans, so little time.

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Chrisss. . . .Err Halloween?”

A skeleton is on the loose at Mr. Macabre's house, and he's helping to decorate the Christmas tree!

365 Days Without Nicotine!

I have been free from cigarettes for a year now thanks to a magical drug called CHANTIX! I'm not joking the stuff is magic. It works so well that I would go on TV and do a commercial for it, for free! Anyway, "Yea Me!" for quiting smoking.

Ed Force One

"so I said if a drummer can learn to fly then anyone can"
Bruce Dickinson
Read about it here

Killers

"1,000 torch-bearing, skeleton-costume-wearing people"

Eddie The Corpse

I have always loved the image of Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie The Corpse. In high school my walls were covered with Iron Maiden album cover posters. If I knew were those posters were today, I'd put them up on my garage walls.

LIFE ~ October 31st 1960

Me and my love for a good skeleton costume . . .


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What the . . . . Happy Thanksgiving!

A Smile of Sorts

The Captain and His Bride

By the Light of Day - Part 1

By the Light of Day - Part 2

By the Light of Day - Part 3