dahlia dewinters

Blogtoberfest – My Bloody Vampire Sangria

Hello again! So glad to see y’all along with me for the ride Halloween blogging, or, as I call it……BLOGTOBERFEST……..

Today’s recipe is not a mocktail, but a straight up liquor fest. It was a choice between this and chocolate martinis. I chose this because it looks like fruit punch. (What, me drinking? Nah, this is fruit punch.) And I love sangria.

You can find the basic recipe here, but I added my own twist.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1 (750 ml bottle of red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rioja reds, Zinfandel, Shiraz)
1 Lemon cut into wedges
1 Orange cut into wedges
Strawberry or Kiwi slices
3 Tbsp sugar
2 shots brandy
1 shot gin
2 cups ginger ale or club soda

Preparation:

Pour wine in the pitcher and squeeze the juice wedges from the lemon and orange into the wine. Toss in the fruit wedges (leaving out seeds if possible) and add sugar and brandy. Chill overnight. Add ginger ale or club soda just before serving.

If you’d like to serve right away, use chilled red wine and serve over lots of ice.

Blogtoberfest – 10 Days of Zombie Movies

Keeping it simple for today. Here’s a graphic that give you ten of my favorite zombie movies. In case image doesn’t come through, here they are in no particular order.

REC
Dead Snow
Zombieland
Night of the Living Dead
Sugar Hill
Train to Busan
The Serpent and the Rainbow
Planet Terror
The Battery
The Horde

Blogtoberfest – Five Scary Movies – Mya Lairis

My top five scary movies are:

1. Trilogy of Terror– is my all time scary movie. There is just something about that damn doll, like maybe it gnawed my ankles off in a past life or something but I have only watched this film once. Trying to get up the nerve to do it again, but…that doll!

2. Squirm– I have no issue with snakes, at all…they are tasty in fact but earthworms, shrieking, no-eyes having, able to be cut into pieces and still live, burrowing under the skin…Hell naw.

3. Event Horizon– When I first saw this film it scared the crap out of me. Dimensional terrors usually hit home with the terror mark in me and that the space ship had breached the dimension to Hell and was inescapable…yeah. I have been able to watch this a few times however and still, its a shitty deal for those on board.

4. Evil Dead Remake– This was an excellent remake and one that I winced a couple of times at but enjoyed all the same. That razor blade though….

5. Beloved– Yup, actually now that I think about it, this could be one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen. The notion of slavery is frightening enough but this film did emotional damage to me as it made me question the notions of anger, vengeance, and self. Creatures are scary and all but the human psyche can be far worse.

Bio: Mya Lairis is a monster and kaiju fanatic who writes paranormal romance and erotica but who reads mostly extreme horror and heart racing cyber punk sci fi.

Website: www.myalairis.com

Blogtoberfest -Swallow that Sweet Fear: Halloween Cookie Recipe

It’s cookie recipe day!

If you’re like me, you plan way ahead for any type of party or treat fest because you’ve just GOT to be sure that everything is going to go right.

I worked with my daughter this summer in perfecting her cupcake and frosting recipe so she would have the most lovely cupcakes to take to school for her birthday.

Mind you, I can’t stand everyday cooking, but baking is my thing. I like the fact that it’s fun, short and you get a sweet treat at the end.

Now, I’m giving you this cookie recipe early enough so you have time to experiment with it, mess it up and start again.

Halloween Bat Sugar Cookies – Recipe courtesy of Domino Sugar

YIELDS

3 to 4 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS

Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed Domino® Light Brown Sugar
3/4 cup Domino® Granulated Sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Icing

3 3/4 cups (1-lb pkg.) Domino® Confectioners Sugar
3 tablespoons meringue powder
6 tablespoons warm water
purple food coloring
1 tube black decorator gel icing

Click HERE for the rest of the recipe.

Happy Baking

Dahlia

Horror Movie Review – The Vault

Title: The Vault

Summary:
Two estranged sisters are forced to rob a bank in order to save their brother. But this is no ordinary bank. (from imdb.com)

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Opinion

To say this was a pleasant surprise is an understatement. I didn’t expect much. I didn’t realize James Franco was in it until halfway through. This means that I kept looking at this guy and thinking that I know him from some movie. Like I said, it was only mid-movie that I said to myself “That’s James Franco! What’s he doing in this movie.”

My silly epiphany aside, The Vault was an interesting movie. It started out as one thing, then after a cliche line, it turned into something else, which I was completely fine with. I won’t go any further with the plot. Suffice it to say, the movie held my attention all the way through. I wasn’t tempted to look away, except for the bloody parts, and the acting was quite good for the genre.

While there is nothing new under the sun for me, having seen a huge amount of movies, I always relax and let the movie entertain me. Unless the movie is completely terrible, I try to let it roll out like the writers meant it to be. By doing this, I tend to enjoy a lot more movies.
Yes. The setup of The Vault has been done many times before. However, the actors were good, the special effects very effective and the back story scary and convincing.

Rating – B

Want more Horror Movie Reviews? Click HERE.