Spooky Houses

Family Movie Night

By Karyn Bowman

Last week the husband and I made a field trip to Allerton, an estate owned by the University of Illinois. The original owners were Samuel Allerton and his son, Robert. Samuel made his money in the hog markets of Chicago, going on to own lots of real estate and forming one of the largest banks in the U.S.

Death of the Last Centaur at Allerton Park

His son, Robert, studied art in Europe but eventually came home to help run the family business. He may not have been an artist but he knew how to appreciate it, becoming a founder, supporter, and one of the largest donors to the collection of the Art Institute in Chicago. He took that art sensibility to Allerton with sculptures placed throughout the grounds.

For those Anglophiles, the estate will conjure images of Elizabeth Bennett and Lucy Honeychurch running about while figuring out life and choosing the best suitor for marriage.

The brick Georgian manor house has walled gardens of various themes and flora. One long section is devoted to peonies, another is filled with annuals. Or maybe they would be if we hadn’t gone in the middle of October when gardens are being dismantled and put to bed for the winter.

Allerton Mansion

We need to go again, especially on a full moon hike night.

A house like this must be spectacular but alone on the prairie, one must wonder what else could live there. It is that spooky season, after all. And while the house has spectacular gardens, it is surrounded by dense woods.

Well, we know about those spooky house movies. One of my favorite for kids in 3^rd grade and up is Monster House starring Mitchel Musso (Phineas and Ferb) as a 14-year-old who begins to wonder about the spooky house across the street. He and his buddy, Chowder, team up with cute Jenny on Halloween night to get Chowder’s basketball back. Along the way they discover the house’s secret.

While fun and filled with deep meaning, this can be a potentially scary movie for the little ones. However, for the pre-teen set, it has elements of kids working together to solve a mystery even after they are not believed by the adults.

Another spooky house story that appears to be meant for kids is Coraline directed by Henry Selick. Coraline has just moved into a new house with her parents. They are too distracted to pay her much attention or to explore the house with her. So when Coraline find a door that leads to another dimension where they love and adore and shower attention on Coraline, she feels happy. That is until all of this wonderfulness doesn’t feel good and the young girl has to solve a big problem.

Again, this movie is not for the younger children but perfect for your pre-teens who love Tim Burton-like spookiness and heroines who have to learn how to save themselves..

Lastly, for the adults chances are you have seen movies such as Hill House and The Lady in Black where the house is as much of a character as any human. But I was thinking about Th13teen Ghosts (13 Ghosts) starring Tony Shalhoub. This is one of those creepy movies about a man who inherits a house from his uncle. Now the uncle was eccentric and perhaps a bit evil. But the man is in dire straits and needs this house so his kids can have a stable home. That is until walls start moving and people die off.

                 Thirteen Ghost with                Tony Shalhoub

My son says I prefer cheesy horror movies and he might be right because this is not my favorite genre. But after fifteen years, I still remember this movie and the fear it left inside of me. Yes, it is a “B” movie but Tony Shalhoub is in it. To me, some of the kills were imaginative and chilling as one character wound his way through the house, not caring what happened to others.

But if you’re like me, this movie won’t even make it to the watch list because nightmares are not your thing. Perhaps there is a spooky romantic comedy out there to watch instead.

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

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Yum!!!

Family Movie Night

by Karyn Bowman

As we prepare for the big feast, our house get stuffed to the brim with turkeys, ham, potatoes, stuffing ingredients, corn, green beans, and all manners of pie.

There are side dishes galore, one person told me they made 20 sides dishes one year. I plan to make about 5 when you include the cranberry sauce. My favorite side, besides the oyster stuffing, is the Memphis Corn Pudding recipe. So good, so creamy, so not healthy. Whenever I make it I get raves. And it is simple.

All I do is mix a can of cream corn and a can of regular corn with 1 egg, 1 stick of melted butter, 1 cup of sour cream, and one box of Jiffy corn bread mix. I put it in a 12” square casserole dish and bake until golden brown in a 350 degree oven. Like I said, simple.

Hector Elizondo as the Chef in Tortilla Soup

To get ready for this week, I have been watching food movies. Tortilla Soup is one of my favorites starring Hector Elizondo as a chef who has lost his sense of smell. He has three daughters still living at home but who are making changes in their lives. As all of this is happening, they continue the family tradition of having a big meal on Sunday nights. These are incredible spreads with pumpkin made into a soup tureen and tortilla soup being something more than a way to use stale tortillas.

Sunday night meals are also a way to make big announcements. Announcements about new jobs, new boyfriends, new living arrangements. It is never boring in this house, especially when Rachel Welch shows up to make a play for the father.

Another food movie I love watching is Big Night starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as two brothers who own a restaurant in a small town on the East Coast. Shalhoub is the chef who wants to make great traditional Italian food that is not always about spaghetti. Tucci is the manager who tries to find ways to keep their business afloat while maintaining relationships with Minnie Driver and Isabella Rossini. The latter is the mistress of their competitor, Ian Holm.

They want to get the word out about their place and Holm says he can get a big celebrity to come to their restaurant. So Tucci spends the last of their money to make this happen. The food is glorious. Lovingly cooked all day despite the worries and temptations and schemes. And the party? Well, not everything goes as expected. But what a spread of food including a roasted suckling pig.

The last movie I saw is Babette’s Feast. This movie comes from France but the setting is in Holland on a lonely seaside community. It is here that two sisters live who are of a pious religious community. It is not that these two women never had the chance to leave, one could have been a great singer. But they choose to stay to help their father serve his parish.

In their later years, a former love sends them a woman who needs to start over as her husband and son were recently killed. They can pay her no money but she stays and cooks for them. The older people who get soup from the sisters love Babette’s soups and breads. The women notice their church is doing better. Then one day Babette is sent a letter stating she has won the lottery. She asks the sisters to put on a feast in the French style.

The sisters are afraid but they agree to it. And what a feast it is. When a former suitor of the other sister comes with his elderly aunt it is fortunate for the diners. He alone recognizes the dishes and the wine. His appreciation allows the others to appreciate the meals as well. Turtle soup, pastries, quail, fruit and cheese. If you do get this movie, be aware that it does have subtitles. You can choose the English language option but I did not want the distraction of the words not matching the mouth movement.

Such movies inspire me for cooking which will be needed this week.

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.

Preparing for the Feast

Family Movie Night

by Karyn Bowman

Next week, many of us will be working in our kitchens, preparing dishes for the big meal.

Some of us are only making one dish to take to a family gathering. If that is me, I am bringing my corn pudding or bread pudding. Perhaps you are bringing pies or biscuits or a fruit dish or the cheese and crackers.

Maybe you are making the whole meal – turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, relish tray, deviled eggs and pies. Pumpkin, apple, mince meat, and pecan. Maybe a French silk or banana cream arrives as well.

In the meantime, how-a-bout watching some movies that are food-based?

Image from IMDb.com

One movie I think about before Thanksgiving is Tortilla Soup. But that is a Mexican soup, you are thinking. I know but there is one scene in which the Hector Elizondo character is cutting open a medium-sized pumpkin, cleaning it out and then carving an intricate design so that the pumpkin can be used as a soup tureen.

The story is about a Los Angeles chef and widower who has lost his ability to smell. His three daughters live at home and are at different stages of life. The one constant is the big meal they share every week with dishes that are wonderful and difficult. These meals have announcements and drama. Promotions and relationships are announced.

I love how Elizondo creates a character that is fierce and loving and gentle. But the food you will see in this movie is incredible.

Image from IMDb.com

What you may not know is that Tortilla Soup is a remake of the Taiwanese movie Eat, Drink, Man, Woman directed by Ang Lee. The story focuses on a chef who has lost his sense of taste. His three daughters live at home and deal with their mercurial father as best they can while juggling work and relationship issues.

Every Sunday, he makes a huge meal that has many dishes. But the daughters notice that they are over spiced and no amount of telling him seems to make a difference. One by one, the girls leave because of different events in their lives. The emotions are right at the surface, always tangible, always intriguing. You will have to read the captions as this movie is not dubbed in English but do not let that turn you away.

Image from IMDb.com

Finally, a movie that I love for the food is Big Night starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as Italian brothers who have a restaurant in New York. Shalhoub is a gifted chef who cannot stand cooking for people who only want spaghetti. A competitor tells them he can get the musician Louis Prima to visit their restaurant and it will put them on the map.

So the brothers use the last of their money and prepare a feast, a grand feast. There are many dishes and tastes. It is spectacular. But there is treachery and drama. Love is found and love is lost. The brothers fight and manage and do what they must.

These are wonderful movies to watch and they make one want to learn all of these different style of cuisine. I can almost smell that soup in the pumpkin tureen. While these movies may not be suitable for the youngest members of the family, I find those who are older might enjoy them more.

 What movies about food do you like to watch?

Until next week, see you in the rental aisle.