Sunday, October 31, 2010 Big News!!!

I am thrilled to announce Revolution Pariah from Oklahoma City has agreed to let me use one of their songs in a future video!

This is awesome. Once again I literally reached out to a band of strangers and got a positive response. How reassuring it is to know there are humans out there who don't suck.

And they don't. One day I sat down with localbandnetwork.com and clicked on bands until something struck me. Revolution Pariah struck me right upside the fuckin' head. Loved them instantly.

Please check them out on myspace.

And stayed tuned for one kick-ass video!

-HH

It's an old picture - but suspend your disbelief and pretend that my body still looks like that. I'm a horny little devil. In the picture.

Halloween, of course, brings images of candy, pumpkins, eggs, shaving cream, plastic costumes and candy. Did I say that already?

Who remembers the old SNL skit highlighting the crappy, unsafe children's costumes of yesteryear? I did a YouTube search, but no luck. Something about dousing yourself with lighter fluid and setting yourself on fire. Now THAT'S a costume.

Personally, I can't STAND pre-made costumes. Use your fucking imagination, people! As a child nothing was sadder than the kids who wore the plastic mask with the matching plastic smock. Are you kidding me? Do your parents have no time for you? Why did they have you if they weren't going to dress you up for Halloween?

But, then again, I remember Susan. He mother made her an awesome costume. She was a bag of jellybeans. Balloons for beans encased in plastic wrap - she won that year. I also know her mother would hit her. I saw it happen once and I'll never forget it. All the costumes in the world couldn't reverse that action.

Well, that's depressing.

It's the end of the season, the beginning of the darker half of the year. Take a moment to take stock. Cast off negativity and surround yourself with warm, positive thoughts. That'll get you through the winter. Along with soups and stews and hot apple cider.

Happy Halloween, my peeps!

-HH

Friday, October 29, 2010 Happy Halloween from The Headbanging Hostess

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Freezing vs. Dehydrating

Around a month ago I came to the brilliant conclusion that freezing my cache of Peter Peppers was easier and better than dehydrating them.

WRONG!

My freezer up and died so they are in the garbage now, along with a bag of melted blueberry juice, a bag of melted Mojito cubes, a few bags of thawed veggies for stock, some un-frozen jalapenos and a good portion of the basil and pesto I'd frozen for the winter months.

WAH!

Thankfully I have 8 trays of basil in the dehydrator. I dried a tray of oregano too but it seemed to lose all it's flavor. Ah, well. Live and learn. Hopefully the growing season will keep on truckin' and my herbs will keep on growin'.

My peter pepper plants are still producing, so I suppose I'll be able to replenish what I lost. And the ice cream garden is still going strong, so I have plenty of herb drying in my future. Mints, pineapple sage, lemon verbana, rosemary. Mmmm.

-HH

Saturday, October 23, 2010 Pumpkins Make Me Brilliant!

What's the best thing in this picture? No, not the pumpkin filled with Faux-Shepard's Pie (aka Cowboy Pie, or just what we all know as Shepard's Pie). And tasty as it was, the Chicken Pot Pie in a pumpkin isn't the best thing in the picture either.

It's the empty sink!

Never before in Headbanging Hostess history has this happened!

I owe it all to a gourd.

I cooked the food on the stove all day, heated up the pumpkins, and finished them off with their proper fillings toppings in the oven right as my guests arrived. Perfectly timed, if I do say so myself.

But the best part is that the dishes are done. As the cooking went on for the seven previous hours I did the dishes, wave after wave, up until the serving of the completely compostable and biodegradable dinner bowls. And this morning I awake to a clean kitchen. Rock on!

Stay tuned for the video!

And serve dinner in a pumpkin tonight. You can thank me later.

-HH

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 Once Again, Bands-A-Plenty!

Tomorrow I will be entertaining three bands! The Midnightmares, They Hate Us and Arcane Malevolence. Of course, as it turns out, my freezer is on its last legs. It may have something to do with the fact that I've been treating my kitchen as if it serves a banquet hall for almost a year. It also may have something to do with the amounts of food my wonderful, well-intentioned neighbor brings over. I haven't eaten 7 bags of frozen pasta in the last five years, I'm not going to start now. So they sit there taking up space and eating up energy. It also could be that the freezer is old. We've been living here for 10 years. And if anyone can explain to me how THAT happened I'd greatly appreciate it.

But, never-the-less, dinner MUST go on and I am left with the only option being making every-damn-thing tomorrow.

This actually isn't that hard a prospect. Brilliant me is planning to serve Cowboy Pie and Chicken Pot Pie in Pumpkins. So I'll actually be able to make the fillings on the stove, put the pumpkins in the oven and then fill them for service (in my banquet hall). The pumpkins will act like warmers and keep the food at a good temperature.

And my lovely, giving neighbor brought me a beautiful cake stand that I'll adorn with Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies - and maybe I'll make some whipped cream. Because I polished off last weeks cookies from the Happy Endings by dipping them in whipped cream and stuffing them in my mouth.

Stay tuned! And go to the show!

-HH

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 Dear Headbanging Hostess #1

Dear Headbanging Hostess,

Lately I've noticed that I'm getting hairy where I used to be bald and bald where I used to be hairy. What's up with that?

Chuck

The first thing I'd check, Chuck, would be your birth control pill. Check with your gynecologist about altering the level of hormones she's giving you. I've grown some hair in funny places but I switched my pill so now I'm just bloated all the time.

Removing hair is pretty easy these days so lets concentrate on regrowing some of the hair you so desperately miss.

According to my research there are some key nutrients essential to growing hair - Protein, Iron, B Vitamins, Essential Fatty Acids, Vitamin E and Sulfur. These nutrients can be found in foods such as liver, brewers yeast, tofu and dark green leafy vegetables. Sounds delicious, doesn't it? You can also find them in meats, eggs, nuts, fish, legumes and cottage cheese.

And of course stay away from caffeine, sugar, fat and carbonated drinks.

Enjoy your new head of hair, Chuck!

-HH

Monday, October 18, 2010 It Gets Better

Much has been said recently about Dan Savage's "It Gets Better Project." I think it's fantastic that he is reaching out to young gay people in such a true, heartfelt, passionate way. Also circulating the internet is this video of a City Council Member spilling his guts out that could make just about anyone cry.

"It gets better." It's a brilliant message.

And if I may, I'd like to pass the message on to all the awkward Atheist, First-Generation American, oddly dressed, non-conformist young girls out there. And I totally don't mean that as an insult to the movement. I SO IDENTIFY with the whole Gay Movement simply because I know what it is to be different, and there's nothing you can do about it, and people don't seem to want (or ever want) to accept you.

I think a lot of folks have felt like that at some point in their life.

And what if they all thought back on that. And what if they vowed to never cause anyone else to feel like that.

Wouldn't the world be a better place?

Bang on, my peeps!

-HH

Friday, October 15, 2010 Sexual Innuendo Night! Featuring "Flesh Explosion" by Arcane Malevolence

Monday, October 11, 2010 Sexual Innuendo Night Coming Up!

Triple D has inspired the double D HH to declare this Thursday "Sexual Innuendo Night!"

We'll start the night off with a round of jerky, follow it up with some Three-Ways and then, of course, some Happy Endings. (No I will not provide you with a link for that. I'm sure you have one.)

All of it from scratch. Except the cheese.

Stay tuned.

-HH

Giant Pumpkins and Gas Station Manners

So there's this guy in Fairfield who grows giant pumpkins. And when I say he grows giant pumpkins I mean he only grows giant pumpkin because, as you can see from the state of his backyard, they take up a lot of space.

Some guy in Wisconsin grew an 1,810 pound one. Biggest ever.

Some guy today at the gas station...grrr. Makes me mad just thinking about it. Who are these people who fill the tank and then go shopping in the mini-mart section of the gas station while you sit there in your car, clearly waiting for them to move their vehicle so that you may go on with your day?

Other people in the world!

-HH

Saturday, October 9, 2010 Yummy Yellow Curry

After spending over two hours making 15 Acorn Squash Ravioli the other day I wasn't about to waste the entire three day weekend using up the leftover squash filling. I didn't want to throw it out, but what does one do with a bowl of pureed winter squash seasoned with cinnamon and such? Especially when one's husband doesn't eat soup. Hmm...

What about a yellow chili? What about curry - that's yellow. I think. What is curry, anyway? According to the internet it's something spicy and stew-like.

According to me and my husband it was delicious.

-HH

Friday, October 8, 2010 Acorn Squash Ravioli with Peter Pepper Maple Cream Sauce

Thursday, October 7, 2010 Another Awesome Way To Use My Food Dehydrator!

The beautiful flowers my husband gave me for our anniversary were wilting and dying only days later. Fucking flowers.

So I chopped all their heads off and put them in the dehydrator on the herb setting.

Beautiful.

-HH

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 Manners and Public Transportation

Last week I had car problems. Both cars wouldn't start. When it rains it pours. So I found myself taking the city bus from Stamford to school in Norwalk - that's two towns over, for those of you unfamiliar with Lower Fairfield County.

Now, I've taken the bus a lot in my life so it doesn't bother me. I don't think it's beneath me and it doesn't bother me that I'm the only white chick who speaks English on the bus. What do I care? I've got somewhere to go and they're taking me for $1.25!

Fuck! For that piddly amount I should be taking the bus all the time!

Anyway, the ride was pleasant enough. It was oddly quiet. It was obvious some people knew each other, they'd exchange greetings. But as the bus took off from every stop at lightning speed no one spoke a word.

Silence but for the sound of an overworked engine.

As I got off the bus I yelled out my customary, "Thank You!"

This isn't about me patting myself on the back. It's about human decency. It's about everyone having kick-ass manners!

I have a friend who's a bus driver. I asked him how many people thanked him as they got off the bus. "Very few, sweetie. We get little respect."

That is very sad to me.

After all, "Thank You" is free!

We may not all ride the bus, but I bet we all could say "Thank You" a little more often.

Bang on, my peeps!

-HH

Monday, October 4, 2010 Kick-Ass Cooking, Kick-Ass Music and Kick-Ass Manners

That's what it's all about.

Cooking, obviously, is what started all this bloggingness. I've become a damn good cook over the last 9 months. I've made 24 videos since this all started. Some with awesome dinner party ideas, some with recipes for two and some just for fun. And, not only have I acquired over 300 Facebook fans, I've inspired two time dinner guest Jeff to start his own supper club. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what it's all about.

I can't, of course, leave out the music. I am forever thankful to Facebook for introducing me to the fabulosity that is Arcane Malevolence. Even better than their music is the fact that they're just a bunch of awesome guys, with even cooler girlfriends. And through them I met No Remission and Burn the Bodies (one of them is a cool girlfriend, there's some overlap here) and now I'm looking forward to another night of bands for dinner with The Midnightmares and, of course, Arcane Malevolence.

And now, to the manners. I've blogged about them before - but I think I've barely scratched the surface. There's a lot of mining to be done in the deep, dark caverns of modern "humanity." There I go with those quotes again. I insert them because I don't think we're very humane to each other most of the time. And that is most unheadbanging, to me.

So, that is what it is all about.

Bang on, my peeps!

-HH

Sunday, October 3, 2010 Exciting Stuff In Headbanging Hostess Land

While my college education has overtaken my life it seems the rest of the world continues on. So far so good, on the college front. I got a 90% on my first quiz and a 93% on my first final. I'm doing well in my Food Prep class. Most of the kids are afraid of my teacher, I think. But he doesn't scare me! If he were a woman I'd be deathly afraid. I'm also doing well in my Baking class. The bread you see there came in second in our class contest - first place didn't have to take the upcoming test. So I've been studying all weekend.

The awesome e-zine Alternative Control published my recipe/rant (which from this day forward shall be known as a "Rant-ipe") so now, when you're desperately looking for something to do with your Halloween pumpkin, The Headbanging Hostess can assist you in digital print.

And, with any luck, The Headbanging Hostess will be available in print print! The Printed Blog has selected me as a "blogger of note" - thanks to all of your nominations!!! Soon I will have a "blog badge" that you can click when my posts are extra-extraordinary. The best blogs get printed up the old fashioned way and I'll get a cut of the subscription dough!

And possibly the biggest news of all? Looks like I'll be back on the boards! My brilliant and most talented friend Ron Destro has cast me as Queen Margaret in the Oxford Shakespeare Company production of Richard III.

So if I didn't have any time because of school, now I'm really fucked.

Don't worry! I'll still find time to cook! I have a few bands coming on the 22nd. And I'm already contacting some new bands - spread the love!!!

Bang on, my peeps!!!

-HH

Saturday, October 2, 2010 Fancy Schmancy Night! - 8 year Anniversary!!!