THE FUNHOUSE by Owen West (Dean Koontz), Novel vs. Film

PUBLISHER: Jove, 1980
GENRE: Fiction/Contemporary horror
SETTING: Ohio, USA mostly
WIKI: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B

FROM PUBLISHER: Young Amy Harper is the most beautiful girl at her school, but to her life seems wretched. Terrorized by her mother, Amy's little brother Joey is her only real friend. Their mother's days are regulated by religious obsession, and nights by the bottle and drunken confessions.

When the carnival comes to town, Joey plans to escape his troubled home and join the revellers. But Amy and Joey fall under the carnival spell, unaware that their mother's secrets are buried here and that vengeance for past deeds lies in wait for them in the make-believe world of . . . the Funhouse.

MY THOUGHTS & SPOILERS: Let me start with the obvious; this is a horror novel, therefore not much in it's believable. Having said that and considering the author, according to him, didn't have a whole lot to work with since the screenplay "offered enough material for no more than 10% or 20% of a novel", he did a damn good job creating a whole lot of horrifying backstory, and backstory is what makes up the first 2/3 of this novel. As soon as I started reading the prologue and first few chapters I noticed how different the story was from the film. It wasn't until the novel was over and I read the afterword and what Dean had to say about the screenplay being what it was that I understood why it was so different. He said he didn't even use the screenplay until he was 4/5 into writing the story. The last third of the novel is when Amy and her three friends arrive at the carnival when in the film that takes place just a few minutes in.

Amy is the main character. She's a seventeen-year-old high school senior and she's in a dilemma. On top of that she broke up with her boyfriend. He's truly an awful character and he wasn't in the story for too long.

Ellen is her forty-five-year old mother. Her being an alcoholic religious fanatic wasn't in the film but we see lots of it in the novel. Ellen grew up with a mother who was like that. Ellen did a bad thing when she was a young adult in 1955, and her ex-husband Conrad's out to get revenge on any children she may have had after they divorced, though their marriage was never legal in the first place.

Joey is Amy's ten-year-old brother. He wants to run away because he's sick of his drunken mother, who goes into his bedroom some nights and talks to him about something bad she's done in her past and she thinks he's asleep and can't hear her. I don't really see much point to having him in the film or novel since he doesn't really do much for either.

Liz is a horrible character. She's the same age as Amy and is a big slut with aspirations of going to Nevada to become a legal prostitute. She's got one vulgar mouth and I was glad to see her go. She's nothing like this in the film. Her death in the book is a little more graphic.

Conrad is fifty-two and owns the funhouse part of the traveling carnival and two concession stands. The carnival stays in Florida early November-April, then they travel the U.S. during the rest of the months. He's a mean, violent, disturbed person and a Satanist. Something awful happened in his childhood that I'm sure really screwed him up mentally.

Gunther is the son of Conrad and Zena and he works with them in the funhouse, dressed like Frankenstein. He's retarded(?), violent, and deformed though a physical description of his face isn't really given, and he's around twenty-four years old.

Zena is the forty-three-year old phony fortune teller that travels with them, and she's Conrad's ex-wife. They married in 1955 just a couple months after his divorce from Ellen, and she was only eighteen. Zena and Gunther aren't related in the film which is great because she gives him a handjob that he pays for.

Conrad appears to be Gunther's father in the film though it's never once said because he says to him, "I wish I had wrung your ugly neck the day you were born", as if he'd seen him right after birth, like a parent. The bad deed that Ellen did twenty-five years ago is referenced briefly towards the end when Gunther and Conrad are alone in the basement and Conrad's loading his gun. If you haven't read the book you won't have a clue what his comment means, "It's real hard, ever since your mamma.....Your little brother Tad/Todd over there on display like..." I had to crank the volume way up to even hear that.

Once Amy and her friends get to the funhouse there aren't many similarities to the film aside from the murders and most of those are a little if not a lot different. They didn't even plan to spend the night in the funhouse either like they did in the film.

Two evil people are on the loose at the carnival. One hides the horrors of the other to protect him, even goes so far as to hide bodies for him. The book also has more murders than the film. The timespan is only about a month or less, May-June. The film takes place in one night.

I've always liked the film but since having read the book and seeing how much more the author added to the story, it's pretty boring. The only thing I can say I truly like in the film, and this isn't in the book, is how the four kids are spying through the slats in the wooden floor at some people who are in the the room beneath it. I like the death of Gunther in the novel more than in the film. It's more gruesome than getting electrocuted.

Amy's brother Joey is in the book a little more during the killings at the funhouse. The deaths are out of order and methods are different.

HOMEMADE SOUP RECIPES: 103 Easy Recipes for Soups, Stews, Chilis, and Chowders Everyone Will Love by Addie Gundry

PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Griffin, 3/2018
GENRE: Cookbooks/Main Dish
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B

FROM PUBLISHER: Cooking gets cozy with stovetop and slow cooker soups, stews, chilis, and chowders for the whole family to enjoy, in Cutthroat Kitchen star Addie Gundry's collection of homemade soup recipes.

In Addie's home, the delightful sound of a simmering pot on the stovetop signals that a hearty soup or stew is on its way. When it comes to creating a cozy atmosphere and showing off your cooking chops, there's nothing like an easy homemade soup recipe to bring family together. This cookbook has classics like Old-Fashioned Potato Soup and Beef Stew, as well as new culinary hits like Chicken Parmesan Soup and Pulled Pork Chili. Each recipe is paired with a gorgeous full-color, full-bleed finished dish photo.

THINGS I'VE MADE

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP

This was supposed to be made in a slow cooker but I just made it on the stove and made half the recipe. Half yielded three servings. I used a homemade beef meatball recipe from this book in place of store-bought meatballs. I used orzo pasta, 1/3 c. but it was a little too much. Will use 1/4 c. next time. I used 1/4 t. salt and a pinch of red pepper flakes. I used thawed and drained frozen spinach in place of fresh. This was simple to make and tastes good.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS

These meatballs goes with the Swedish Meatball Soup recipe. I don't like the flavoring of Swedish meatballs so I made them, omitting nutmeg and allspice. So I used fresh bread for breadcrumbs, garlic powder, egg, salt, pepper, cream (I used half and half) and ground beef. You just stir all the ingredients together with a fork in a large mixing bowl, roll into balls and fry them a little until they've browned, then transfer them to a baking sheet and bake them for an additional 10 minutes or so until they've cooked through. I made half the recipe and got 18, which I cut in half after they'd cooled and placed in a zip-top bag and froze them until I needed them.

Edit: I made another batch of these, minus the allspice and nutmeg, and used them for spaghetti.

CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP

This is really good and is basically the same as one I make all the time. This is made with chicken broth, onion, garlic, chili powder, chipotle, and fire roasted tomatoes, which I puréed in the food processor first and used half. I left out the chicken, red bell pepper and carrot. I don't like peppers and I don't like carrot in Mexican dishes. I added 1/2 c. uncooked white long grain rice. I used far less salt than called for, just 1/4 t. and the recipe called for 1 t. and a full can of tomatoes, which is salted. I didn't decorate the top of my bowl of soup with colored tortilla strips or cilantro.

What I do with canned chiptole in adobe sauce, which is smoked jalapeños in a spicy tomato sauce with cooked green and red pepper and onion, is I put the contents in a food processor and purée it. I put the mixture in a quart freezer zip-top bag. When I want to use it I get out a measuring spoon and scrape off what I need of it. For this recipe I used 1 t. of the frozen mixture for 4 c. of broth for a mild spice.

SAUSAGE AND LENTIL SOUP

This was supposed to be made in a slow cooker but I made half in a pot on the stove. I used precooked green lentils (3/4 c. that turned into 1 3/4 c. and took 20 minutes to cook) in place of brown because I couldn't find brown, and left out the Worcestershire sauce. This has onion, garlic, thyme, bay, carrot, and beef broth in it. I used 1/3 of a 14 oz. fully cooked Kielbasa sausage in it that I quartered. It's very easy to make but I'd have liked it better without the sausage.

COUNTRY CHICKEN STEW

This recipe was a cool concept. You combine a can of condensed chicken soup with milk, seasonings, peeled and cubed raw potato, vegetables, cover and cook until done, then add in cooked chicken. This took a lot longer to cook than stated. The flavor of the stew got watered down, probably from the steam that dripped back down into it from the lid. I'd make this again but just half of it and I'd add in some chicken base that I use that comes in a jar for added flavor.

MY THOUGHTS: I really like this book. Most things in it are so simple to make. My favorite from the things I made were the meatballs because I've made them twice and used them for several different dishes. Second favorite was the chicken tortilla soup because you can't go wrong with Mexican flavors.

The book is full-color with a nice big photo of the finished recipe. There are still quite a few recipes I'd like to make, including Old World Peasant Soup, Pasta e Fagioli Soup, White Bean Chicken Stew, and Made-from-Scratch Minestrone Soup.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

FAMILY FAVORITE CASSEROLE RECIPES: 103 Comforting Breakfast Casseroles, Dinner Ideas, and Desserts Everyone Will Love by Addie Gundry

PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Griffin, 4/2017
GENRE: Cookbooks/Main Dish
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: A

FROM PUBLISHER: From Cinnamon Roll Casserole to John Wayne Cowboy Casserole, the 103 casserole dishes in this cookbook are simple and stress-free, but each is packed with flavor, making them your go-to family favorites to whip up any day of the week.

In 103 Family Favorite Casserole Recipes, Addie Gundry shows that a dish doesn't have to be complicated to be creative. You don't need multiple pots and pans to find flavor. And with the proper tools, tips and techniques, anyone can cook memorable meals. She teaches you how to whip up everything from Potato Chip and Chicken Casserole to Strawberry Icebox Casserole to Skinny Cheeseburger Casserole.

A casserole is something to be shared--something warm, rich, and worthy of a gathering on its own. Every recipe is paired with a beautiful finished dish photograph that will make readers jump at the idea of casserole night.

Categories: Breakfast, Appetizers and Side Dishes, Chicken, Beef and Pork, Vegetarian, Healthy, Internationally Inspired, Dessert.

THINGS I'VE MADE

NACHO CHEESE CHIP CASSEROLE

I made half of this, omitting the crushed Doritos® that were to be sprinkled on top and layered in-between. I also used crushed tomatoes in place of the salsa that was to be stirred into the beef mixture. I did that because this recipe is almost identical to another one I made that used taco mix and salsa combined and I didn't like that combo, so I used something in place of salsa. I accidentally left out the corn too.

LOADED OMELET CASSEROLE

This is the same as quiche but it has no crust. I made half. It consists of eggs, milk, onion, and I used frozen spinach that was thawed in place of fresh kale and I used ground sausage in place of ground turkey. I left out red bell pepper because I don't like it. My only complaint is that it's too salty and I should have used just half the salt. Other than that it's a good, basic recipe.

CHEESY CHICKEN ALFREDO CASSEROLE

I made half of this. I didn't marinate the raw chicken in Italian salad dressing because I knew I wouldn't like it. I did use the Italian seasonings that was called for but I didn't like it. I added 1/2 c. frozen peas too. I omitted the small amount of cream cheese and used shredded Monterey Jack cheese. I also added some onion that was cooked in butter though none was called for.

This is basically the same recipe I used to make up until a few years ago and this would have been better, more flavorful, had I added a small amount of jarred chicken base (Better Than Bouillon brand.) Overall, this was easy to make though it was a three-step process.

CLASSIC SHEPHERD'S PIE CASSEROLE

This turned out great. I made half in an 8"x8" 2 qt. square baking dish. I used 1/2 c. more mix vegetables, so I used 1.5 c. total that were precooked. I used a 4.1 oz. package of instant potato flakes and added shredded sharp cheddar cheese to them after they were mixed up. If you make the full recipe, you'll need to packs of potatoes. I added a little garlic powder to the meat mixture and it needed twice the flour to thicken it, so 2 T. instead of 1. The salt specified in the recipe was the perfect amount.

BACON AND EGG HASH BROWN SCRAMBLE

I made half of this in a deep 8", 1.5 qt. baking dish and I substituted 1/2 c. cooked ground sausage for the three pieces of cooked, crumbled bacon. This uses frozen hash browns that have been thawed, condensed cheddar cheese soup, egg, milk, and some seasonings. I added onion and garlic powder too. When it was almost finished after 50 minutes I sprinkled shredded Monterey Jack cheese on it and baked it another ten minutes.

The cheese soup is pretty mild and I think it needs some shredded cheddar cheese mixed in with it. Other than that, it's perfect and very creamy. I had a piece of this the next day and it tasted terrible, like most potato dishes do, and it wasn't creamy at all. This is like a frittata and quiche where you can add any precooked meat/poultry and precooked vegetables. This would be good with broccoli and chicken. A+ for this one.

SOUTHWEST BREAKFAST BAKE

This is really good and tastes like chili. I made half in a 10" round baking dish. It uses a lot of stuff- shredded hash browns, egg, milk, cheese, onion, ground cooked sausage (I used ground beef), canned chili with beans, chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, ground canned tomatillos (I used fire roasted tomatoes), and mild green chiles. I used milk in place of the small amount of sour cream and didn't use bell pepper since I don't like it.

The hash brown/liquid ratio is off and it took almost double the salt. The mixture is a little too wet and clearly needed more hash browns or less liquid. I don't think it needed ground canned tomatillos at all because the added moisture wasn't needed for this amount of hash browns. When I make this again I'll omit it. I like the beans that are in the canned chili. Flavorwise this gets an A+. Mine doesn't look anything like the one in the photo.

EDIT: I made this again on 10/30/18 just as before, omitting the pureed fire roasted tomatoes and it turned out perfectly!

MY THOUGHTS: Everything I've made has turned out really good, or close to it. I'm truly impressed with this book. It's in full color with a large full page photo of each prepared recipe. The recipes are simple and not fancy which suits me well. Some recipes need more flavoring, including the Chicken Divan, which is only flavored with onion and a small amount of mustard, which is why I'm not going to review it but I will try it, adding whatever I think it needs to enhance the flavor.

My two favorite things out of the book are the Bacon and Hash Brown Scramble and the Southwest Breakfast Bake. This is my first time using hash browns in a frittata mixture and I look forward to trying those two recipes again, and fiddling with them to maybe suit me more. There's another one in here called Sausage Fajita Frittata that uses shredded hash browns, breakfast sausage links, strips of red and green bell pepper, and poblano peppers. I didn't make and review it because I don't like any of those peppers and would have to leave them out but I will make this recipe omitting them and substituting chopped kielbasa for sausage links.

Most of the pasta dishes are completely made on the stove then transferred to a baking dish and put into the oven to melt cheese that's on top. That's just not necessary because you can melt cheese by putting the lid back on the pan for a few minutes to. But it does look better if the food is photographed in a baking dish.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

EVERYDAY DINNER IDEAS: 103 Easy Recipes for Chicken, Pasta, and Other Dishes Everyone Will Love by Addie Gundry

PUBLISHER: St. Martin's, 11/2017
GENRE: Cookbooks/Main Dish
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C

FROM PUBLISHER: With plenty of one-pot meals, dinners ready in under half an hour, and innovative flavor combinations to spice up your go-to proteins, Everyday Dinner Ideas author Addie Gundry has the answers. This third book from the RecipeLion collection is poised to become a go-to resource for singles, couples, and families. Driven by the recipes home cooks search for most on the web like lasagna, salmon, pork chops, and ground beef, this book presents 103 great everyday dinner ideas that real people are searching for daily.






Catagories: Appetizers and Salads, Soups and Stews, Poultry, Beef and Pork, Pasta and Vegetarian, Side Dishes, Grilling Made Easy, Dessert.

THINGS I'VE MADE

DANIEL'S MEATLOAF

I made half the recipe using 1 lb. of ground beef. I divided the mixture in half and added diced green pepper to half. It cooked in 45 minutes. The meat is too firm for my liking. It needed some moisture added to the raw meat, like ketchup, tomato sauce, or milk. Flavorwise it's fine. I wouldn't make this one again or recommend it because it's not as good as the other one I make.

AU GRATIN POTATOES

These are made with three russet potatoes, salt, pepper, whole milk, one egg, and two types of cheese. I used a 10" baking dish instead of a 9" one. I added a very small amount of finely chopped onion too, and dried parsley. I omitted cooked bacon. 

I'd grade this recipe a B because it needs improvement. It's a little too dry and needs more cheese. I'll try it again using more cheese that's melted into a 12 oz. can of evaporated milk and omit the egg and I'm sure they'll be perfect. 

EXTRA CHEWY DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

Bitter, bitter, and bitter is what these are because they have too much cocoa powder in them. I knew they did and still made them anyway. I had to use double the salt and double the vanilla. They're made with equal parts butter and vegetable oil and a small amount of flour. They're fully cooked but are sticky and gummy, and are just horrible. I had to dust the tops heavily with powdered sugar just to add some much needed sweetness only to end up throwing them in the trash after eating just one. Thank goodness I didn't waste chocolate chips in the batter for waste money on frosting that was supposed to go on top.

SLOW COOKER CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

I made half of this in a 2 qt. pot on the stove, not in a slow cooker. I left out the rosemary because I don't like it and left out lemon juice because I didn't want to use it. I used 3/4 c. medium egg noodles and two baked and shredded chicken tenderloins. I used 1 1/4 t. salt since no amount as given. This is alright, nothing special and a little bland. It's very simple to make.

MY THOUGHTS: This is a large, full color paperback. There's a large photo of each recipe too that takes up a whole page. There are a few other things in here I'd like to try, like macaroni and cheese, but they'd take some tweaking and when reviewing recipes you shouldn't really change much of anything so reviewing four things is all I'm comfortable with.

I'm not really happy with this book. The title is very accurate with calling these recipes "ideas." You can pick out a meat/fish/poultry dish and pair it with something else in here. I guess I'm more of a casserole/one pot meal-type person so I don't find this book particularly useful.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

MOMMIE DEAREST by Christina Crawford

PUBLISHER: William Morrow, 10/1978
GENRE: Nonfiction/Memoir
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: A++

FROM PUBLISHER: Mommie Dearest is a memoir and exposé written by Christina Crawford, the adopted daughter of actress Joan Crawford. Published in 1978, it described the author's upbringing by an unbalanced alcoholic mother, whom she judged unfit to raise children.

Christina Crawford is an internationally recognized, best-selling author and advocate for adoption reform, the rights of women and children, and a pioneer in making family violence an issue of national concern.

MY THOUGHTS:  Joan was an incredibly sick and controlling woman, a true Jekyll and Hyde- she was an alcoholic pill-popper, sadistic, spiteful, jealous, paranoid, cold and unconcerned, emotionally and physically abusive, and an all-around piece of garbage to her two oldest adopted children. Just out of control. In an interview Christina said that her younger brother Christopher got abused more than she did. As cruel as she was to Christina, Christina still loved her and was there for her whenever she was needed, especially during Joan's final years when she was stumbling and bumbling around drunk and couldn't make television appearances because of it. Joan got so bad off that people had to line her bed with chairs so she wouldn't fall out of bed onto the floor.

I don't see how this book could have been any better and I have nothing negative to say about it. Christina's a straightforward person and I really like that personality type. I like her even more after watching old interviews with her. She opened herself up to strangers, let them into her personal life and took a whole lot of criticism for it since many people, those who knew Joan and the public and even her younger twin sisters, say Christina fabricated the abuse.

I'll leave you with this, which either came from Joan, her mother or brother (I can't remember which) and was told to Christina during her childhood: When Joan was a young child living on a farm in Kansas she squeezed multiple chicks to death.

Christina has written a novel and several other nonfiction books which you can read about here.

Here are a few television interviews she gave in 1978 to promote the release of the book:

Bill Boggs

The Mike Douglas Show

The Phil Donahue Show

HAMILTON BEACH® ICE CREAM MAKER (Model 68881Z)

PURCHASE: Official site, Amazon, Walmart

THINGS I'VE MADE

VANILLA ICE CREAM PIE

CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM

LEMON SORBET

PINEAPPLE SORBET

CHERRY ICE CREAM

ORANGE SHERBET

PEACH ICE CREAM

MY THOUGHTS: This is a basic electric ice cream maker. You have to freeze the metal bowl, which is filled with some type of liquid solution between the metal bowl and plastic outer part, for at least 12 hours before you use it. Whatever ice cream/sorbet mixture you use, you usually have to heat them in a pot on the stove to dissolve sugar and other ingredients then you have to chill that until it's very cold before you put it into the bowl, which takes hours. Do not use more than 4 cups of liquid so that it has room to expand as it's whipped up. You then place the bowl on the base, put the plastic paddle down into the mixture, then place the clear cover over the bowl, which locks the paddle into place, and turn the machine on. It's that simple. The base turns the bowl and the paddle stays stationary, mixing the liquid mixture and keeping the sides scraped. It will take about 20-40 minutes. If the machine turns off before it's ready simply turn it back on. I can't remember but it may turn off after 30 minutes. If you're adding things like fruit, nuts, cookie bits, add them at the end and let it mix in for about 10-15 seconds. The machine is very loud. When it's finished transfer ice cream into a lidded container since the bowl doesn't come with one.

MEASUREMENTS: The box it comes in is 10" x 14". Amazon says shipping weight is 8 lbs.

Base: 4.5"H x 9"W, 1 1b. 13 oz.

Canister/bowl- 6.5" x 7". Inside of bowl is 5.25"W. It's pretty heavy and is over 3 lbs. Doesn't come with lid.

Plastic Paddle- 6"H x 5.25"W, 2.3 oz

Clear cover- 7"L x 8"W, 12.7 oz.

This comes with a 31-page instructional booklet that's in English (11 pages long), Spanish and French.

This includes six recipes for: Old-Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream (contains egg), Easy Vanilla Ice Cream, Chocolate Ice Cream, Strawberry Sorbet, Peaches and Cream Ice Cream, and Cappuccino Gelato. I made a pie using the Easy Vanilla Ice Cream recipe, jarred fudge sauce and graham cracker crust, ground toasted almonds, and also made the chocolate recipe and both were great, especially the chocolate, which uses unsweetened cocoa powder and tastes just like a Wendy's Frosty but needs one less tablespoon of cocoa powder.

This has a 1-year warranty in the U.S. and a 5-year warranty in Canada.

One big tip I can give you is to make sure your house is cool if you're using this during warmer months or the mixture won't mix up right and you'll have to put the bowl with the paddle in it into the freezer for a short time to make it cold. I speak from experience when I say this.

I purchased this myself from Walmart in 2016.