Being a guest on the Jonny Trunk OST show on Resonance FM was an absolute HOOT.

Do have a listen sometime – here is the link.  

Ooh, and I’ve worked out how to embed it too.

I had soooooooo much fun.  We chatted about the Columbo cookbook and Jonny ran a competition to win a copy.  There was much frivolity!  I was in stitches.  That Jonny is a very funny guy.

Jonny’s “burner” was going off every five minutes with competition entries.  The task was to send in either a movie title or a film star name MORPHED with a foodstuff.  Here are a few of my favourites.

It Ain’t Half Hot Pot Mum

Blood on Satan’s Coleslaw

Pigs in Point Blankets

Reservoir Hot Dogs

Crocodile Dundee Cake

Lasagne and Lacey

Coq Au Vincent Price

Kebabs Windsor

Full English Breakfast at Tiffanys

Inglorious Custards

Minestrone Curtis

Shirley Sea Bassey

Teriaki-Thomas

The list goes on and on, so do listen in!  It was so hard to choose a winner, so I selected two.

TELLY SAVALOY

Who loves ya baby?

and

HARRY BELAFONDUE

Grrr!!

Hahahahhahahah -they are both still making me laugh. Weirdly, one of the prizewinners lived on the road I grew up on – Osborne Road in Hornchurch.  SPOOOOOOOOOKY.

My beloved friend food writer and photographer Joan Ransley who took the cover photo of the book gets a mention on Jonny’s show…

So does Greg of Recipes for Rebels who designed my book cover and test cooks Kelli Cline in Seattle, Jan Manthey in London and fellow Bread Angel Jessica Maitland of the Colmworth Micro-Bakery… I love this pic of Jessica on our fab one day workshop at Panary with the brilliant Paul Merry.

I made some Rue McLanahan Wonder Women cookies to take with me and Jonny ate FOUR I think.

I also made these for two of my talks at libraries recently.  My first was at the lovely super-modern Southend-on-Sea library, The Forum

and that was lots of fun, packed with Columbo fans who all had lots of great questions.  My chums Gaby and Paul brought their young son William who said afterwards, “It wasn’t the worst day of my life” which really made me laugh.  Later on he said that it was in his top 450 days, which as he is 8 “and nearly a half” years old I take as a huge compliment as life is pretty good when you are 8 and nearly a half. I was worried that I had rushed my presentation, talking too fast but William told me he’d liked the way I’d “whisked through it.”

A few weeks after the talk a bunch of us were playing a game where each player says a catchphrase from a TV show and the others have to name the show.  William came out with “Just one more thing…” so I know he’d been paying some sort of attention!

I also gave a Columbo talk at my beloved local library in Muswell Hill

recently SAVED by the wonderful @FriendsN10 – friends of Muswell Hill library – all very lovely people!  I was standing right by the cookery shelves which is only right and proper.  They were HEAVING with brilliant cookbooks, I thought about hiding a copy of Cooking With Columbo there for someone to find and take home with them.  Maybe I’ll do that next time I am in there.  Guerilla book bombing!

Becky, Tom, and Cathy came to support me and Becky made this boomerang.  She’s so MODERN!

And here, finally, is Rue’s recipe.  I wonder if she wanted to call them “Golden Girls” but couldn’t for copyright reasons so called them “Wonder Women” instead?

Rue McClanahan’s Wonder Women

½ cup / 65g non-fat dry milk/milk powder

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda/bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup / 90g whole wheat/wholemeal flour

⅓ cup / 37g wheat germ

¾ cup / 180g butter or margarine

¼ cup / 56g peanut butter

1 cup / 180g brown sugar, packed

1 large egg, beaten

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

1 cup / 90g oats, uncooked

½ cup / 75g chopped pecans

⅓ cup / 46g sunflower seeds (optional)

1 cup / 150g seedless raisins, light or dark

1 cup / 190g dried apricots, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F / 190 degrees C / gas mark 5.

Mix and sift together dry milk, baking powder, baking soda, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Stir in whole wheat flour and wheat germ. In a separate bowl, cream butter until consistency of mayonnaise then blend in peanut butter. Add brown sugar to the butter mixture and mix until fluffy. Then add egg, honey, and vanilla; mixing well. Add the flour mixture alternately with milk. Stir in oats, nuts and sunflower seeds; then work in fruits. Drop by heaping teaspoons on a greased baking sheet (allow room for cookies to spread). Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

“These cookies are good for you,” claims Rue. “You might try different fruits and nuts – dates, chopped apple or shredded carrots might be good – but to me, it’s the apricots that make it happen!”

Makes about 36 cookies

There is a thorough post including feedback from two test cooks about this recipe here.  We all agree that Rue’s cookie dough is quite wet, so feel free to add a few more oats or a little more flour.  The dough also benefits from being popped in the fridge for a while before you make the cookies.   

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