by Jenny | 15 Jan, 2021 | Sophia Loren
When I have some olives and anchovies knocking around the fridge my mind often suggests Spaghetti Puttanesca. I rustled this up just before Christmas and it was deliziosa (or maybe delizioso?). I don’t eat much pasta, but when I do I always think, “bloody...
by Jenny | 13 Jan, 2021 | Phyllis Diller, Top 100 Movie Star Recipes
Recipes with weird names are catnip for me. Vincent Price’s Hotchpotch of Curly Kale immediately springs to mind. Elvis Presley’s Hush Puppies is another, but Phyllis Diller’s Garbage Soup is the winner in this category. This fabulous recipe appears...
by Jenny | 3 Jan, 2021 | Jane Fonda
Have you eaten and drunk yourself silly over the festive season? I have! Now is the time to rein it in here at Silver Screen Suppers Towers. As usual at this time of year I will be turning to the 3 movie star cookbooks that offer slightly healthier options in the...
by Jenny | 1 Jan, 2021 | George Segal, Gertrude Niesen, Helen Hayes, Ian Ogilvy, Pat Phoenix, Vincent Price
HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my lovely readers! The choice of my #1 movie star dish of 2020 is SIMPLE because this way of cooking a leg of lamb was an absolute revelation. The recipe is the culinary equivalent of an earworm because it keeps on popping into my head as...
by Jenny | 24 Dec, 2020 | Clara Bow, Diana Dors
What is left to say about 2020 that hasn’t already been said? I just wanted to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas whoever they are managing to spend it with. This will be the first time in about 25 years that I haven’t spent Christmas with my parents...
by Jenny | 21 Dec, 2020 | Vincent Price
Greetings from Tier FOUR – who even knew that such a thing existed? Sigh. After a sleepless night worrying about what to do now that Christmas in London is cancelled and seeing my parents is illegal, I consoled myself briefly with some French Toast. I had two...
by Jenny | 17 Dec, 2020 | Brett Halsey
Greetings from Tier 3 lockdown in London! I am hunkering down for winter hibernation and planning some concentrated work on the Vincent Price Co*Star Cookbook. I now have a deadline for delivering all the recipes, headnotes and feedback from all the test cooks....
by Jenny | 11 Dec, 2020 | Pearl Bailey
I keep cooking liver to Pearl’s specifications as her recipe is so easy, and so delicious, but I never seem to get around to telling you lot about it. Well, I found this post in my drafts folder, written at a time when I was I was a bit moody during the first...
by Jenny | 7 Dec, 2020 | Edmund Gwenn
Have you got all your Christmas presents yet? Could I recommend a few books? First, a book I have been raving about to anyone who will listen… This is a fabulous read for anyone interested in big personalities, television cooks, the way someone can survive by...
by Jenny | 4 Dec, 2020 | Ben Oates, Diana Manthey, Fred Karno, Jan Manthey, Jonathan Cockerell, Mark Duqueno, Vic Pratt
During the first full UK pandemic lockdown in March, I was a bit down in the dumps and lacking in laughs. Then I heard about a new book which I HEARTILY RECOMMEND to all of you who need some merriment in these crazy times. Put this on your Christmas wishlist and buy a...
by Jenny | 3 Dec, 2020 | Jean Seberg, Robert Mitchum
Mr R does not like creamy sauces so I was almost certain that he wouldn’t like this most festive of drinks. When I asked if he liked Eggnog, he said, “It’s like that avocado stuff, isn’t it?” By which he meant Advocaat of course. And yes,...
by Jenny | 22 Nov, 2020 | Vincent Price
Here’s what to do with any leftovers from Vincent’s Friday Chicken or any chicken I guess. After mentioning this recipe recently, I was very pleased to find this blog post hanging around in my drafts folder. This was written soon after the UK went into a...
by Jenny | 19 Nov, 2020 | Vincent Price
Well, it’s almost Friday folks! Mr R volunteered to test cook this recipe for the forthcoming Vincent Price Co*Star Cookbook. BUT, we both got so drunk on Gertrude Niesen Buzz-Bombs that I ended up doing it instead. There is something very satisfying about...
by Jenny | 17 Nov, 2020 | Kim Hunter
I love it when a blog reader gets in touch, via email, a message via the contact page, a comment on a post – anything! It’s always lovely to hear from you, especially during this strange coronavirus time when I barely have any human contact during the...
by Jenny | 16 Nov, 2020 | George Segal
Oh, the joys of cooking with a dear friend! Even when they are miles away in a different part of London and you can only see a tiny WhatsApp picture of them on your mobile phone. I absolutely LOVED cooking along with Sanja as I know her kitchen well and have great...
by Jenny | 10 Nov, 2020 | Rhonda Fleming
It was so lovely to get this postcard through the mail recently, from my fellow film archivist chum Lawrence Napper. He sent it when he heard that Rhonda had gone to the Hollywood in the sky, remembering that I had a special place in my heart for her. I got in touch...
by Jenny | 8 Nov, 2020 | Ron Masak
Well yesterday was quite a day. It all started quite peacefully with a walk in Highgate Woods… and ended with a raucous party for two in my kitchen. Much booze was drunk, much dancing was done and many transatlantic texts flew through the ether between me in...
by Jenny | 3 Nov, 2020 | Audrey Hepburn
I cannot for the life of me remember why I decided to make Audrey’s Pesto, but I am guessing it was because I had some basil hanging around in the fridge. I don’t know about you, but as an urban fourth floor flat dweller with no herb garden, I am forced to...
by Jenny | 28 Oct, 2020 | Vincent Price
Hello chums, I don’t know about you, but I am really looking forward to Halloween this year. Me and Mr R will be glued to the sofa all weekend scaring ourselves silly watching some amazing films courtesy of the Abertoir Horror Film Festival. I am planning to...
by Jenny | 26 Oct, 2020 | James Garner
Remember the days when you could meet friends for an elaborate meal in a restaurant, or go round to a friend’s place for lunch? Any time you fancied? No matter that you were two different households? I’ve been putting off writing this post as I thought it...
by Jenny | 21 Oct, 2020 | Vincent Price
I am not sure if my friends in the USA will still be allowed to gather together around a dinner table indoors with people who are not part of their household for Thanksgiving this year. But maybe you live with lots of people in a flatshare? Or you have a household of...
by Jenny | 20 Oct, 2020 | Helen Hayes
Oscar winning recipe from Helen! I love an excuse to buy a new piece of kitchen equipment and although I do already have a crock pot (slow cooker to us Brits) trying this recipe gave me an excuse to buy another. A big’un! The lamb I cooked to Helen’s...
by Jenny | 18 Oct, 2020 | Pearl Bailey
Oh how I love Pearl Bailey’s recipes! Her cookbook is definitely in my top 3 cookbooks of all time. It is often my bedside reading. Put this on your Christmas list, it is the funniest cookbook I’ve ever read. As Pearl writes so beautifully, I will...
by Jenny | 16 Oct, 2020 | Vincent Price
Greetings from the eve of Tier 2 here in London. So tomorrow we will be going into a second lockdown with the biggest change to our lives being NO HOUSEHOLD MINGLING. For me this will mean that during the week I’ll be here on my lonesome, and at the weekends I...
by Jenny | 13 Oct, 2020 | Angela Lansbury
I love the way someone can decide that a certain date is International Spaghetti Day, or International Doughnut Day or my favourite of all – International Beer Day. Somehow these make their way into calendars of food and drink days all over the internet. I have...
by Jenny | 6 Oct, 2020 | Melissa Gilbert
I’ve been thinking a lot about comfort food this week. I’m collaborating on a project with Peter Fuller of the Vincent Price Legacy UK and Victoria Price, Vincent’s daughter which will be happening in November. Watch this space. It’s a really...
by Jenny | 29 Sep, 2020 | Errol Flynn
When you wake up on a Tuesday morning during a pandemic and the news that greets you is that singing and dancing is now illegal in pubs it is easy to think that ALL FUN is cancelled. Now and forever. There is still fun to be had of course. But we are going to have to...
by Jenny | 24 Sep, 2020 | Natalie Wood
Bored with the same old working from home lunch? I am finding it easy to be lazy about lunches. Toast is usually on the menu, and now the weather has changed I have rediscovered my passion for posh Cup-a-Soup, namely Szechuan Hot & Sour. But the other day I got a...
by Jenny | 23 Sep, 2020 | Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel
Are you hungry? Are you a Laurel & Hardy fan? If so, you’ve come to the right place! A blog reader called Antoinette recently asked me if I could send her some Laurel and Hardy recipes so I had a rummage around in the collection and I found these nine....
by Jenny | 15 Sep, 2020 | Vincent Price
Is it hot where you are? Here in the UK we are having an Indian Summer which is such a fillip. It is bright and sunny, and I’m still using my little portable desk fan. I am making the most of the lovely weather by spending an hour outside every day either...
by Jenny | 11 Sep, 2020 | Diana Rigg
I was very sad to hear the news about Diana Rigg’s death yesterday. I thought I would republish a post from 2018 that features some lovely pictures of Diana and her recipe for goulash. As far as I know, cider is not a traditional component of goulash, but...
by Jenny | 10 Sep, 2020 | Sophia Loren
When I unexpectedly found myself in M&S with Mr R recently my mind went absolutely blank, and then it went berserk. I have barely set foot in any shops apart from my corner shop in over six months and my brain was in overdrive. I could buy anything I wanted, right...
by Jenny | 9 Sep, 2020 | Karen Valentine, Murder, She Cooked
Whenever I stick something in a marinade I am always very pleased with the results. It is such an easy way to infuse flavour, I have no idea why I don’t do it more often. When my social support bubble were coming for a picnic a few Saturdays ago, on the night...
by Jenny | 5 Sep, 2020 | Angela Lansbury, audrey meadows, Barbara Babcock, Craig Stevens, Diana Canova, Hayley Mils, Jackie Cooper, Jane Withers, Julia Campbell, Keith Michell, Leann Hunley, Linda Purl, Murder, She Cooked, Ron Masak, Sally Kirkland, Tippi Hedren, Wings Hauser, Yvonne de Carlo
I spent my hen night in prison. Cabot Cove Prison to be precise. Cast your mind back to a time before Covid-19. When you could invite 15 of your best friends round to ALL BE IN THE SAME ROOM AT THE SAME TIME without the police being called and you getting fined...
by Jenny | 3 Sep, 2020 | When Bloggers Meet or Collaborate
There are some things Covid-19 cannot wreck, and one of those is the Pieathalon. I thank all the stars in heaven for that. We Pieathaletes will continue to make mental pies. No matter what. Every year. Forever. I was thrilled to get my recipe because it contained...
by Jenny | 10 Aug, 2020 | Olivia de Havilland
I got a text out of the blue from my friend Neil recently which read, “You don’t have an Olivia De Havilland recipe! Shame on you!!!” I was perplexed for a moment. Was he planning to watch Gone With the Wind and looking for something to eat...
by Jenny | 8 Aug, 2020 | Dinner and a Movie, John Cassavetes, Mia Farrow, Ruth Gordon, When Bloggers Meet or Collaborate
I had a friend inside my flat last week. Is that allowed in London at the moment? I have absolutely no idea, I have totally lost track. Well arrest me if you want, Cathy of Kitchen Confidence came round for a cocktail and as I was planning to test the Vodka Blush from...
by Jenny | 30 Jul, 2020 | Pat Phoenix
I am strangely obsessed with Pat’s way of pimping a potato. It pops into my mind as something I fancy on a regular basis. I think I read in one of Sophia Loren’s cookbooks that cheese with fish is a no-no in Italian cooking but I LOVE this combo on a...
by Jenny | 26 Jul, 2020 | Tessie O'Shea
It’s the penultimate Tessie O’Shea recipe from the slimming cookbook! I pledged to try one a month from this excellent tome way back in January 2019 and I’ve almost done it. It’s taken me ages to get around to making this because I didn’t...
by Jenny | 23 Jul, 2020 | Angela Lansbury, Murder, She Cooked
You know how satisfying it is when you find the right tool for the job? And how the smallest thing can give you an immense amount of pleasure in these strange lockdowned times? Here’s a tiny tale of one such thing. This is a beautiful bottle of delicious...
by Jenny | 20 Jul, 2020 | Murder, She Cooked, William Gallo
Pink food is weird. This was tasty (no doubt because essentially, it was mostly cream and vodka) but it was a very odd colour. I made this on a lovely summer’s evening after my daily constitution. It was a typical British summer kind of evening… The first...
by Jenny | 18 Jul, 2020 | Richard Dix
When I heard a couple of weeks ago that we won’t be going back to the film archive until January 2021 at the earliest, I had a little meltdown. Six more months of working from home. I did the maths – I would be on my own five days a week for 27 more weeks...
by Jenny | 16 Jul, 2020 | Billie Burke
Billie Burke sent me a secret message on a packet of cheese recently. It was pure chance I spotted it because let’s face it who usually reads the back of a cheese packet? It was on the wrapping of a big chunk of Davidstow Cheddar. This is the cheddar I always...
by Jenny | 14 Jul, 2020 | Gloria Swanson
The pubs are open, and I have been in TWO. Yes, I have left my eyrie and gone out into the big wide world, leaving North London for the first time in 17 weeks. I went on a train and everything! Here is me having my first pint of beer out in the real world. As I...
by Jenny | 10 Jul, 2020 | Peter Falk
I have been meaning to blog about this for ages but just to let all Columbo fans know that the fabulous Columbophile is doing this mega-countdown RIGHT NOW and I heartily recommend you check it out. If you are quick, you’ll catch the last two posts where...
by Jenny | 8 Jul, 2020 | Angela Lansbury
Greetings from Cabot Covid! It’s a very special recipe of the month this month. This was tested for the Murder, She Cooked cookbook by a very special person. Drumroll please! The AWESOME Tim Benzie, creator and star of the immersive Solve-along-a-Murder-She-Wrote...
by Jenny | 5 Jul, 2020 | Tessie O'Shea
Have you sorted out your social support bubble yet? I saw mine last Saturday and it was a RIOT. Mr R’s sister and her husband came over and we had a boozy picnic. OK, it was an indoor picnic because the weather wasn’t great, but we had...
by Jenny | 4 Jul, 2020 | Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean, Movie Star Cocktails, Rock Hudson
This is the penultimate Quaranatini Time! Pubs are set to re-open here in the UK TODAY so there’s only one more movie star tipple demo video to go. The last time me & Mr R exchanged money for cold beverages in a pub was on our wedding day – 20th...
by Jenny | 26 Jun, 2020 | Anna Kashfi, Marlon Brando
Wanna see Mr R do an impression of Marlon Brando playing the Godfather? Haha! We LOVED our Godfather cocktails (although, these should probably be called a mixed drink rather than a cocktail) and had two each. OK, so I got the movie wrong when I did my...
by Jenny | 24 Jun, 2020 | Diana Dors
Mr Rathbone’s sister recently told me that when her mum was pregnant with her, she craved Mivvis. I am going to ask my mum if she had any particular food cravings when she was pregnant with me. It will not surprise me at all if she says tuna. Whenever I stop...
by Jenny | 22 Jun, 2020 | Burt Lancaster, The Great Bear Project
There was a time, not too far in the past, when people could do whatever the hell they wanted, whenever the hell they wanted to. Me and Mr R would regularly spend a Sunday afternoon transporting a strange foodstuff to a tube station on the Northern Line and then...
by Jenny | 19 Jun, 2020 | Movie Star Cocktails, Quarantini Time!, Ralph Bellamy
Gosh, I’ve just realised that I am a week behind with the Quarantini Times! So here’s a link to the demo for Ralph’s Scotch Sour and hot on the heels of this will be the demo for the Marlon Brando Godfather. Where does all the time go? I have no...
by Jenny | 14 Jun, 2020 | Alan Ladd, Anna Neagle, Bebe Daniels, Jimmy Durante, Joan Bennett, Joe E. Brown, Lauren Bacall, Victor Mature
Coo what a spread! Remember when there was a time when you could eat this amount of food on one day because you had OTHER PEOPLE IN YOUR ABODE? As it has now been over 12 weeks since anyone except Mr Rathbone crossed my threshold, I find it hard to believe that this...
by Jenny | 12 Jun, 2020 | Mike Connors, Murder, She Cooked
Oooh, this was GOOD! Proper old fashioned fodder with no fancy herbs and spices. Just a hearty amount of vegetables and super succulent lamb chops after two and a half hours in the oven. Perfect for a Saturday evening in lockdown. In the Cop’s Cookbook the title...
by Jenny | 9 Jun, 2020 | Gertrude Niesen, Movie Star Cocktails, Quarantini Time!
This one comes with a warning, Mr R had to put me to bed for half an hour after consuming just one Buzz-Bomb (and some of the rest of the champagne of course). I lay there like a MUMMY, unable to move a muscle. This cocktail is a humdinger and no mistake. The brain is...
by Jenny | 7 Jun, 2020 | Tessie O'Shea
Tessie does it again! On paper, her recipe looks odd, and in the saucepan, it looks even odder… But these were delicious! What an interesting and flavoursome way of cooking yer sprouts! At first, I wasn’t sure whether I had understood the...
by Jenny | 30 May, 2020 | Don Ameche, Movie Star Cocktails, Quarantini Time!
Don Ameche was a man’s man and didn’t have any truck with mixed drinks. He liked his bourbon straight up and with no nonsense about a chaser. Here we raise a glass to him and get excited about next week’s BUZZ-BOMB cocktail. Mind you, looks like he...
by Jenny | 29 May, 2020 | Grace Kelly
I hereby vow to make no more impulse buys from the “flash sales” section of my online groceries order. I really do love these fresh, herby anchovies but even though I used loads in the David Niven Jansson’s Temptation recipe, the rest of the pack has...
by Jenny | 25 May, 2020 | Malik Yoba
I am getting a bit devil-may-care about recipes in these strange times. There are many ingredients I can’t put my hands on at the moment for obvious reasons, but rather than ABANDONING recipes for lack of this or that, I am getting CRAFTY. I did not have a yam,...
by Jenny | 23 May, 2020 | Binnie Barnes, Movie Star Cocktails
Up periscope! This cocktail is a humdinger. Mr R thought it was “psychoactive” and I saw a yellow aura all around his bonce after drinking just one of these Schnorkels. It was like he’d just eaten a bowl of Ready Brek. The Schnorkel wasn’t...
