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...
by Jenny | 17 May, 2020 | Angela Lansbury
Greetings from Cabot Covid (thanks to Tim from Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote for that one). Thursday was the blog’s birthday. For FOURTEEN YEARS I’ve been blogging about movie stars and their favourite recipes. My goodness me, I can hardly believe it. I...
by Jenny | 15 May, 2020 | Mary Pickford
This week we propose a Mary Pickford for your cocktail hour. You will need 2oz rum, 3/4 oz pineapple juice and 3 dashes of grenadine. Shake with ice. Serve with a whistle swizzle stick if you have one! Cheers...
by Jenny | 12 May, 2020 | David Niven
I think my lockdown quarantine feral eating period is almost over. My panic buying of store cupboard staples seems to have abated and the compulsion to eat salad cream directly from the jar on a spoon seems to be slowing down too. But here is something I made when I...
by Jenny | 8 May, 2020 | Douglas Fairbanks, Movie Star Cocktails, Quarantini Time!
This week’s Quarantini Time features a cocktail named after the swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks gleaned from the amazing Savoy Club Cocktail Book. As his niece Leticia Fairbanks pointed out to me in a comment on a previous post about this cocktail, her uncle was...
by Jenny | 6 May, 2020 | Diana Dors
As regular readers know, I am a massive Diana Dors fan and have written lots about the recipes in the Diana Dors X-Cel Diet book. I am so lucky to work in a film archive and have the TV-am collection at my fingertips – well, I did before lockdown! Diana...
by Jenny | 2 May, 2020 | Vincent Price
If ever there was a time for comfort food, the time is now. TOAD. You can’t beat it really, with a lovely onion gravy made with a drop of Vincent Price Ale this is TOPS. In possibly the shortest recipe of the month blog post ever, I present to you, Vincent...
by Jenny | 1 May, 2020 | Martin Landau, Movie Star Cocktails, Quarantini Time!
I love Martinis! I waxed lyrical about them here when the Carole Landis Martini was the recipe of the month. So here’s a little video demo of the way Martin Landau likes his Martini… …and here’s the recipe – CHEERS my lovelies! 2 oz good...
by Jenny | 1 May, 2020 | Vincent Price
This Sunday folks! It’s going to be an absolute hoot. Hosted by Vincent’s daughter Victoria and my chum Peter Fuller of the Vincent Price Legacy UK website, it’s only $5 to join and Vincent fans all around the world will be wining and dining together...
by Jenny | 26 Apr, 2020 | Vincent Price
My brain has gone kind of melty when it comes to cooking during the lockdown. I am usually a stickler for making a recipe exactly to specifications, no deviations, no repetitions. But these strange times are doing something good to my brainbox and I am...
by Jenny | 24 Apr, 2020 | Movie Star Cocktails, Quarantini Time!, Shirley Temple
It’s Friday so you know what that means? QUARANTINI TIME! This weeks cocktail du jour is the Shirley Temple. Mind you, I realised after watching an episode of Mad Men the other day that a cocktail should have 3 ingredients and these only have two. I suppose that...
by Jenny | 21 Apr, 2020 | Benny Hill
I am as old as the hills, so when Mr R brought over his DVD of the Christmas Top of the Pops from 1971 this weekend I thought, I might know some of these songs. But it turns out, I knew the lot! And three of them have special significance too. Slade’s Cuz I Luv...
by Jenny | 19 Apr, 2020 | Julie Harris
I can’t remember the last time I ventured into a shop, I think it was about 10 days ago now, but I do remember that I bought two courgettes just because I thought they looked nice. Fresh veggies! I am usually very much a forward planner but these crazy days, not...
by Jenny | 17 Apr, 2020 | Movie Star Cocktails, Quarantini Time!, Vincent Price
When I volunteered for the Vincent Price Blogathon I had grand plans of throwing an elaborate dinner party with many dishes gleaned from Vincent’s fabulous cookbooks. Remember the days when you could have chums over for food and fun? I could have kicked off...
by Jenny | 16 Apr, 2020 | Charlie Chaplin, Movie Star Cocktails, Quarantini Time!
My second movie star lockdown cocktail was a Charlie Chaplin. A very fruity little fella composed of sloe gin, lime juice and apricot brandy. I had a few technical problems with the Mary Astor Painless Anaesthetic video so I may do that one again sometime, but a new...
by Jenny | 15 Apr, 2020 | Godfrey Winn
Have you seen that film La Grande Bouffe? It features a group of foodies getting together for a weekend of extreme eating. They eat and eat. and eat, and eat… So it was chez moi over Easter. If I listed what we had over our 4-day lockdown at Silver Screen...
by Jenny | 12 Apr, 2020 | Vincent Price
After my initial Covid-19 lockdown panic about getting hold of certain foodstuffs, things have calmed down a bit here in North London. I managed to get a grocery delivery last Sunday and I have kind friends who have dropped off a couple of things I couldn’t get...
by Jenny | 9 Apr, 2020 | Judy Holliday
I had a nice surprise last week when I found out my lovely blogger chum and food illustrator extraordinaire Miriam Figueras has been making YouTube videos about her love of silent movies. I find her voice lovely and soothing and I love this one about life lessons she...
by Jenny | 3 Apr, 2020 | Suzanna Leigh
I am very lucky to have an excellent corner shop about 5 minutes walk from my flat. During the lockdown, I am only trundling down there when absolutely necessary but the last time I went, I nabbed two leeks. I had no idea what I would do with them but Suzannah Leigh...
by Jenny | 31 Mar, 2020 | Mary Astor, Movie Star Cocktails, Quarantini Time!
Hello chums! Get your cocktail shakers out and join me on Instagram Live this Friday for a MOVIE STAR COCKTAIL! I was planning to make a little edited video showing this cocktail under construction but I didn’t get around to it. A special prize to anyone who can...
by Jenny | 30 Mar, 2020 | Abby Dalton, Murder, She Cooked
Written in the days where you could have friends and family around for lunch! Recently I read an article which asked whether people were getting tired of food blogs which featured really long rambling personal stories to wade through before getting to the recipe. It...
by Jenny | 28 Mar, 2020 | Joyce Grenfell
Here is some good news in these troubled times. Last Friday, just hours before the UK went into lockdown I got married! Regular readers will have heard Mr R mentioned a million times on this blog, and now I am thrilled to officially be Mrs R. Here are a few photos of...
by Jenny | 25 Mar, 2020 | Henry Fonda
Regular readers will know that I have been a food hoarder for many years. My frozen archives are legendary amongst chums, all four of the freezer drawers are packed solid. My food cupboards ditto. In the past, I have berated myself for this bad habit, but now...
by Jenny | 13 Mar, 2020 | Carole Landis
If I am having a cocktail, four out of five times it will be a Martini. I love ’em. AHH, the days when you could get a My Man Godfrey Martini at the 5th View Bar in London wearing red knee-high boots! My Guild of Food Writer chum Richard Ehrlich knows everything...
by Jenny | 28 Feb, 2020 | Angela Lansbury, Murder, She Cooked
This is a recipe that I am going to have to work on a bit for the Murder, She Cooked book as I think there must be a typo in Angela’s recipe. Here’s a scan of the recipe from Angela’s fabulous Positive Moves book. I did make some vinaigrette to this...
by Jenny | 22 Feb, 2020 | Richard Arlen
Hello sailor! I’ve been thinking about cooking for one a lot lately. (Cooking for one person, not cooking for a sailor.) A while back I wrote a blog post about making Vesper Martinis and Martini Cured Salmon Blinis for one and mused on the joys to be had in...
by Jenny | 14 Feb, 2020 | Phyllis Diller
Making this soup cures all ills. I was feeling somewhat melancholy last Wednesday evening (can’t remember why now) but my fridge was FULL of random veggies and once I got going on this I felt a million times better. The glorious thing about this soup is that you...
by Jenny | 8 Feb, 2020 | Greg Morris
There was a great conversation in the film archive where I work recently about the phrase, “lost in the mists of time.” Two of the four people in the conversation had always thought the phrase was “lost in the MIDST of time.” I guess that both...
by Jenny | 6 Feb, 2020 | James Garner
I have lived on my own for around 15 years but I have 3 imaginary friends who keep me constant company. My best friend is Lieutenant Columbo. My most recent bosom buddy is Jessica Fletcher. But popping in and out over the years has been the lovely...
by Jenny | 2 Feb, 2020 | Herbert Marshall
For Halloween (which seems like a lifetime ago now), I wanted to make something Vincent Price related. Over a beer a couple of days before, I ran through many potential dishes I could make and when I got to Steak and Kidney Pie, this is what happened to Mr...
by Jenny | 31 Jan, 2020 | Tessie O'Shea
Tessie loved a burger! There are lots of recipes for them in her brilliant Slimming Cookbook and by rights I should have gone for the Hammy Hamburger as Hammy was one of my nicknames at school. This was partly because my surname is Hammerton but also because of a kids...
by Jenny | 26 Jan, 2020 | Audrey Hepburn
I burned the top of this cake so when I took it out of the oven, I almost put it straight in the bin. It was a birthday cake for my beloved and his family for a celebratory lunch and I thought it would taste awful. BUT, I had no more eggs, so couldn’t make...
by Jenny | 22 Jan, 2020 | Ian Ogilvy, Murder, She Cooked, Vincent Price
“Well, who would have thunk it?” as my mum often says. I must admit, I decided to test this recipe for the Murder, She Cooked book myself as I didn’t think anyone would volunteer for it. It doesn’t sound very exciting does it? But surprise...
by Jenny | 12 Jan, 2020 | Irene Dunne
I work in a film archive and all of my colleagues are just LOVELY. It’s such a fab place to work and there is always fun to be had when a birthday comes around. A big pretence is made that we’ve all forgotten all about it and nothing is said until about...
by Jenny | 7 Jan, 2020 | Yul Brynner
When it pours with rain on a dark and cold evening, commuters in London go a bit mental. One night way back in November I had to wait in the cold and wet while 3 full buses sailed past my stop while folks in the bus queue were effing and blinding and waving their...
by Jenny | 28 Dec, 2019 | Murder, She Cooked, Ruta Lee
How was your Christmas kittens? I had a LOVELY time. I ate too much naturally but everything was delicious! Now I am craving a salad, and as this post has been in my drafts folder for several months, here it is! I actually made this in the summer and planned to stick...
by Jenny | 20 Dec, 2019 | Vincent Price
This might be my last post before Christmas so I hereby wish all my readers a fabulous festive season! It was my birthday last week and look at the haul I got – haha! Anyone would think I was writing a book about Murder, She Wrote! The day after my fabulous...
by Jenny | 13 Dec, 2019 | Tessie O'Shea
I have a lot of cooked chicken in my freezer. This is mostly because I absolutely LOVE the chicken they serve at Mr R’s local equivalent of the bar in Cheers, The Cork and Bottle in Hampstead. They serve 1/2 a chicken for Sunday lunch and it is divine but huge....
by Jenny | 12 Dec, 2019 | Murder, She Cooked, Raphael Sbarge
If it is beans in a soup you are after, this is it. There are a LOT of beans in this soup. In fact, there is not much soup, mainly just beans but it is TASTY. All the veggies cook down into a delicious green mulch which is really flavoursome. Sometimes it’s good...
by Jenny | 8 Dec, 2019 | Jameson Parker, Murder, She Cooked
When I was a singleton I had a couple of years of bliss living with two crazy women called Lucy and Gaby. We rented a house together in Walthamstow, E17 and had an absolute hoot. They are both highly entertaining and lovely women. Yes, this was a hen...
by Jenny | 25 Nov, 2019 | Angela Lansbury, Murder, She Cooked, Susan Anton
I have been in heaven for a week on a writing retreat in deepest, darkest Shropshire. I was here… and as A.E. Houseman put it Clunton and Clunbury,Clungunford and Clun,Are the quietest placesUnder the sun. Especially when you have a writing room all of your own...
by Jenny | 16 Nov, 2019 | Sean Connery, The Great Bear Project
Memory is a funny old thing. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately as I’ve been reading a lot of food memoirs and autobiographies – current obsession, Dirk Bogarde, what a WRITER! My self-generated food memoir evening class is going slowly, but...
by Jenny | 14 Nov, 2019 | Robert Quarry
I am going on a week’s writing retreat on Monday and I cannot wait. I’ll be here… More specifically here… I’ll be working on the Murder, She Wrote book and trying not to disturb the three other writers in the building with the sound of...
by Jenny | 13 Nov, 2019 | Dinner and a Movie, Kay & Fred's Movie Night, Sammy Davis Jr
I once saw a series of photographs featuring the same family on the same day every year for many, many years. It was a fabulous insight into the ageing process. I have almost the same record of me ageing over the years with prawns in hand at The Company Shed on Mersea...
by Jenny | 10 Nov, 2019 | Bea Arthur
I love getting an invite out of the blue to participate in a blogathon, and Gill of Real Weegie Midget Reviews always thinks of me when she has one coming up, thanks Gill! I have participated in the Michael Caine Blogathon, the Lee Grant Blogathon, the Shelley Winters...
by Jenny | 6 Nov, 2019 | Una Stubbs
A few days after my Una Stubbs Home-made Muesli post, Mr Rathbone turned up at my place with this… Who kn-una? I had no idea Una had made a fitness record but you’d better believe I’m going to get my leotard and legwarmers on soon and have a go at...
by Jenny | 2 Nov, 2019 | Ron Glass
Mr Rathbone made this chicken dish as part of the Murder, She Wrote Cookalong and it was SOOOOOO GOOD I’ve decided to make it Recipe of the Month. Here’s Mr R’s lovely thorough feedback on the cooking of the dish....
by Jenny | 25 Oct, 2019 | Vincent Price
Halloween is coming! I have a proposal for you! Why not have a Vincent Price Curry Party? First, could I encourage you to spend a few minutes listening to the dulcet tones of Vincent describing his Lifesaver Curry? This is a video that Peter Fuller of the Vincent...
by Jenny | 20 Oct, 2019 | Marlene Dietrich
Hot on the heels of Oooooona’s Moooooosli, here comes Marleeeeeeeen’s Sardeeeeeeen. Of course, this pleasing combination of words only works when mispronouncing MarlAYYYYYna Marleeeeeeeen, but hey ho… I made a beautiful loaf of rye bread on a...
by Jenny | 13 Oct, 2019 | Dinner and a Movie, Kay & Fred's Movie Night, Sean Connery
I live alone, and when I was single for many years, I absolutely loved a solo Friday night in. I would come home from work, make myself a Martini and listen to the Desmond Carrington Show on Radio 4. Much missed. Who else would pair a Meatloaf track with a George...
by Jenny | 10 Oct, 2019 | Tessie O'Shea
Corinna and Cathy are GOOD SPORTS when they come round to my house for dinner. They probably know that something weird is going to be served up. Gourmet food Tessie’s fishcake was not. Fishcake singular you note, even though it serves four. Basically, you make a...
by Jenny | 8 Oct, 2019 | Angela Lansbury, Murder, She Cooked
I wanted to make something to mark the end of the Murder, She Wrote Cookalong and a return to normal life, and this salad was always going to be it. It was fresh, healthy and delicious. Everything you would expect from a recipe Angela included in her wonderful book...
by Jenny | 6 Oct, 2019 | Bill Brochtrup, Cesar Romero, Gloria DeHaven, Hayley Mils, Jane Withers, Jayne Meadows, Joan Leslie, John Gabriel, Kate Mulgrew, Linda Blair, Martha Scott, Murder, She Cooked, Richard Johnson, Ron Masak, Susan Anton, Susan Strasberg, Tom Bosley, Tom Selleck
One of the best things about having a blog is connecting with folks all around the world who are game for anything! So today’s testers are based in Australia, the USA, Canada, Finland and Greece as well as here in good old Blighty. Thanks so much, you wonderful...
by Jenny | 5 Oct, 2019 | Carol Lawrence, Cornel Wilde, Loretta Swit, Murder, She Cooked, Ron Glass
I do a LOT of cooking so if someone offers to cook for me, I am in heaven! Some lovely, lovely people invited me to partake in the Murder, She Cooked recipes they were testing. I had a blast. Just as when Jessica and Seth cook and eat together, I am happiest when...
by Jenny | 4 Oct, 2019 | Donald O'Connor, Eleanor Parker, Karen Black, Murder, She Cooked, Samantha Eggar
I’ve been thrilled by how many people have signed up for the cookalong. Some are blogger friends I only know through the ether, some are friends in real life, and some I don’t know from Adam! I am having so much fun reading and compiling all the feedback....
by Jenny | 3 Oct, 2019 | Shelley Winters
We interrupt the Murder, She Wrote Cookalong with a quick post about Shelley Winters! I had great plans to live my life like Shelley Winters for a day as part of the Shelley Winters blogathon organized by Gill from Realweegiemidget Reviews and Poppity of...
by Jenny | 2 Oct, 2019 | David Soul, Dean Jones, Farley Granger, Lee Merriweather, Madlyn Rhue, Murder, She Cooked
My work chum Julie Gambling will probably be the first to admit that she doesn’t cook much. She offered to try Farley Grainger’s Baked Potatoes With Chives and cooked these for her folks on a visit to Norfolk. She says, “After my parents got over the...
by Jenny | 1 Oct, 2019 | Angela Lansbury, Barbara Babcock, Jerry Orbach, Joey Bishop, Murder, She Cooked, Robert Pine, Ron Masak, Susan Strasberg
Greg Swenson of the Recipes for Rebels website and book of the same name is a creative genius. He designed the cover of my Cooking With Columbo cookbook (and proofread it I might add!) He also designed all my lovely Murder, She Wrote Cookalong graphics Greg made not...
by Jenny | 30 Sep, 2019 | Angela Lansbury, Diane Baker, Jessica Walter, John Saxon, Lynn Redgrave, Murder, She Cooked
Hoorah! It’s time for the Murder, She Wrote Cookalong! I have been overwhelmed by the amount of folks who have volunteered to test recipes for the forthcoming Murder, She Cooked book and I love you all! The next few days will be all about the favourite...
by Jenny | 29 Sep, 2019 | Ron Masak
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the first episode of Murder, She Wrote hitting TV screens in 1984 so this is a perfect recipe to celebrate! The Murder, She Wrote Cookalong is happening in the next few days so be prepared for much madness here on the blog… The...
