- by Jenny
- Constance Bennett
Spring has finally sprung here in London – I think – and now we are on the way to summer. We’ve had a few false starts. Here’s a way of cooking chicken that feels summery to me somehow. Constance provided this...
- by Jenny
- Henry Fonda
I have made a grown-up decision. I am going to buy a new fridge. The fridge I have in my rented flat is small and CRAMMED with jars and bottles. It has a tiny freezer on top, also crammed with foodstuffs. The main reason...
- by Jenny
- Mary Astor, Movie Star Cocktails
It has been the week of the bad back. Painkillers haven’t touched it. Alternation of the application of a frozen slab of parsnip soup with a hot water bottle has had no impact. The only thing that helps with the constant pain is BOOZE. Luckily...
- by Jenny
- Sam Wanamaker
Mmmm – I like! This is, I think, the final of the core 69 recipes I’ve settled on for the episode specific dishes in the Cooking With Columbo book. Sam Wanamaker directed the Grand Deceptions episode, and this is the recipe I’ll be recommending. Unless, maybe, I...
- by Jenny
- Frankie Avalon
There is a tale to be told about this salad dressing bottle. It’s one of life’s great mysteries… I bought this bottle when I was first really getting into cooking, I lived in Crouch End then, it was about 10 or so...
- by Jenny
- Vincent Price
I learned something fundamental last week. You cannot stir a curry with one hand and try and film it on your iPhone with the other. The saucepan spins and spins and spins! Just like the little coloured spinning wheel of death I get on my...
- by Jenny
- Rhonda Fleming, Theodore Bikel
Who would win in a fight? Rhonda Fleming or Theodore Bikel? Well, me and Mr R considered the benefits of each of their meatloaves on Saturday as I took two big chunks of each out of the frozen archives....
- by Jenny
- Hector Elizondo
Ooh, this was DELICIOUS. Soooooo good. So easy too. Rustled up, scoffed up and washed up before sundown. Fab for a week-night dinner. It’s a bit of a variation on another recipe I have from Hector, his Famous Pasta Pomodoro – similar ingredients, although no...
- by Jenny
- Sharon Gless
When I wrote about Tyne Daly’s favourite cocktail – The Greyhound my chum Lindy asked on Facebook if I had any recipes for Sharon Gless: and indeed I do. Tyne and Sharon appeared together in groundbreaking kick-ass cop show Cagney and Lacey: If you...
- by Jenny
- Vincent Price
I’ve made a couple of these lately. Once for the brilliant cheese & wine party we had at my place, organised in order to drink all of the 24 bottles of lovely wine my ma...
- by Jenny
- Kim Novak
Peel me a grape! Well, actually, peel me 24 of them, as Kim’s recipe calls for 2 dozen peeled grapes. On Friday I spent the day in my kitchen tending 4 batches of dough to make 20 loaves of bread to sell at my nephew’s brewery....
- by Jenny
- Joan Crawford
I cannot believe that Feud: Bette and Joan is over already! That just flew past. I am a few episodes behind though. I don’t have a TV, a friend at work grabs the episodes for me and puts them on a memory stick so that I...
- by Jenny
- Vincent Price
I’ve been on a little holiday to Whitstable and very lovely it was too. Four days in a fabulous and oh-so-peaceful little home from home, that was full of books and a beautiful orchid: It was a perfect place to write – and cook...
- by Jenny
- Nicol Williamson
I am over-excited about next Saturday as I’m hosting the monthly #ColumboTV tweet-a-long. Anyone can join in, just line up the DVD of How to Dial a Murder (Season 7, episode 4) and press play at the appointed time,...
- by Jenny
- Peter Cushing
Those of you familiar with how Yotam Ottolenghi treats a beetroot might not be too impressed with the simplicity of Peter’s supper dish. But this is how Peter liked his beetroot and who are we to diss it? It’s a very simple, homely...
- by Jenny
- Vincent Price
I’m excited to let y’all know that my chum Peter Fuller is organising what promises to be a fabulous party on Tuesday 30th May in Islington, London. All the details are on the Vincent Price London Legacy website here…. but for now just let me...
- by Jenny
- Bette Davis, Joan Crawford
I am loving Feud: Bette and Joan and decided this month to offer TWO recipes for you to try out, one by Bette and one by Joan. More pix on the Recipe of the Month page if...
- by Jenny
- Vincent Price
Vincent usually gets things absolutely perfect in his recipes, but this one was a bit screwy. Serves 6? Me and Vic ate the lot between the two of us! Perhaps we are just greedy… Vic said: “Serves 6? 6 leprechauns maybe.” My ex...
- by Jenny
- Joan Crawford
I finally got to see episode one of Feud: Bette and Joan and I LOVED IT. So utterly brilliant! It’s got me wanting to cook like Joan again, so I’ve pulled out my copy of the Joan Crawford Cookbook (a book what I wrote) and am...
- by Jenny
- Fred MacMurray
I had a LOT of sweet potatoes hanging around the flat after filming the making of a Sweet Potato Pie a couple of weeks ago. Whose Sweet Potato Pie? Patti LaBelle’s Sweet Potato Pie of course… Some of you may...
- by Jenny
- Vincent Price
More exciting news for Vincent Price fans! Some of you may know that Vincent and Mary’s Treasury of Great Recipes was reprinted and released in 2015 in a 50th anniversary edition. We had an amazing day here in London at Harrods for the book launch… Me...
- by Jenny
- Robert Quarry
I wonder if Vera was a glamorous name in the 1980s in America when this recipe was published? For me, the name Vera always brings to mind Vera Duckworth from Coronation Street, so the name of this recipe is kinda humorous for me… In a way,...
- by Jenny
- Laurence Harvey
This is it! The last of the Columbo cookbook recipes is tested! Whoopee! Well, the last of the core batch of recipes anyhow. It’s a chicken pie landmark… I’d been putting this one off as Laurence’s recipe is a bit odd. But it turned out to...
- by Jenny
- Jane Wyatt
Wowee! I had an amazing day on Saturday with Master Baker Paul Merry and a baker’s dozen of Bread Angels! In the idyllic setting of a beautiful watermill in Dorset, we kneaded, we folded, we baked, and more than anything, we laughed...
- by Jenny
- Diana Dors
No sniggering at the back please! Prunes have all kinds of negative connotations here in the UK, I wonder if it is the same in other parts of the world? Ah, I see from a quick Google around the block, that it is the same everywhere!...
- by Jenny
- Cher
Yesterday was James Dean’s birthday so I thought I’d make a little something from my chum Greg’s fabulous “In the kitchen with James Dean” cookbook Recipes for Rebels. There are so many fab recipes in this book (I’m looking at you Eartha Kitt’s Crocked Rabbit with Winter...
- by Jenny
- Ed Begley J
Ooh, another veggie one for the Columbo cookbook. This is a super easy, but very nice way of perking up asparagus. Seen here beside the very last recipe I needed to test for the book, Laurence Harvey’s Chicken Pie. I’ve done it! It...
- by Jenny
- George Hamilton
George’s recipe sounded very tasty on paper, and indeed, the result was really good. But it is a tricky thing for a Brit to make due to amount of things our supermarkets don’t have in common with American ones… I have moaned away on this...
- by Jenny
- Jose Ferrer
The key to this recipe is seasoning I think. Plus giving your potatoes plenty of time to fry to get them all crispy and tasty. I think I could have given these a bit longer… This is a very simple, but a fun...
- by Jenny
- Oskar Werner
I had a nice piece of veal left over from Lieutenant Columbo’s Veal Scallopini so I decided to rustle up a Weiner Schnitzel. I love Oskar’s serving suggestion for this dish: lemon, beetroot, anchovies and capers. I love these fat, tasty anchovies from The Fickle Fish…...
- by Jenny
- Robert Vaughn
I think 2017 might be the year that I conquer my fear of the mushroom. If I’m ever invited out to dinner at someone’s house and they ask if there is anything I don’t eat, mushrooms are top of the list. Followed by aubergines and...
- by Jenny
- Tyne Daly
Another first for January, Key Lime Pie. Much discussion about the name of this pie with Mr R, the Key relates to the Florida keys right? Aha, I see from Wikipedia that I am indeed right! But more than that, Key limes are a...
- by Jenny
- Rip Torn
On Friday I took the day off work and spent the whole day in the kitchen baking bread for my nephew’s brewery. All of these loaves have BEER in them. On the day before a bread sale, there is frantic activity early morning making all...
- by Jenny
- Cliff Richard
When I have folks around for dinner, I try and remember to ask them if there is anything they don’t eat. Well for Battenburg Belle’s birthday dinner I had quite a few things to juggle with. 2 vegetarian guests, one guest who is dairy free, and...
- by Jenny
- Martin Landau
This recipe found its way into the Cooking With Columbo cookbook. My word, I think this was the best steak I have ever eaten, no kidding. Martin’s marinade was divine. Also, I had learned some stuff from Harry Eastwood’s steak masterclass in January’s Delicious Magazine....
- by Jenny
- Cooking with Columbo, Peter Falk
Murder Under Glass is the BEST Columbo episode for foodies. There is so much brilliant stuff going on with Cioppino, “Bon Snacks” biscuits and Japanese blowfish I cannot even begin to explain… If you have never seen it, seek it out on DVD and get yourself a...
- by Jenny
- Jack Cassidy, Shirley Jones
When my chum Corinna was studying for her Masters degree, Vic promised her that when she finished, he would buy the three of us a KFC Bucket. Well, Corinna finished in 2011 and we are still waiting for our Bucket. In the 6...
- by Jenny
- Pearl Bailey
Broccoli is my default vegetable. It always seems like the healthy option. I eat it a lot. I do love Yul Brynner’s method of jazzing up the green stuff, but my word, Pearl’s way of doing things, is even better. Oh yum. Very, very tasty indeed. ...
- by Jenny
- Martin Landau
I am excited about tonight’s #ColumboTV tweetalong, as the episode we’ll all be tweeting along with, is one of my absolute favourites: Double Shock. Martin Landau plays Dexter Paris, host of a television cooking show, and he gets the Lieutenant up out of the...
- by Jenny
- Roddy McDowall
It’s a month of firsts. I’ve never poached a pear before… But I have now… Vanilla pudding mix is not something we have here in the UK, so many moons ago I asked my friend Heather to bring me back some from a trip to the...
- by Jenny
- Dinner and a Movie
I have never cooked Ramen before, in fact, I have never eaten Ramen before, so this dish was quite an adventure for me. The lovely folks at www.souschef.co.uk emailed me out of the blue to ask if I’d like to try out...
- by Jenny
- Peter Falk
In the first non-pilot episode of Columbo, Murder By The Book, our favourite TV detective makes an omelet. Well, he starts to make an omelet but we don’t get to see anyone eat it, as events interrupt his cooking session… Work continues apace on the Columbo Cookbook...
- by Jenny
- Richard Basehart
I love the monthly #ColumboTV tweetalong, and it was a no brainer to decide what to cook for the December one. The episode was Dagger of the Mind, starring Honor Blackman and Richard Basehart. Columbo in London?? What larks! These were SO GOOD when I made...
- by Jenny
- Debbie Reynolds
I was so sad to hear the news about Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. Two great talents gone. So, in a tiny tribute, I have decided to make Debbie’s Chicken a la Honolulu the first recipe of the month...
- by Jenny
- Donald Pleasence
I can think of lots of names for Donald’s curry. Donald Pleasence’s Weird Curry. Donald Pleasence’s Bizarre Curry. Donald Pleasence’s No Chop Curry. Last but not least, Donald Pleasence’s Troublesome Curry. But he calls it No-Name Curry, so No-Name Curry it is. I don’t blame Donald...
- by Jenny
- Ruth Gordon
What a weird one 2016 was eh? Goodness me. So here’s hoping that 2017 will be a better year in many, many ways. Like many folks at this time of year, I’m plotting and planning about what next year will have in store. My main project...
- by Jenny
- Rhonda Fleming
I returned from my folks’ place laden down with a huge bagful of leftovers – oh goodie! My dad hates leftovers, but I love ’em! Usually I would make some Roland Young Rissoles with all the leftover turkey and ham and pigs in blankets,...
- by Jenny
- Tyne Daly
Greetings kittens! Did you have a lovely festive season? It’s still going on around here, as I’m off to Mr R’s this afternoon for our pretend Christmas day. We went to our respective parentals for the real one. I cooked the Christmas dinner this year and have...
- by Jenny
- Zsa Zsa Gabor
In haste… Holidays are coming… Life is getting a little crazy… In this busy pre-Christmas period I was determined to catch up with Battenburg Belle and suggested that I cook a tribute dish for Zsa Zsa, who went to the Hollywood in the sky this...
- by Jenny
- Natalie Wood
Classic Hollywood movies, I’ve missed you! Over the last couple of years, I’ve had the entire Columbo series on rotation in my kitchen. I plonked my old laptop on top of the kitchen record player, and had an episode of Columbo on DVD keeping me company...
- by Jenny
- Pearl Bailey
When I was single for 8 years, I spent a lot of time hanging out with other singletons. It made me feel less like I was the last single person on earth. One of the chums I spent lots of time with, was my friend Ben,...
- by Jenny
- Nancy Walker
When my friend Heather and I were both single, we got fed up with all our friends going on “romantic mini-breaks” with their other halves and decided we’d go off on a romantic mini-break of our own. This is now an annual tradition. We’ve...
- by Jenny
- William Shatner
One of the things I have learned in over 10 years of cooking like the stars, is this. Sirloin is the best. When I first started this project I had no idea about meat. I didn’t know the difference between rump, sirloin and silverside. Throw in...
- by Jenny
- Eva Marie Saint
Here is something festive for your holiday eat-athon. Mine has already started… I was taken for a very posh lunch today at Hakkasan which is a Michelin starred restaurant in London. I feel thoroughly spoiled, and thoroughly smashed on...
- by Jenny
- Pearl Bailey
I love it so much when blog readers get in touch and we start up a little correspondence. It’s one of the very best things about blogging. Ellie emailed me from Exeter to chat about Rita Hayworth and Diana Dors. She told...
- by Jenny
- Peter Falk
I have been celebrating the completion of the second draft of the Columbo cookbook with the Lieutenant’s favourite snack. Hard boiled eggs. Behold my new guilty pleasure. Yes, I realise it’s the laziest thing in the world to buy pre-boiled, hard boiled eggs. But look, they...
- by Jenny
- James Mason
After looking at the recipe for this, Mr Rathbone said: “I’ve got a bad feeling about James Mason’s Pudding.” I will admit, it’s very odd. No baking temperature was specified by Mr Mason, so I did a bit of guesswork and figured...
- by Jenny
- Xavier Cugat
2nd recipe for Mogen David week was Xavier’s Samba Sauce. Surprise, surprise, this was good too! I used button chestnut mushrooms and the sauce looked cute, and tasted lovely. I think the Worcestershire sauce was the key ingredient in smoothing out the Mogen David. I used...
- by Jenny
- Lon Chaney Jr
Vic is King of Lamb Chops. He loves them. He also likes Lon Chaney. So it was a no brainer when I decided it was Mogen David Week, to invite him to partake of some Lon Chaney Jr.’s Lamb Chops....
- by Jenny
- Hammerton Brewery
Just a quick post for those of you in London. I’ll be at my nephew’s brewery tomorrow afternoon selling home baked beer bread and small batch mustard. I am well chuffed with my new labels: Loaves on offer will...
- by Jenny
- Marlene Dietrich
At the weekend I was on writing retreat, and I had a lovely time. Two whole days of nothing but tip tapping away on my laptop in bed, with the heated blanket on. No housework, no admin, no de-cluttering, no shopping, nothing except writing and a little...
- by Jenny
- Theodore Bikel
Once a month I participate in a Columbo tweet-along, it is a blast. Folks all around the world press “play” at the same time, for the same episode, and the tweeting madness begins, all viewable via the #ColumboTV hashtaggery. This Saturday we all watched The Bye...
- by Jenny
- Celeste Holm
Oooh, I liked this! I think it had a lot to do with the convivial atmosphere that was in the air when I was making it. I was cooking at Battenburg Belle’s house. And she has a super dooper new Le Creuset pan which I am...
- by Jenny
- Vincent Price
Did you have a lovely Halloween? I sure did! Mr Rathbone came as Vincent Price (naturally), and we took a specially posed picture of him adding the finishing touches to this dish, just as Vincent did… I must admit, I thought...
- by Jenny
- Elizabeth Taylor
Regular readers may remember that I used to have a monthly column over at the wonderful Eat Drink Films website. Well, this lovely intenet magazine is now an intermittant arrival in my inbox, rather than a weekly one, and I’m happy to say...
- by Jenny
- Vincent Price
It’s HALLOWEEEEEEEN! We’ll it’s the day before Halloween but here in the UK it seems everyone is dressing up and going bonkers all weekend… I got a nice message from a reader of the blog, Mark Brisenden to say that he’s mentioning me on his radio...
- by Jenny
- Benny Hill
Just a very quick post for any North Londoners amongst you… It’s been a bit quiet over at Silver Screen Suppers Towers lately due to my new found obsession with making bread and mustard with my nephew’s beer. He has resurrected the dormant family business The Hammerton...
- by Jenny
- Dick Emery
Oh what a glorious thing it was to see! I made this for Vic (who had gifted me the most excellent Dick Emery Cookbook) and Corinna, one school night the other week. We drunk much Mateus Rose (Vic’s new drink of choice) and much beer,...
- by Jenny
- Natalie Wood
Ahh, the splendour of Natalie’s Huevos Rancheros, now probably my default Saturday breakfast. Even when engaged in baking 14 loaves of beer bread, a couple of Saturdays ago: I managed to rustle some up, to give me sustenance. I added some red peppers to Natalie’s recipe,...
- by Jenny
- Totie Fields
Courgette season is nearly over here in the UK – boo hoo! But there is just about a month left to enjoy seasonal zucchini / courgette and if it’s not courgette season where you are, cut out...
- by Jenny
- Brenda Vaccaro
I made these for Vic AGES ago, and wrote down a comment he made about them on an index card to include in my blog post report. Then I lost the index card. I am an inveterate note taker. I write things down on...
- by Jenny
- Billy Connolly
Billy’s a bit modern for the Silver Screen Suppers blog, and he’s mostly remembered as a comedian rather than an actor here in the UK. He is known as the BIG YIN… But he’s in Columbo, yes he is! Hence I tried out his trout recipe...
- by Jenny
- David Niven
I’ve been wanting to try this recipe ever since I had an email conversation with my beloved Michael MacMahon about Jansson’s Temptation. I think it was after I had cooked the best film star recipe ever, Jocko Marx’s Herring Potatoes. (the first time around…) This pot contained...
- by Jenny
- Anthony Perkins
A blog reader “Jenny E” left a comment this week asking for this recipe, so I thought I would make it recipe of the month. It is easy and it is delicious. It’s still pretty hot here in London so salads are...
- by Jenny
- Vincent Price
Ooh, I’ve got a little article over at the Vincent Price Legacy site about cooking with the BRAND NEW and JUST RELEASED Vincent Price Ale. Can you imagine how amazing it will be to sip a beer with Vincent on the label? I have some on...
