Fred Karno’s Klassic Martini Kocktail and my terrible acting career in smutty sex comedies
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...
Jean Seberg’s Christmas Eggnog
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, it is like that Advocaat...
Vincent Price’s Cannelloni Alla Passetto (Chicken Cannelloni with Cream Sauce)
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 3-month...
Vincent Price’s Friday Chicken
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 lifting the...
Kim Hunter’s Nutty Sole and Brown Rice
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 week. My only...
George Segal’s Chicken Paprika
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...
Rhonda Fleming’s Cowboy Caviar – Recipe of the Month November 2020
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...
Ron Masak’s Flemish Pork With Beer
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...
Audrey Hepburn’s Gstaad’s Pesto
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 buy fresh...
Vincent Price’s Ghoulish Goulash for Halloween
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 make a...
James Garner’s Oklahoma Chilli vs Chasen’s Chilli
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 might make...
Vincent Price’s Roast Turkey Wayside Inn
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...
Helen Hayes’ Crockery Pot Leg of Lamb
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 recipe was...
Pearl Bailey’s Macaroni And Cheese If I Say So Myself
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 transcribe her...
Vincent Price Bloody Marys
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 can see...
Jessica Fletcher Cheesecake Day!
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...
Little House on the Prairie Tuna-Noodle Casserole – Recipe of the Month October 2020
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 fun project that involves...
Seven Errol Flynn Recipes!
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...
Natalie Wood’s Huevos Rancheros
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...
Laurel & Hardy Recipes x 9
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. I've tried...
Vincent Price’s Iced Tea
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 walking...
Diana Rigg’s Goulash
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 Diana...
Recipe of the Month – September – Sophia Loren’s Sardines a Beccafico
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...
Karen Valentine’s Marinated Chicken
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 before,...
Murder, She Wrote Hen Night
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...
7th Annual Pieathalon – Party Pink Pie
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...
August Recipe of the Month – Olivia De Havilland’s Salad Nicoise
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 alongside? Then it dawned...
Dinner and a Movie – Rosemary’s Baby
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...
Pat Phoenix’s Jacket Potato
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 potato. Pure...
Tessie O’Shea’s Brandy Ice Cream Coffee
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 want to buy a huge vat of ice...
Angela Lansbury’s Mustard Vinaigrette
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 vinaigrette....
William Gallo’s Vodka Pasta
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 night I...
Richard Dix’s Sardine and Egg Salad
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 at least....
Billie Burke’s Asparagus Salad
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 buy...
QUARANTINI TIME #14 – Champagne Cocktail 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...
Top 100 Greatest Columbo Scenes of the 1970s
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 he'll be...
Recipe of the Month – Angela Lansbury’s Angel Hair Pasta With Fresh Summer Tomatoes
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...
Tessie O’Shea’s Diet Scotch Eggs
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 lots of picnic...
QUARANTINI TIME #13 – The Rock Hudson and Liz Taylor Giant Martini
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 March 2020 -...
QUARANTINI TIME #12 – Marlon Brando’s Godfather @ Silver Screen Suppers Towers
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 'STELLA"...
Diana Dors’ Flageolet Beans With Tuna
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 plotting...
Burt Lancaster’s Beef Curry – Tufnell Park – The Great Bear – Stop #10
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...
QUARANTINI TIME #11 – The Ralph Bellamy Scotch Sour
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 idea!...
A MOVIE STAR LUNCHEON – 282 Ways of Making a Salad
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...
Mike Connors’ Lamb Chop Hot Pot
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 of...
QUARANTINI TIME #10 – The Gertrude Niesen BUZZ-BOMB
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...
Tessie O’Shea’s Brussels Sprouts (Creamed Cheese Type)
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 recipe...
QUARANTINI TIME #9 – Don Ameche’s Bourbon
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. https://youtu.be/1LQMf_bxtr0 Mind you,...
Grace Kelly’s Pissaladière
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 been hanging...
Malik Yoba’s Rhythm and Beans and Squash Stew
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, but I...
