I have been celebrating the completion of the first draft of the Cooking with Columbo cookbook, with champagne
and a special Columbo sandwich. YES! I am soooo excited. Myrna Loy, Janet Leigh, Celeste Holm, Vincent Price, William Shatner and many other stars who have appeared on this blog, had guest star roles in Columbo. Their recipes will be in this book. BUT, there is still a long way to go. A loooooooong way. But rest assured Columbo fans, this book will appear at some point. And before then I’ll be looking for volunteers to test cook the recipes. Because I want these recipes to be watertight. Oh yes.
If anyone fancies testing this recipe for Columbo’s fave sandwich – ha ha – let me know. This sandwich appears in two episodes of Columbo, so we know the Lietenant likes it. At some point, I will watch the scenes where he constructs one of these VERY CAREFULLY, in slow motion, to figure out the exact ratio of raisins to peanut butter. But for now, here’s how I played it… It’s a 3 (or 4 if you want butter too) ingredient recipe. Bread. Peanut Butter. Raisins.
I ate this sandwich in a very special place indeed. At the Golf Course Allotments in Muswell Hill. Oh yes! Because I volunteered to man the membership table for the Muswell Hill and District Horticultural Society at the bi-annual opening of the “Rose Gardens” allotment.
Oh my goodness, what an AMAZING sight this is to see. I LOVE allotments, and I love this one in particular. Photos do not do it justice…
I absolutely loved being on the membership stand. George liked my dress and said I should just stand amongst the roses and be part of the display.
I met the fabulous Hazel of The Fruit Magpie and tried some of her amazing membrillo made from rhubarb from the allotments.
I got to see my horticultural society chum Jenny Kruss’s allotment – so fabulous and full of a mixture of vegetables, fruit and flowers, and to briefly meet her Kosovan neighbours with their perfectly cultivated plot of green and luscious vegetables. “Not a single weed” observed Jenny. Wish I’d taken a photo…
I am so pleased to be a part of the horticultural society, and if you are in or around Muswell Hill and want to join, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s only £6 per year, and I reckon I have got about £6,000 worth of enjoyment out of it! And I don’t even have a garden…
It’s the horticultural society Summer Show on Saturday so I’ve been making jam (2 recipes from the lovely Modern Preserver book by Kylee Newton which Ptolemy gave me for my birthday):
and there will be biceps (hmm, nice bit of predictive text for biccies!), a fruit tart and a cake to make too. Come on down if you are in the Muswell Hill area, it’s a lovely sight to behold and only 50p to get in!
I bet Columbo would have loved it…
THAT DRESS IS EVERYTHING.
HA ha! It’s one of my favourites. I have exactly the same dress in a different fabric too. They always make me happy when I wear them, and lots of people make nice comments too. I could see you in one of these, just search for Hawaiian Togs on eBay – that’s the brand. Mr R has a matching shirt! It’s a “honeymoon set” x
Congrats on the Columbo book progress! (Any excuse to celebrate!) And I hope you’ll be celebrating again in a week after the Horticultural Show judging! (Between you and Battenburg Belle, there’s always an abundance of blue ribbons!)
The photos of the Muswell Hill Allotments are picture perfect of what I imagine an idealized Britain to look like. Gorgeous! And the “Honeymoon Set” dress is fabulous…that totally cracks me up that it came with a matching men’s shirt!!!
I really have to get a photo of us together in the honeymoon set to post up. It makes me laugh so much when we are wearing it (not very often!) Report on the summer show coming soon…
That is a fabulous dress.
I think I might have all the weeds in my garden… deffo more than I like to contemplate.
When the Columbo book is done, it might be worth contacting Crime Scene magazine to see if they’ll review it. (Disclaimer: I review for them, which is why I thought of them.) Generally they stick to fiction, but it might be interesting/offbeat enough for them to include it.
Thanks! I hear ya about the weeds!
Ooh, thanks for the tip-off about Crime Scene magazine. That would be amazing…