I am fascinated by condensed soup. It is one of those things that is a run of the mill everyday staple in American supermarkets, but it’s not that easy to find here in the UK. There are currently 54 varieties of Campbell’s Condensed Soup featured on their website but here in London, I can get...
A pot roast is not an easy thing to eat on a tube platform so we changed the formula a bit for the Groucho Marx stop on The Great Bear Project. On the day before our Groucho lunch, I jumped off the bus in Tufnell Park and purchased a big lump of brisket from that...
I have gone on, and on, and on in the past about how much I love Caesar Salad so this post will be short and sweet. This is the third movie star Caesar I have tried. See here for Grace Kelly’s recipe and here for Ruth Roman’s. My beloved Ruth playing Loretta was seen recently...
Yay! It’s that time of year again! The time when Yinzerella over at the marvellous Dinner is Served 1972 gathers together lots of mad pie recipes and dishes them out. I was THRILLED to get a recipe for Spaghetti Pie – what on EARTH?! Luckily for me, I can link this recipe to a movie...
When I heard that Realweegiemidgetreviews was running a #JeffGoldbumBlogathon I wanted IN. But a quick check on the recipe spreadsheet revealed nothing between Jeff Chandler and Jennifer Clulow, what could I do? My old friend Google came to the rescue with a brilliant snippet from a Reddit thread. I am too old to inhabit the...
This is a super easy and super tasty tart, with a no-fuss, no-roll just-squidge-it-in cheesy pastry. YUM. And it’s not just me that thinks it is good, the judge of the Muswell Hill and District Horticultural Society Summer Show cookery classes gave it a first! Mr Rathbone loved this and even though I am not...
Yeehaw and giddy-up! This year’s cowboy day ho-down chez Battenburgbelle was just fabulous! She decided to combine our book group meet up with a Tex-Mex feast and it was so much fun. All the ladies got into the spirit with hats… Thus confirming my theory that everyone looks good in a cowboy hat! First time...
This photo says it all really. Can there be anything more summery and delicious than strawberries and cream? With a bit of cake thrown in? I made these a donkeys age ago but summer socialising has thrown my schedule all out of whack so they are only now floating to the top of the to-write-list....
I invited the lovely Battenburg Belle round for dinner on a school night this week so I needed something fairly speedy to make. I fancied chicken so I had a quick scan through the recipes in the Murder, She Wrote Cookalong list to see what was on offer chook-wise. This was the first one I...
When the boss’s birthday is in the same week as Yul Brynner’s it’s a no brainer where to look for a cake recipe… This was a GREAT CAKE as it is very easy to make and I loved the suggestion of bunging fresh cream and fruit on the top, thus saving the effort of making...
Tessie loves language. By which I mean she likes to play around with it. Her recipe titles often include shortened words. For example, in the Butt-Chive Cheese Shrimp recipe, Butt is short for butter. Gar-mar Mayonnaise is mayonnaise pimped up with marjoram and garlic powder. Her Horse Rad-Mayon Dressing is mayonnaise spiked with horseradish. Cu...
It seems strange to be writing about something that happened on a cold January day when we are slap bang in the middle of a heatwave here in London. But I’m catching up on writing about The Great Bear Project. Finchley Central is the last of the Northern Line underground stops that are OVERGROUND on...
I’ve made this cake a few times for the Muswell Hill and District Horticultural Society Show cookery contest…. When I made this for the Spring Show this year, Mr Rathbone told me that this was his favourite of ALL the cakes I have made. Crikey! I thought I would have shared this recipe before now,...
When I told my desk-mate Lucy that I’d made a Joan Fontaine dish and watched Rebecca, she immediately did a “Joan Fontaine in Rebecca” face that made me laugh like a drain. I then did a “Joan Fontaine in Rebecca” face that made HER laugh like a drain. Ah, the fun we have at work!...
Traditionally, when it is my turn to host the book group, I make a TEN BOY CURRY and have all the little bowls of bananas, sultanas, coconut, mango chutney etc. etc. etc. laid out on my sideboard. Lindsey christened this the BUFFETERIA which I love. This time, I did what became known as a MEXICAN...
What makes these DIET Scotch Eggs is anyone’s guess but I can tell you this, they were DELICIOUS! Why I have never made a scotch egg before I do not know. They would definitely be in my list of top 5 foodstuffs. I love them. This recipe is from the fabulous Tessie O’Shea’s Slimming Cookbook...
I’m a member of the Bread Angels, a brigade of micro-bakers who love making bread and sharing it with friends, families, neighbours and even to complete strangers. Our motto is BAKE WELL. DO GOOD. Being part of this group has brought me so much happiness. We’ve been on baking days together at Panary with the...
Ah, Mr. Hitchock. There is much debate about this quiche recipe. Hitch famously disliked eggs, but what is a quiche lorraine without eggs? Um, ham and some milk in a pastry case? Methinks perhaps it was raw eggs that gave him the heeby-jeebies but he liked them when cooked up like this. I expect it...
I made a lovely version of this recently with cherries instead of blueberries. It was DELICIOUS. I couldn’t find my spirulina so it wasn’t the usual green sludgy colour that puts my chum Greg of Recipes for Rebels off, but to me, the green is what makes a Peter Fonda Blender Breakfast a Peter Fonda...
On impulse I bought some posh wild salmon from Planet Organic this week. I looked at the price and thought, “Imagine if I was paying for this in a restaurant, it would be TWICE as much” and took the plunge. It was utterly lovely! Much firmer and tastier than many a salmon steak I have...
When I was young, I absolutely LOVED The Waltons, and I cannot think of Michael Learned without thinking of her as the mother of the clan. But Michael is also in Murder, She Wrote so she’s on my test cooking schedule for the next book… Recently I invited Battenburgbelle over for a Monday evening dinner...
Liberace was born on this day one hundred years ago. Happy birthday Lee! Recently I got an email from my chum, food writer Orlando Murrin, asking me if I’d ever seen The Loved One which features Liberace playing an undertaker. Well yes, I had, but not for a donkey’s age so I skipped over to...
Yesterday was the blog’s birthday. I’ve been scribbling away here for THIRTEEN YEARS – oh my goodness. When I started this thing I was utterly miserable after a relationship break-up and now I am the happiest I have ever been. I know for sure though, that making movie star fodder and blogging about it has...
So sad to hear the news about Doris yesterday. I love her so much! After living under a misapprehension that she was a twee, girl next door type for many years I actually WATCHED one of her films (Pillow Talk) and immediately became a big fan. She is utterly fabulous and so funny. The news...
My goodness, this is a HUMDINGER of a recipe. I love cheesecake and I thought I had never made one before, but then I remembered Marion Davies’ Meadow Cheesecake. Whereas Marion’s was GOOD, Angela’s recipe is utterly BRILLIANT. Hence, it is this month’s Recipe of the Month. Make it! Of course, I am obsessed with...
It’s not a very appetising recipe title is it? At the beginning of this year, I pledged to make one thing a month from the Tessie O’Shea Slimming Cookbook and I am a bit behind, so expect TWO slightly weird dishes from Tessie’s 1970s kitchen this month. Chapter 3 of Tessie’s book is entitled Dressings...
This morning in bed the conversation went like this: Mr Rathbone: What are you blogging about? Me: Dinah Shore’s Sunday Baked Eggs. Mr Rathbone: Whose eggs? Me: Dinah Shore’s Eggs. Mr Rathbone: Dinosaurs Eggs? I think they found some of those in the Antarctic. This recipe is from an excellent cookbook I’ve had for ages,...
Oh, how I wish I were in San Francisco right now! They are having a super dooper silent film festival at the wonderful Castro Theatre with a truly wonderful line up of movies. The lovely Gary Mayer of Eat Drink Films got in touch recently to ask if I might have some appropriate movie star...
Disclaimer: I am British. I have never made a Tuna Casserole, I have never eaten a Tuna Casserole, I have never even SEEN a Tuna Casserole. Therefore, I have no idea what one might look like, taste like or BE like. Tuna Casseroles, before this week, were a mystery to me. Is Alice Cooper’s Tuna...
When Delicious Magazine pops through my letterbox each month I almost tear it apart looking for the Kay & Fred’s Movie Night column. First excitement is always, “What is the movie gonna be?” closely followed by “What’s the dish gonna be?” This month my mouth was watering at the prospect of Kashmiri lamb meatballs with...
Since making Grace Kelly’s Caesar Salad I’ve been inclined to have a couple of heads of romaine lettuce in the crisper rather than little gems. That is the first time I’ve ever used the word CRISPER, but you know what I mean, that drawer that is at the bottom of the fridge that’s supposed to...
Cakey, cakey, bread, bread! When I first looked at this recipe, I thought it was going to turn out like soda bread. It kind of did, but it was much more like a cake than bread. I liked it, but good toast it did not make. I’m beginning to realise that when American recipes say...
The Six Million Dollar Man was one of the programmes I remember begging my parents to let me watch when I was a kid. Starsky & Hutch was one of those too. Richard Anderson played Oscar Goldman in The Six Million Dollar Man, and those of a certain age will remember this, “We can rebuild...
OK, so Crossroads is more cathode ray tube than the silver screen but my justification for this post is the amazing Noele Gordon. She was the star of the iconic TV soap that I remember well from my youth, Crossroads. This ran for over 20 years on British TV from 1964-1988. It was on four...
I had intended on making this for the James Dean birthday dinner I made with my chum Greg of Recipes For Rebels. Time got the better of me though, so I made it instead when the lovely Battenburgbelle came over for tea a couple of weeks ago. BB is without a doubt, the best cook...
I am back from my holiday where I have to admit, I ate like a piglet. There was so much amazing food including slip sole at my favourite restaurant in the whole wide world – The Sportsman in Seasalter. Also, a new discovery and possibly already now my SECOND favourite restaurant in the whole wide...
I definitely have more movie star recipes for chilli than any other dish. I’ve made Robert Mitchum’s, Johnny Cash’s, Monte Hale’s, Trish Van Devere’s, Anne Sheridan’s, Barton MacLane’s, Richard Arlen’s, Tex Ritter’s, Warner Baxter’s and of course, my fave of them all, James Garner’s. There are many more on the spreadsheet to try too, there...
I am on Doctor’s Orders to eat liver once a week but I rarely do, so when I spotted this, I was on it like a bonnet. I totally love me a jacket potato and one with livers? Once again I couldn’t find my metal skewers so I went for the disposable chopsticks option… I...
Bette Davis’ Baked Beans were the first thing I ever made for the Silver Screen Suppers project way back in May 2006. I was living on a houseboat with a tabletop oven that had to be turned on with a pair of pliers feeling very sorry for myself. Boat kitchen – cooker back left near...
Oh my goodness, this is the most delicious movie star favourite dish I have made in a LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG time. Bravo Bette! This recipe is a winner. Despite having an ingredient that is not available here in the UK. When any of my chums go to the States, they usually ask me if there is any...
One of the bad habits I have as a person prone to clutter is over-buying of ingredients. I’m not as bad as the people in Marie Kondo’s book who buy thousands of toilet rolls or stockpile hundreds of toothbrushes, but I am certainly guilty of it to a lesser degree when it comes to foodstuffs....
Summer is a’coming in and mornings in my flat no longer involve breaking through icicles to get into the kitchen. Therefore the Easy Rider Smoothie is BACK! I really love this smoothie, I love the taste of the spirulina and it really feels like a HEALTH TONIC. I feel many more of these happening over the...
I am a fan of the baked potato. I love them. Especially the Pat Phoenix way of pimping them up with sardines! But of course, sour cream and chives is a classic pairing, so testing this recipe for the Murder, She Cooked book was a breeze. It’s a very simple recipe, but rather than just...
The food I crave more than any other is TUNA so I am always looking for interesting things to do with it. This tower of loveliness absolutely fits the bill! I was thrilled to discover a whole heap of celebrity tuna recipes on the internet recently. Star-Kist Tuna had a great campaign involving movies stars...
When I think of Jean Harlow, I always think of her like this… so when I saw that my lovely internet chum Samantha of Musings of a Classic Film Addict was co-hosting a Jean Harlow Blogathon I thought to myself, I’m going to spend a whole day in bed wearing a sequined negligee, eating chocolates...
It’s Real Bread Week here in the UK and on Saturday I rustled up a loaf to Jan’s recipe. This recipe marks the start of me testing for the Murder, She Cooked book and is up for grabs over at the Murder, She Wrote Cookalong page. I’ve been thrilled about how many people have signed...
This month’s film suggestion in the Kay & Fred’s Movie Night column in Delicious magazine is a MODERN film. I rarely watch anything post-1968 – could I do it? Committing to following Kay and Fred’s suggestions is a bit like being in a book club though, I’ll be cooking and watching things I wouldn’t necessarily...
Yep, you read that right! Butt-chive! It’s time for February’s Tessie O’Shea recipe. It’s from chapter 2 of her brilliant Slimming Cookbook in the Hors D’Oeuvre and Snacks section Naturally I chose it because of the recipe title. Tessie likes to shorten words so butt is short for butter, just in case you were tittering...
It’s a whole year since I published the Cooking With Columbo cookbook, I can hardly believe it. Ages ago I wrote a blog post all about the exciting day I had when the book came out, but I haven’t published it until now. I think this will be a fun read for anyone who is...
In her brilliant book Postitive Moves Angela Lansbury gives women of a certain age lots of excellent advice on living a healthy, vibrant life. As I AM a woman of a certain age, I decided to follow her life plan for a day. I lived my life like Angela Lansbury and loved every minute. I...
It’s been a while since there was a FAIL in the Silver Screen Suppers kitchen, but these cookies were most definitely a fail. I’d never made them before and I was making them in advance of my “Living My Life Like Angela Lansbury Day” (blog post coming very soon about that…) I do not blame...
Sometimes I cook a movie star recipe and for some unknown reason, I don’t blog about it immediately after I cook it. Then of course, tempus fugit and I forget the dish even existed. Such is the case with these burgers. This recipe was included in my Cooking With Columbo cookbook in the “extra recipes”...
I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for ages as I am pretty obsessed with making bread. Angela is the same, in her brilliant book Positive Moves there’s a great photo of her making bread with the caption, “I don’t ever want to be so busy that I can’t find the time to make a...
I love Greg Swenson, author of the fabulous Recipes For Rebels: In The Kitchen With James Dean cookbook. We have never met in person (I am in England, Greg is in Greece) but we are KINDRED SPIRITS and occasionally have a day where we cook the same movie star recipes and make each other laugh...
Neighbours, everybody needs good neighbours…. Yes! I am so lucky that I have good neighbours. Here’s a little tale about a lovely encounter I had with a neighbour on the bus home on a Friday evening recently. I do not know her name, but she is fab. Planning to go to my “bring a bottle...
On a chilly October Sunday morning I sprung out of bed, super excited about the next stop on The Great Bear Project. I love having these firmly in the diary, getting all the wherewithal together, cooking whatever the relevant dish is in the morning then heading out into the world via the Northern Line to...
I was really sad to hear that Carol Channing had gone to the Hollywood in the sky recently. I was lucky enough to meet her once and she was a STITCH. In this photo, she has just told me and my chum Caroline a very rude joke about Tallulah Bankhead. Yes, we are holding hands...
I was beside myself with excitement when I saw that my fave food mag Delicious Magazine has a new column called Kay & Fred’s Movie Night. Kay Plunkett-Hogge and her partner Fred will be selecting a movie and suggesting a meal to have alongside it each month. Whoopee! The first recipe was utterly fabulous –...
On Sunday I am planning to live a whole day like Angela Lansbury. I am going to follow her guide to healthy eating… and I am going to do the Positive Moves workout… Then in the evening I am going to watch Who Threw the Barbitals in Mrs. Fletcher’s Chowder? because I’ll be writing about...
If you are squeamish, you might not want to read this post. I know lots of people don’t like offal, they think it’s awful. That was my attempt at a joke by the way, but for health reasons, I eat it. It’s not just for health reasons that I eat liver actually, I do really...
I am a person who likes to follow a recipe. I am not a freestyler. But I make an exception for David Niven. I love his fish cakes recipe, because he basically issues a carte blanche for making them however the hell you like. So here’s his recipe, just as he wrote it… Take any...
Some foodie chums over on Twitter issued a cooking challenge at the end of last year. Select a mad cookbook and make stuff from it throughout 2019. My choice is the Tessie O’Shea’s Slimming Cookbook. There are several reasons behind my selection… 1 – I need to slim down a bit after the excesses of...
My motto for 2019 is USE IT UP AND WEAR IT OUT. I am going to try and have a “make do and mend” attitude about everything in my flat. Stop buying more stuff and start appreciating the stuff I already have. I started with chorizo. I have had a string of chorizo sausages in...
There’s a chance to win a copy of the Cooking With Columbo cookbook on the airwaves at the moment – closing date for entries is 20th January 2019. If you skip over to this link you’ll be able to listen to the most excellent Just One More Thing podcast. The Usual. Somebody Killed Somebody. I...
Do you still have leftover turkey and ham and stuffing and pigs in blankets knocking around in your fridge or freezer? This is my FAVOURITE way of using up Xmas bits and bobs. You can, of course, make this from scratch, I’m sure that would be delicious too. But what I love about this recipe...
I had a lovely, lovely Christmas with my folks. Hope yours was good too dear reader. Here’s a glimpse of the kind of delicious fare that was on offer chez Ma and Pa Hammerton in Suffolk… This was the Boxing Day feast. There was of course, my mum’s legendary trifle! Corinne Griffith’s recipe for “Edna’s...
In the heatwave we had here this summer in the UK, I was reading Nigel Slater’s Eating for England on my commute to and from work and it gave me a powerful urge to eat some rice pudding. I’m sure it was partly to do with the sudden changes of season we get here in...
I went back to basics recently as I know there is an awful lot of eating and drinking ahead over the next couple of weeks. I had an Elizabeth Taylor breakfast of one piece of unadorned toast, a cup of coffee and an apple. It was so simple and actually pretty delicious. If you have...
It was the idea of TOAST POINTS that made me want to try this recipe. I had never heard of such a thing before and now I am obsessed with the idea of serving TOAST POINTS with everything. Not least because in a recently watched Murder, She Wrote, a waiter noted that a particular dish...
Oooh, I do NOT like making cakes. I find it toooooo stressful! BUT, there is always an upside. People love homemade cake, even if you think it is a disaster. Not actually my cake. Someone else’s cake wreck. So it was with Jennifer’s cake. We were having a bake sale at work in aid of...
In my massive decluttering purge I came across this recently… It was in a box of paperwork from a house I lived in about 15 years ago and I have no recollection of buying it, but it has brought me a lot of fun just recently. I put a photo of it on Instagram and...
“Traditionally we have Swedish food on Christmas Eve and toast each other with mugs of glögg, After doing the whole Swedish bit, we celebrate Christmas Day with a typical English dinner of turkey and plum pudding. We wind up tons heavier, not speaking to anyone.” I know the feeling David! It’s coming soon, the Christmas...
