Oh these are so cute. And easy to make. A winner. It has been so much fun and so lovely to have Caroline in my clutches for a couple of days. How I wished she lived just around the corner rather than a million miles away in Texas. I do miss her so. We had...
Happy St David’s Day. In tribute to my spiritual homeland of Wales I decided to cook something with a Welsh flavour. What better than Truck Drivers Welsh Rarebit? Caws Pobi – now there’s lovely! I have no idea why Dick’s recipe specifies that this is the kind of Welsh Rarebit a truck driver would have...
I have lovely new neighbours and they had a party on Saturday night. My philosophy is, rather than staying home and getting annoyed at the comings and goings, GO to the party, get really drunk, fall over and ladder your tights. Talk nonsense to everyone. Stagger home across the landing when you can drink no...
I had to buy a pudding basin to make Clara’s mountain of rice with chicken inside. Luckily for me the fancy cookshop in Muswell Hill is open on a Sunday and despite being on a budget I blew £7 on a nice red Mason & Cole one. Now I am already dreaming about making a...
“Bedroom problems? There is absolutely nothing in my bedroom that bothers me!” Me neither Doris, me neither! Although I WOULD like to have a white telephone beside the bed. Ignoring the fact that I don’t actually have a land line… I am indulging myself on Valentine’s night with the biggest rib eye steak I could...
After weeks of my planning and plotting and inventing clues, Heather & Nathan’s treasure hunt was BRILLIANT. When they arrived at the Palace of Solitude I greeted them at the door in a Sombrero with frozen margaritas in hand and so the fun began. I’ve written more fully about the food over at the Vincentennial...
I’ve been reading Pat Hitchcock’s biography of her mother and it is GREAT! There are some of Alma’s recipes at the back and I based a meal around these. But first we had some Joan Crawford canapes, her legendary salami sandwiches and some peanut butter and bacon toasts as above. Sarah said they reminded her...
I was thrilled to be invited to contribute a recipe to the Guild of Food Writers’ Treasury, and it’s gone live today on their website – GFW Recipe of the Month – I snuck in two as they are for little film star nibbles. Gloria Swanson’s Caviar Canapes – seen below – and the legendary...
The recipe of the month is up. I was thinking about what I would like to eat on Valentine’s Night. I will treat myself to a nice juicy steak prepared Joanie style with a good bottle of wine. I might watch Pillow Talk. I love the scene with Doris’s heated blanket lead trailing along behind...
Ah, the website has returned from its holiday at the seaside. I was getting worried there. 5 years of blogging, over 500 posts about hundreds of film star recipe experiments – I thought it had all gone for ever. I shall be lavishing care and attention upon the site now it is back. I made...
Happy New Year to all my readers. 2012 is going to be a humdinger I can just feel it! Last night I saw off the old year in style with Corinna and Kate. We had Vincent’s New Year Vol-au-Vent which was a splendid looking mega pastry full of turkey, bacon, peanuts, raisins and onions in...
I’ll be on the telebox on Christmas Day with the Shellac Sisters! I think it will just be a fleeting moment but the programme will be gorgeous anyhow. We did love Darcey…
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I should have gone to bed early tonight, instead I have made Roland Young’s Rissoles from my leftover turkey as is TRADITION. I laughed out loud when I searched my computer for Roland’s recipe and one of the things that popped up was a document called “Gaby-isms”. I lived with Gaby for two years and...
Christmas came early this year to The Palace of Solitude as yesterday I cooked Christmas dinner for three. Wow, what a lot of work! But it was worth it and I was very pleased with my Vincent Price “Roast Turkey Wayside Inn” which I’ll write about later on the Vincentennial Cookblog. For canapes I made...
I was so thrilled to be invited to give a presentation to the Guild of Food Writers about my Silver Screen Suppers project. I was very nervous to be speaking to such an esteemed crowd but they made me very welcome and I had lots of lovely compliments afterwards. We had wonderful retro-styled canapes made...
The Diana Dors double bill is out on DVD! The booklet contains an article by yours truly about Diana’s fashion style and there are lots of pix of her frocks to drool over. I’ve got a copy to give away to one lucky winner. Diana is GREAT in both of these films and I love...
My heart nearly burst with pride this morning when I got an email from my mum praising my pastry! I’d taken up some mini apple pies I made to a Vincent Price recipe last time I visited and she said, “We had your tartlets yesterday, they were really nice, were they a SSS recipe? Lovely...
I made a lovely pie to Jimmy’s recipe last night – but I forgot to put the cheese in! What an airhead. I think my brain is so full of plot twists, character traits and tricky dialogue at the moment as I grapple with NaNoWriMo – it’s affecting my cooking! I’ve written 19,441 words in...
I’ll have to ask Rosalind what guns Jimmy is packing, she’ll know for sure. The new recipe of the month is up and I’m going to try it on Friday. The lovely Corinna is cooking me dinner as I’m embroiled in NaNoWriMo. Corinna is the first of my volunteer Vincent Price recipe makers just to...
There has been much Cucumber Crocodile action this week over at the Vincentennial Cookblog and I’m very excited to tell y’all that I’ve got an article about Vincent Price on lovefilm.com today – Happy Halloween On the contributors page I am next to Jean Christophe Novelli!!! Would be great to have some followers as I...
Still time to enter my competition. Prize? A jar of Bette Davis Marmalade made by yours truly. All you have to do is answer this multiple choice question. You can email me or put your choice in a comment. Closing date Monday 31st October at midnight. Overseas readers welcome to enter – I’ll find a...
Aw, sad news this week about the passing away of lovely Betty, much beloved maker of Hot Pot at the Rovers Return. I didn’t have a hot pot recipe from her but I did have a lovely kedgeree one so I made it tonight in her honour. I would have a had a look to...
I am thrilled to announce that our Gloria Swanson Bar-Le-Duc won SECOND PRIZE in its class at the Women’s Institute Real Jam Festival this weekend. And as my mum put it, “those WI Judges are VERY picky!” Indeed they are, and as you know, we were very picky too – picking all the pips out...
I felt a bit like this about Stan’s fish really. I had purchased two nice shiny sea bass (from the fishmonger who didn’t know what a halibut was) and I stuffed them to Stan’s specifications and tied them up with string. I baked them in the oven and they looked nice, but I think I...
Recipe of the month is up. I’m already worrying about when I might find the time and the company to make this. Got a crazy month with two holiday weekends. This weekend is the WI JAM FESTIVAL in Oxfordshire. We have submitted one of the jars of Gloria Swanson’s Bar-Le-Duc (thousands of pips picked out...
Oh yum yum Joan Crawford did us proud today. We had JC Cheese Straws, JC Salami Sandwiches and JC Peanut Butter and Bacon Canapes. Main course was her legendary Meatloaf (delicious) with her own recipe for Green Peas (cooked with lettuce and spring onions) and some Vincent Price Potatoes Dauphinoise. Dessert was the very, very...
I can’t remember if I have ever bought a tin of salmon before. Tins of tuna yes, but buying salmon in a tin seems a bit strange, I don’t know why. But I fancied Jack’s salad which is in one of my favourite cook books “282 Ways of Making a Salad”. This was published in...
On the day after my Annual Spinster’s Day I thought it would be appropriate to have a Bachelor Omelet. It was delicious! Mind you, for a spinster, half the recipe would have done, the omelet was massive. This is the first of the recipes I’m testing for the app. It’s a winner, it is IN....
Behold the splendor of this Angel Cake made to Rita’s recipe by Evanio Alves in Rio de Janeiro! I’m so thrilled to have a reader in Ipanema, and he test cooks for me too! I’m so jealous of his cake, mine never looks like this…. I’m thinking I should buy a proper metal tube pan,...
September’s recipe is for Gloria’s gorgeous canapes. Really easy, really cute and will make you feel like the most generous hostess ever. CAVIAR. It’s not as crazy expensive as you might think. I got a cute little pot for £4 and I can get two dinner parties worth from that. Treat yourself and your guests...
Oh what a fabulous lunch! Jane, Trix, Sophie and Joshua came all dolled up in their Sunset Boulevard finery and I wore the leopard print housecoat I bought in Miami. On the menu: Gloria Swanson’s Champagne Cocktail Gloria Swanson’s Caviar Canapes William Holden’s Lime Gelatine with Cashew Nuts, Carrots and Stuffed Olives (no kidding) Cecil...
Well, it’s the recipe of the month and very lovely it is too. Really reminds me of nut roasts I used to make when I was a vegetarian – way, way, way back in my student days. I made a kind of Puttanesca sauce to go with it, as it definitely needs a sauce of...
Oh Myrna, that was definitely quick and it was also surprisingly good! I wanted to cook something fairly healthy and fairly speedy tonight as I had the dreaded rigmarole that is dying my hair planned for later. Gad, it is one of my least favourite things to do. Still, I am reading a book my...
Ah, Alfred Hitchcock, King of Suspense and King of Quiche. This was obviously a favourite as he supplied a quiche recipe to two different recipe books. I must compare both recipes. Had a wonderful day on Saturday with lots of my old chums from the Walthamstow days. We sat out Ginger’s garden and scoffed the...
Here is some inspiration if you are thinking of trying this month’s recipe of the month. The lovely Lauren Hairston has made Dorothy’s ice-cream and blogged about it here. My favourite thing about this whole project is receiving photos and emails about the adventures people have making Silver Screen Suppers dishes, and blog posts make...
Does anyone know what happened to June? Good grief it’s July already! The new recipe of the month is up, the newsletter has just gone out and the demonstration video is up on YouTube. There is (as is tradition) a guest star sampling the ice cream at the end. Someone about whom much has been...
Today I spent about 5 hours picking the seeds out of redcurrants with a goose quill. I kid you not. This is the traditional way of preparing the fruit for the most expensive jam in the world. No wonder! My Shellac Sister Veronica’s dad had a wonderful crop of redcurrants so we picked them fresh...
I have a Vincent Price Quiche Lorraine in the oven and as this involves a large amount of bacon which provides a large amount of bacon fat I thought I’d have Joan’s spinach salad alongside. It’s hot bacon fat mixed with vinegar that makes her salad wilted. Mmmmmm….. I know that I shouldn’t praise my...
I feel a bit like this today after a lovely evening with Mr HiFi last night. A bit languid and sleepy and sultry… It it hot, hot, hot in London and so, time for ice-cream. I made a batch of Dorothy’s on Sunday and it has been quite a hit. I had to resist eating...
For the Daring Cook’s Challenge this month I killed two birds with one potato. The task set was to make a “healthy potato salad” and I’m not sure how healthy it was but my guests sure liked it. I made it almost exactly to the recipe in “Cooking Price-Wise” except for the fact that...
I’m really trying to stick to my testing schedule so this morning I got up at 6 to make some of Katharine’s legendary Brownies. There is much discussion about this recipe on the internet but as far as I can ascertain it was first published in an article written by esteemed journalist Liz Smith. My...
I’ve been putting this one off for too long now and I pledge to make it today, after I have watched The African Queen. There has been serendipity this weekend. Basically I’ve been in a terrible funk this week, but have been gradually shaken out of it by the many hilarious emails I’ve received about...
When you are in the same room as Jay Rayner, Mary Berry, Nigella Lawson and Ottolenghi, you know something magical will happen. So it was tonight. I went to the Guild of Food Writers Awards and oh my goodness me, something amazing happened. My Diana Dors obsession has been growing lately. There has been the...
My blues have disappeared. I’ve spent my lunchhour laughing out loud at some of the comments I’ve received about my Vincent Price Crocodile demonstration film. The Silver Screen Supperers sure aint daunted by the Spanish cucumber e-coli scare! They are all getting excited about finding the perfectly curved cucumber, Spanish or not! I can’t wait...
Ooh, I do love an eponymous recipe! Especially when it comes out of the blue from a new reader of the blog who sent it over to me from France. This is one of the things I ADORE about working on this project, getting emails from people all over the world who like the idea...
Happy Birthday Palace of Solitude and Happy Birthday Vincent Price! This weekend marks the first anniversary of my move to Silver Screen Suppers Towers and the start of the Vincentennial. The 100th anniversary of Vincent Price’s birth was on Friday and last night I threw a big party to celebrate both of these things, plus...
There is a vegan version of the Brown Bette in the oven making my whole flat smell delicious. It is my offering for dinner tomorrow at Paulette’s with Angus & Clive (we must select Hollywood monikers for them) and I’m really looking forward to scoffing it. Had a wonderful afternoon yesterday meeting The Completion Club...
Miss Peekaboo let me down with her crazy recipe. Bleah. Hmm, it’s the only one we have for her in the collection and the question is, would this recipe be good enough for the book? Answer no. Veronica may be dropped. Eek! The call is out – does anyone have any other Veronica Lake recipes?...
I am recovering from a fantastic night at Fluffy Logic. What a crazy lovely fluffy bouncy night it was. Mr H couldn’t make it after all and I briefly wondered if I should go on my own as I wouldn’t really know anyone but it’s the kind of place where that really doesn’t matter. The...
Only the prospect of a man I really fancy coming round with a copy of the Diana Dors LP under his arm would ever make me cook an aubergine. But it’s happening tomorrow so I have done it. Mr H has found a copy of “Swingin Dors” and is personally delivering it. I am […]
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Sunday morning and I have Bing’s Turkey and Eggs in the oven for my breakfast. I’ve gone all fancy and am attempting to cook them in an edible container – ie a piece of bread that I’m hoping will go all toasty. We shall see… Today I am planning a big spring clean of Silver...
This month’s challenge over at the Daring Cooks was gumbo. I’ve only ever cooked gumbo once before – for Rosalind and Montgomery many moons ago when I was cat sitting at the Tessa Cohen mansion. The challenge for us UK based cooks was not really making the gumbo, but actually finding filé powder – an...
I can hardly believe it but today marks five years of blogging about the recipes of the stars. My goodness me how much has changed! When I began I was nursing a broken heart and living on a houseboat using a tabletop cooker that had to be turned on with a pair of pliers! I...
I have a Diana Dors curry in the slow cooker and will be channeling her bombshell energy on Wednesday as I’m off to an awards ceremony in a dress that I think is the kind of va-va-voom item that Diana herself would have worn. I will feel UPHOLSTERED and whether I win the award I...
Stop Press! Programme is available on the BBC Listen again service – 78 Revolutions – until the year 2099 according to their website so no rush! In a very rare non recipe related post, I just thought I would let you all know that I’m on the radio tomorrow. I’ll be presenting a show about...
My number one passion is Roller Derby. I absolutely love it. So Rosalind and Jimmy didn’t bat an eyelid when I suggested we watch “Kansas City Bomber” with Racquel Welch playing a red hot rollergirl while we waited for Boris’s pie to cook. It is probably now my favourite ever trashy movie. When Racquel made...
Aw, the Royal Wedding was LOVELY! Such a treat to have an extra day off work and I made the most of it by taking a Rhonda Fleming English Trifle out to Leigh-on-Sea. My mum always makes trifle for big family get-togethers so it felt like the right thing to do. Had a truly fabulous...
Rosalind always likes it when I say I am “planning a trifle” – I think it is a quote from “A Private Function”. Well I AM planning a trifle, for the Royal Wedding party I am going to tomorrow. I’m just about to nip to Morrison to see if they have any blue sprinkles so...
I did it! Finally. And they were GOOD. Being roughly speaking Church of England I have no idea if they tasted like Matzo Balls should (never seen one before, let alone cooked and eaten one) but I thought they were quite yummy. Charley agreed saying, “I’ll give ’em foive” like Janice Nichols. I was proud...
Stripes! Claudette’s cake is not for the faint hearted. It has taken me about 2 and a half hours to make but I have to say, it is BEAUTIFUL! It’s a perfect cake to make at Easter as it is all yellow and lemony. I have decorated it with mini chocolate eggs. There is a...
I am STARVING this morning. I was DJing last night at the Rushes Soho “Best of British Tea Dance” which was so brilliant. The food was all spread out like at a Women’s Institute cake sale and everything was home made and looked beautiful. Home made battenburg cake – yum yum. I did eat lots...
Ooh Mae, I think it was having some of your Salada for lunch that made me break all the rules and go out with a fella last night. What happened to my giving up men for Lent pledge?! Ha ha! Mae would have been proud of me. I sat in an enormous fibre glass throne...
Grr! As some of you know, cowboys are my weakness… I had to wear my cowgirl boots to work on Friday in an attempt to lasso some Texas Cowgirl Spirit. I had an “emotional gust” on Thursday, some might call it a TANTRUM. Where did all that fury come from? Haven’t seen that in a...
This month’s challenge over at the Daring Kitchen was edible containers. Oh those clever people really did make some amazing things. My favourite was onion soup served in a carved out onion – genius! I did something quite easy but absolutely brilliant (even if I do say so myself)! I made little stand up cups...
I feel a bit like this myself today Thelma. I am in bed in my bright red Elizabeth Tayloresque slip typing this on my brand new Macbook. My cup of coffee is just about on the other side of the room. No more coffee keyboard incidents for me. Not sure yet what data survived the...
Oh friends and fellow laptop owners. Do not do what I did and tip a whole cup of coffee into your keyboard. Woe is me. It was like slow motion… I saw it topple, I lunged towards it like Gordon Banks, I was too late. Result? “Everything below the waist is KAPUT!” So please bear...
Every month I offer a prize to my newsletter subscribers and test cooks. Recently the prize was to come to lunch at Silver Screen Towers and the lucky winner Lucy (aka Jennifer Jones) came to my place yesterday along with Lisa (aka Dorothy Lamour) and Lawrence (aka Edmund Gwen). Can you imagine what fun it...
Oh yum, yum. Boris’s pie was GOOD. Charley C. came over for dinner and we ate half of it between us. It was quite a faff to make but I think it was worth it. Best part of the evening was watching Charley try to hula hoop. He just flung it around his body and...
The new recipe of the month is up and it’s a house favourite. Vatrouskis. I realise to my horror that I’ve been calling these VaStrouskis for about a year and the blog is littered with spelling mistakes to correct (ditto my crazy spelling of Anna May Wong which I still have to fix). I feel...
I got Tiger Blood man! Today I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. Then I thought, “What would Joan Crawford do?” and decided she’d cook herself a steak, have a glass of wine and get over it, which is exactly what I have done. To hell with it, Joan would put it all down...
It’s been an EPIC week. I’ve had two more responses from film star copyright holders in the affirmative and have been nominated for a blog award. How FABULOUS – click on the VOTE button if you’d like to – Little Blog Awards (Silver Screen Suppers should be near the top on the right hand side)...
I thought my heart would burst this week when I got a personal email from Rhonda Fleming! I wrote to ask if she would be happy for me to include her recipe for Hollywood Ham Loaf in the book. She not only sent me her current favourite recipe (for Cowboy Caviar) but also this photo...
