Have you ever had haggis on a pizza? I did on Burns Night and it was DELICIOUS! It was my chum Nathan who came up with this idea and he guided me through the process at a pizza extravaganza for 6 at Silver Screen Suppers Towers on Burns’s birthday. Whisky sauce made to this recipe,...
Here in the UK, when we think of meatloaf we think of this fella rather than the foodstuff. As Mr Rathbone put it last night “In the 60s and 70s, with our kind of background, there is no way you would ever encounter meatloaf”. I don’t think I ate any until 2006 when I made...
Mmm. Boeuf de Bourguignon… This was delicious but more mushy than Burt Lancaster’s version, I guess that’s what makes it a ragout? Patrick O’ Neal obviously knew what he was doing food-wise, not only was his recipe really good, he actually had his own eateries back in the day including this one… I’m going to...
Things are hotting up here in advance of Victoria Price’s visit to London to launch the 50th Anniversary edition of The Treasury of Great Recipes. I’m involved in planning an event that will combine a film screening with a feast of food based on recipes in the Treasury. It’s not until November but I’m already...
You know that feeling when you have the very first mouthful of something, and you can’t help but close your eyes at the sheer deliciousness of it? So it was with Ross Martin’s Beef in Anchovy Cream, made for our New Year’s Eve din dins. I’m going to make very grand claims for this recipe. ...
Are you revving up for Sunday? I’ve got tartan serviettes and the most awesome Scottish themed shot glasses at the ready for our wee drams. Photos will follow! For now though, here’s a link to my January column over at Eat Drink Films where you’ll find recipes for Stuart Erwin’s Scotch Soup and Andy Clyde’s...
Supreme? In what way is this supreme Anne? I’m disappointed in you! Mind you, I should have known just by reading the ingredients, but I liked the SOUND of it, so I decided to make it. A good recipe name can do a lot of convincing sometimes. Perhaps it was the Malibu part that tempted...
I love red cabbage and I made some of this to accompany the Corinne Griffith’s duck that we had at Mr R’s place over the festive season (recipe of the month January 2015 if you fancy trying it…) The day I decided to make it I saw a post over at My Custard Pie about...
My life has been changed forever by this book, I hope… A fair bit of toot and 30 books have left the building already, and there will be more sliding out the door over the next 6 months. For that’s how long the process is going to take methinks, but I am ON IT. As...
Mental! Ha ha, these were bonkers but utterly delicious. I loved the recipe. Basically, fill your grill pan (brolier pan) with baked beans then sprinkle some parsley and brown sugar on top. Then split some frankfurters, bung on some mustard and dill pickles slap them back together and wrap them in bacon. Balance them on...
For New Year’s Eve I made the MOST DELICIOUS FILM STAR DISH EVER, Ross Martin’s Beef in Anchovy Cream – oh my days, as the kids say. More on that soon… For pudding I made chocolate mousse to Ross’ recipe but only half quantities as it was just me and Mr R for dinner. This...
Mr Rathbone cooked a duck for our very own Christmas luncheon and I was chuffed when he said he wanted to use Corinne’s recipe. It was again utterly delicious, and I’ve decided to leave the recipe up as recipe of the month for January so do try it if you like ducky wucky. I had...
I think it was Heather that said of this project that it was a folly of my own making, and it is absolutely true. I am COMPELLED to make these crazy film star recipes, even when I sometimes look at them askance and think: that sounds weird. So it was with this one. Why would...
On the Sunday before Christmas I had a “local drinks for local people” party and served the traditional EG Christmas Cup. This time, I put all the spices in a little muslin bag and this was a very good idea. Here’s the recipe in case you are celebrating Christmas late this year, or fancy this...
I absolutely love it when readers of the blog get in touch with me. I’ve made chums that I will probably never meet in person this way, have swapped celebrity recipes with folks all around the world and have received some delightful photographs of people making or enjoying some of the recipes I’ve included here,...
Aw, the lovely folks over at EatDrinkFilms have made a beautiful job of illustrating my column this month which is all about Corinne’s Christmas Pudding recipe. I particularly like this picture they chose, and I’ll be putting this headdress on next year’s list for Santa Claus. Do, do, do go and have a look, and...
When my mum offered me a frozen duck to take home when I visited recently she didn’t have to ask twice. It was a wild duck, shot by my brother on one of his expeditions. Now, I am not The Pioneer Woman (although obviously, secretly, I often wish I was) and I have never shot...
All the lovely people who hosted Joan Crawford dinner parties in November made me so, so happy. Seeing their photos and write-ups just made my year. Love the lovely internet! Everyone who participated went into a prize draw and one lucky person won a copy of the Cooking With Joan Crawford cookbook. Are you on...
Ah, I am quite sad that this will be the last post about the lovely Joan party, it was so much FUN! But all good things must come to an end and I have to send special BRAVOS to Dottie and Stan (my mum and dad) and Greg of Greece for attempting the Crepes Suzette....
I love, love, love this photo of “Alfonse” at my folks place in Suffolk announcing the menu for their Joan Crawford Dinner Party. My mum’s verdict on the steak: “Delish” seemed to be the universal reaction from around the world. If you like blue cheese, mustard and butter you just can’t go wrong with this...
Next on the menu for the worldwide Joan-fest were Danti-Chips. One of the proofreaders for my JC cookbook said that he’d searched high and low on the internet for a reference to Danti-Chips, so that he could check the spelling. The only references brought him right back to Joan. We can only surmise from this...
Kicking off my reports on the wild parties that went on all around the world to launch my Cooking With Joan Crawford cookbook, here are some lovely pix featuring the Joan Crawford Cosmo – a cocktail invented by yours truly to get the parties going with a swing. Before we begin, I take full responsibility...
If you like melon and you like proscuitto you’ll like these! Joan also suggests slices of fresh figs or wedges of fresh pears for your present wrapping skills… As the mention of going to see The Specials seemed to spark a lot of interest on the Social Media Webs I’m going to post a picture...
This month’s column is up over at www.eatdrinkfilms.com and it looks lovely. My neighbour’s dog Ringo gets fame at last! Chewing on the Bette Davis Ham Bone! Both recipes are there and both are delicious. I am especially fond of Bette’s Boston Baked Beans as they were the first thing I made for this project...
Ooh, move over Gordon MacRae’s Trout Almondine, this was great! Very flavoursome and weirdly, the trout was pinker than last night and the trout were definitely twins (bought side by side) so it must have been to do with the liquid I popped in the pouch, or the cooking method… So the recipe was basically...
If I am ever asked if there is anything I don’t eat, I usually say, “I’m a bit weird about mushrooms, aubergines and shellfish but everything else is fine”. If I’d been around in the 1930s and 1940s I would have defintely added “and vegetables set in aspic”. This is just a thing they “did”...
I had fully intended making Jack Cassidy’s “Trout in a Pouch” tonight but completely forgot to buy Chablis. I didn’t think some old bit of undrunk, unidentified white wine hanging around the place would quite do, so that will be for tomorrow’s tea instead. I’m trying for three booze free nights this week but I’ve...
It’s the One Reeler Film Club at the Cinema Museum tonight so I have made a cake. It smells and looks delicious but I’ve never made it before so I’ll have to wait until tonight to find out how it tastes. If it is good, I will return and type up the recipe here. Mmmmm....
This sounds a bit like a Caker Cooking recipe. Ingredients – beef, salt, bourbon, TV tray. That’s it! After last night’s excitement I was shattered and didn’t have the energy to leave the house, so missed the lovely Sara & Russell’s party, and the legendary Nitty Gritty night in Camden. Instead, I sat on the...
Photos are coming in thick and fast from all around the world of Joan themed dinner parties and I am just so thrilled! I’ve had pix from Greece, Australia, the US of A, the UAE, Devon, Cornwall, Walthamstow, round the corner in Muswell Hill and beyond! A preview of things to come, this fellow, known...
Joan’s recipe for Coleslaw appeared in the genius book “My Way of Life” and is a little bit vague. This to my mind is always a sign that the person writing the recipe really knows what they are doing. I am someone who likes to have every little detail spelled out – including how much...
Cutting the crusts off a loaf of bread then covering it with half a pound of butter sounds like a crazy thing to do right? Yes, I thought so too. When I told Mr R how much butter was involved in making this he made an exclamation that’s not fit for a family blog but...
It’s out! My book is unleashed upon the world and naturally I am over-excited. You can check it out here, and if you click on the big picture when you get there, preview the first few pages. Aint it cute?! I am inordinately proud of it. I hope Joan would have been happy with it...
See my cookbooks! See my kitchen! See my kitchen record player with glasses of champagne on it! Watch out, this starts off without sound then “Let There Be Drums” kicks in loud.
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Every single man jack of you is invited to my Cooking With Joan Crawford book launch on Saturday. As I can’t fit you all into my flat I’ve organised a virtual reality dinner party that everyone can participate in, wherever you are in the world. I’ve been sending out invitations via my newsletter, Facebook page,...
These were unanimously enjoyed at my Halloween party (although approached somewhat gingerly by a couple of guests). Liver is a funny thing. Here in the UK a lot of us associate it with school dinners. A tough lump of stuff dipped in flour and incinerated by the dinner ladies… But chicken livers are dainty...
Just a quick link to a lovely piece on the website of my lovely local butchers – Morley Butchers in Crouch End. I only popped in for a ham bone yesterday and it set in motion a wonderful chain of events…. Vincent Price’s Goulish Goulash….. I am so chuffed! Even nicer was the fact that...
Simple and classic. Rye bread, smoked salmon, capers and lemon wedges. I can’t remember where I got these lovely round rye bread slices but I think it might have been the beloved Scandikitchen. Or it might have been Budgens in Crouch End as they often have quite fancy-pants cocktail-hour foodstuffs. So although definitely rye bread,...
This post is in response to a sort of “request” from my twitterchums @getTV (www.get.tv), who linked to one of my posts about Jean Arthur’s Chocolate Fudge yesterday for National Chocolate Day. Way back when I made it in 2009 I just couldn’t get it to set, but you might have better luck! It’s so...
I pressed the “publish” button for my book on Friday – eek! I’ve been celebrating all weekend. Here I am, cocktail in one hand, proof copy in the other. Don’t I look pleased with myself?! Well I AM pleased with myself. It was a lot of work but I am very proud of it. More...
Joan’s directions for this recipe were to put a tablespoon of mint ice in the bottom of a tall stemmed glass before adding strawberries and pineapple and dusting with powdered / icing sugar. I wasn’t sure what she meant by mint ice so I froze some mint tea in an ice cube tray and then...
This is probably the weirdest thing I have made in over 8 years of trying the favourite recipes of movie stars. Very weird indeed. Did I eat it? Well, I tried it. I ate about half of one of these delightfully shaped cheese balls… It reminded me of something my dad used to make...
This is the first part of a whistle stop tour of the dishes served at the fourth testing party for the Hollywood Cocktails and Canapés book Nathalie and I are planning to cobble together. Phew. Most of these dishes will probably make it into the book, although there was a couple of oddities for sure. ...
It must be wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy past my bedtime because Janice Long is on the radio. For young folks, or my chums who are not UK based, this is basically the equivalent of going to a really fabulous party, leaving, and then finding out that it’s light outside because it is MORNING. I am not going to...
I’ve just spent a glorious weekend at the seaside with 4 very old and very dear friends. This month marks a major anniversary of the year that we as fresh faced young idiots left our family homes and went to the esteemed University of Kent at Canterbury to muck around for 3 years. Don’t ask...
There was much sniggering in my open plan office when I made a phone call and said, “can I order three pigeons please?” James who sits behind me said, “can’t you just get them from outside the railway station?” Followed by, “will they each have one mangled foot?” The idea of eating pigeon is a...
I knew I had made one of these before, because of the post-it notes on my recipe book. But there was no blog entry for it. Mysterious… Mr Gable might have enjoyed this… But for me it was a terrible failure… Even Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Icing couldn’t save it… To add insult to injury,...
I had a day off work yesterday to finish the Cooking With Joan Crawford book. Is it finished? Sort of. MAN it’s been a lot of work. I have a renewed admiration for all cookbook writers and Frank DeCaro in particular. Lord only knows how long it took for him to write the Dead Celebrity...
In my fading memory, Lemon Meringue Pie was something my mum made for us all when we were kids (I have four siblings) and in my mind’s eye I see massive peaks of meringue all browned on the edges like this one by James Martin… BUT, my mum used to work all the hours God...
Does anyone remember Ask The Family with Robert Robertson? My favourite thing about that show was the section where they showed an extreme close up photograph of an everyday object like a can opener, and the family had to guess what it was. They could have used this picture of Joan’s French Banana Salad....
I got up early on Saturday to make a birthday cake for Mr R’s sis. I’d never made a cake in a gas oven before and I was a bit perturbed by the seemingly feeble temperature but it turned out fine in the end. I’m making another one of these tomorrow morning for the lovely...
I am always attracted to recipes with weird names, so this chili was a must: – El 2-Alarm de Fowler – en el estilo de Bellamy. I’m guessing that this basically means 2-Alarm chili in the style of Ralph Bellamy? The phrase 2-Alarm chili meant nothing to me until recently, and my friends across the...
This month’s column over at the fabulous Eat Drink Films is about Robert’s Chili. To say Mitchum was a chili head is an understatement. Read all about it and get his recipe here I’m not sure who I fancy more at the moment. Mitchum: or Gable? Dunno. But what I do know is that Mitchum’s...
These are weird but I like them. Alex James from Blur wasn’t keen though as you’ll see from my appearance on Market Kitchen a couple of years ago… Here’s one just about to go in the oven. I couldn’t find any small white onions so I used little round shallots. Here’s one posing with its...
Oooh, how I wish I could be in Bristol this weekend. They are having a Cary Grant Festival – it looks amazing. One of the organisers Charlotte Croft emailed to ask if I would send Cary’s Mushroom Canapés recipe which I duly did. So if you hot foot it to the Cary Grant Cocktail Party...
When I told Mr R that Crepes Suzette were on the menu his response was: “I’m not sure if I eat that” but when asked if he knew what it was, he admitted that he wasn’t sure. I said, “you make pancakes, then pour brandy over them, then set fire to them.” I am getting...
I always feel weird serving guests things from my freezer, it feels like cheating. But I’m so flat out with Joan Crawford at the moment, it’s a Godsend to find so many weird and wonderful things in the frozen archives when I am pressed for time. Thus a very odd Saturday dinner was had last...
Not sure why Deborah calls these scones, they would be cookies to Americans or to us Brits, biscuits. Deborah was English, so she should have known a scone when she saw one. What do Americans call scones, biscuits? All very confusing. Scones, cookies, biscuits, whatever you want to call them, these are really good....
These are stupendous. I defy anyone to make them and then resist eating at least 6 or 7 before guests arrive. This is a photo reference for the Joan Crawford Cookbook when it comes out in November… I’m working on it like a mad thing to get it ready on time. I’m trying to get...
It was the 10th anniversary of my book group last night. 10 years of about 6 or 7 books a year multiplied by about 7 or 8 bottles of wine consumed at each book group dinner = probably around 500 bottles of wine. Ha ha. Last night was no exception, except that as it was...
I was unusually organised for Sunday’s Silent Stars Cocktails and Canapes party. I had spent hours poring over recipes, coming up with proposed menus, sending recipes over to Nathalie for consideration, making endless lists and spending HOURS on my Ocado home delivery order. I booked it to deliver between 8 and 9 on Saturday morning,...
When there is a birthday at work I usually make a cake. As my life is pretty chaotic (which actually, I imagine anyone’s life is, in this day and age) I always rack my brains for something I can get up at 6 for, to make on the day, and not be too late for...
My September feature for Eat Drink Films is up, and it is all about guacamole this month. I have tested more movie star guacamole than you could shake a chili at over the last few weeks. I am carrying around a guacamole baby alongside the noodle baby at the moment. Fatty. Here’s a link to...
You know when you see recipes in a magazine and they specifically say that it’s something that is perfect for a weeknight dinner? Well this one definitely is. I got home at 7, rustled it up for me and my chum Heather, we ate it and washed up, and were both in our own homes,...
I’m writing this in the “Joan Zone” – Mr R’s name for the writing desk in my bedroom. I wanted to create a space that would help me to concentrate on all the many things I need to do before the book launch. I’ve moved away from “Columbo Corner” (the comfy sofa in the living...
I love this spinach salad. It’s easy peasy, tasty and fairly healthy… Reminds me of the Vincent Price Wilted Spinach Salad with Bacon Dressing I have made a few times. Both lovely, although Vincent’s version includes eggs… My recipe for Joan’s Spinach Salad is from the awesome Joan manifesto “My Way of Life”. This book...
Mmmmm – avocado, pineapple, cottage cheese… Delicious! I’m gathering together all photos of Joan Crawford dishes already made and posting them here in the next few weeks. The Joan Crawford Cookbook will be published on Saturday 8th November (see here for a sneaky peek). I will be hosting a virtual reality cookalong, sending out recipes...
Well that’s a mouthful and no mistake! I always like a recipe with a slightly weird title so I decided to try this one out for a forthcoming Eat Drink Films article about film star chili recipes. It was GOOD. Ralph recommends accompanying the chili with a cold apple and a beer. So voila! ...
This is the second in my flurry of Joan Crawford recipe pics. This salad isn’t as photogenic as the Nice Salad for a Squab Dinner but it was almost as tasty. I’m a bit obsessed with mandarin segments after making the previous salad. The tinned fruit section of the supermarket is one I have never...
This is the first in a flurry of posts about Joan Crawford recipes ahead of the book launch – eek! There are no food photos in the book, just pictures of the lovely Joan, so this is the place for them. First here’s an easy fresh salad – just lettuce and mandarin orange slices –...
I have a new friend in the kitchen. My chums Michelle and Tony are moving to Hastings soon and I won’t half miss them. Luckily I have inherited a whopping great cactus from them to look after. It now resides by the kitchen window and will no doubt feature in lots of forthcoming food pics,...
Oh my days (as the kids say)! The prototype for my Joan Crawford Cookbook arrived on Wednesday and I am so thrilled with it. Would you like a sneaky peak? Here’s the cover: and here is one of the recipe pages: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! I am beyond myself with excitement about it. What do you think? I’m...
