I made a second batch of the Vatrouskis this morning and took them into work. A big hit. I may have to make another lot tomorrow as they went on the special “treats” spot around 9.40 and were gone by 9.45! Might try a variation with filo pastry sometime. Paulette’s suggestion that adding a few...
Welcome to Joan Crawford month. I’ve set myself the probably impossible task of testing all of her recipes except the Meat Loaf this month. Still saving up for the legendary Meat Loaf – ingredients cost about £60! Am planning to make it on my birthday in December. I may run a competition for the chance...
I’ve had an excellent response to this month’s newsletter from the Artist Formerly Known as Gene. If any lady out there is thinking of having a Joan Crawford style dinner party, he has offered his services as the “bearded artist” she suggests inviting as the type of guest to make a jolly evening! C. Aubrey...
I’m in a drunken stupour at 8pm listening to Blur’s “Girls and Boys” on the radio and feeling a special relationship to the bassline just because I sat next to Alex James on Market Kitchen and absorbed some of his aura. Oh how lovely. Maybe this is what the fans of the stars of the...
Charley was like a monkey at the zoo when he saw Joan’s Pork Chops come out of the oven! I must admit they did look delicious all smothered with red onions and doused in 1/4 pound of butter. They were really very good, top marks Joan. Glad they were a success as they are the...
I am not normally a jealous person but when a new test cook in the USA sent me a photo of the stove on which she cooks I went BRIGHT GREEN with envy. A 1936 “Magic Chef” cooker that is a joy to behold. Check out the picture on the Flickr page – Magic Chef....
Anyone who has read The Celestine Prophecy knows that coincidences can be meaningful. Well, I’ve had a whole heap of them this evening. Yesterday I felt that, almost a year after splitting with Sidney. I was ready to get back in the fray. So I took the plunge and signed up to a dating site....
Well it took me almost all day to make Jimmy’s pie but it was worth it. Utterly delicious. I managed to break one of my favourite plates, cover the kitchen in home made chicken stock and smash a pyrex dish (which I thought was impossible) in the process but the result was pretty spectacular. My...
I am returned from the wilds of Essex where my niece Lucy got hitched to the lovely Helen. There was no “best man” for me to get myself into trouble with which was just as well. I seem to remember giving a rendition of “I Love Rock and Roll” on the karaoke at some point...
Did anyone get today’s Independent or Daily Telegraph? FABULOUS picture of the Shellac Sisters at the Vintage at Goodwood Festival – but would you believe it, I was in the LOO so am not in the picture! I don’t mind at all, I always look too goofy in photos and it was just gorgeous to...
Nice hairdo Margaret. Hair very much on my mind at the moment as I prepare for Vintage at Goodwood. Shall I go and have a radical haircut so that I can do some proper Victory Rolls? As I got a surprise bonus at work today perhaps I should? EVERYONE is going to be super glamorous...
My heart nearly burst with pride when I saw the photos of three test cooks I have never met cooking up a storm one Sunday for the Silver Screen Suppers project. Nathalie, Zsa Zsa and Esther obviously had a whole heap of fun making Rudoph’s Spaghetti and Ginger’s Parfait. I’ve put all the pics up...
It’s a shame that the top of Irene’s head has been chopped off by my computer, her hairdo is ace. If I had the guts, I’d have mine cut like this so I could rock Irene’s look at the Vintage at Goodwood Festival next weekend. I’ve just been out and about in Camden and spotted...
Had another bash at Anna’s duck dish last night as Daryl (we must get him a film star name) came round for dinner. The duck was definitely not as nice as when I made it for Edmund and I tried to work out why. Was it because I’d used a different type of mushroom? Not...
Oh what a beauty! Louise is definitely in my top three most beautiful screen icons. I just love her on screen, and love all her studio shots and publicity photos too. What a babe. I made her favourite recipe tonight for two lovely men that I have no doubt if she had met she would...
I’ve got a day off work today and it is bliss. I’ve got a batch of tea cakes in the oven and I’m still not dressed at 11am. I’m sure that Anna May would have worn something a little more slinky than a muu muu in the kitchen but there is a certain pleasure in...
Well, Marion’s cheesecake was the biggest hit yet with my work colleagues. Marie pronounced it to be “Possibly the BEST CAKE IN THE WORLD!” and Edward G said, “great, really great, REALLY great” between mouthfuls. It was still warm from the oven as I had made it before work – oh yummy. Soooooo looking forward...
It is taking me a long time to get used to the idea that I can live exactly as I please now I have my own place. Tonight I am experimenting with doing exactly what I want… I’ve been DJing with my Sisters all day at a crazy corporate event in Hertfordshire – there were...
Edmund read Tuesday’s post and decided that he would like Anna May’s Duck for his dinner last night. He missed the party and wanted to peruse my new flat. As a man with a penchant for the 1930s I knew he’d like it. As nosey as I am, he particularly enjoyed perching on my bar...
Oh my goodness, it feels like being in an industrial kitchen this evening as I try and cook TWO main courses. AMWs duck – for the first time ever – plus my all time favourite non-silver-screen-suppers dish – Leon’s Sausage, Kale and Flageolets Casserole. It doesn’t sound like much does it? But my goodness it...
To say that my housewarming was a humdinger would, I think, be an understatement. What a wonderful and crazy night it was. I tried to make a list of everyone who rocked up, I got to 61 people and then realised I was still drunk so had to stop… It was crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrazy and fabulous. I...
Apologies, apologies. I am very behind with sending out recipes to test cooks. I have been running around getting ready for my housewarming and hereby PROMISE to get back on track when I am surrounded by empty beer cans and overflowing ashtrays on Saturday. Or if it is a REAL humdinger, Sunday. I’m going to...
Today I am very excited to report that at last we have a Charlie Chaplin recipe to test. This is almost the Holy Grail for us (when Marilyn Monroe’s diaries are published in October we will have it!) and this is such a ridiculously exciting moment. Is this sad? That I’m beside myself with excitement...
Well I learned several lessons making Ronald’s pie last night. First one was that a small mistake in a recipe can cause absolute chaos! This is why I am so grateful to all my test cook volunteers, because if I make a howler like there was in Ronald’s, hopefully someone will spot it before it...
“They talk of the artist finding liberation in work, it is true. One can be someone else in another, more dramatic, more beautiful world.” Oh how true Ronald! That’s what it is like in Silver Screen Suppers world. Liberated! More dramatic and more beautiful. Lovely. On a day that promises to be the start of...
Hello sailor!!! I am loving Ginger tonight because unlike her Butterscotch Date Pudding, the Coffee Parfait is a resounding success. Ginger has gone from having the worst ever Silver Screen Suppers recipe to having one of the best. SCRUMPTIOUS! Oh yum, yum, yum. Mind you, I had to eat the little bit of Ida Lupino’s...
Love the quizzical look Fred! Also love your cake, which is baking as I write, filling my kitchen with a delicious chocolate aroma good enough to eat. YUM. It’s for my boss’s birthday tomorrow – this has got to be better than taking him an apple right? I’m on a new regime – attempting to...
I feel a bit like that today Carole – yipee! The first ever Silver Screen Suppers newsletter has gone out today and our first cookalong begins. I wonder how many folk around the world will try out Carole’s Barbecued Spare Ribs in July – if you do please email us, we just ADORE hearing about...
The wonderful portrait painter Brian Dennis won this dress – designed by Gloria Swanson – in our recent competition. He is now spreading the love and running his own contest for one lucky lady (or indeed a slender man) to have their portrait painted in the legendary frock! If the dress is not your size...
Shoulders! They are playing the National Anthem and I am feeling all tearful and worried for our boys. COME ON ENGLAND! It’s such a momentous match, so very exciting. I’m watching it at home as I am hosting a post match barbecue so have to tend to cooking stuff at half time. The spare ribs...
Our Pittsburgh turned Dallas based test cook Josef VS sent in a report on Marlene’s Lamb Chops a while back and it’s popped to the top of the “to-blog” list. I’m working my way through them all because round 3 of testing starts in July! It’s always fascinating to read the feedback forms that our...
Well howdy doody there Coop! Nice cowboy stance you great big hunk you! The lovely Will up there in Doncaster made Coop’s Griddle Cakes the day after he tried out Veronica’s Spiced Beef and Peas. The result being that he felt that he was, “as big as a house”! It made me laugh to read...
It’s time for me to get back on track writing up test cook reports on recipes. My mind has been scattered to the four winds with all this moving business but it feels like heaven to be in my new place and all kinds of new resolutions are being made. So, as I am about...
Johnny’s pie was a flop. I think that I overcooked the custard and under whisked the meringue. It tasted good but it was such a floppy consistency it would have made a perfect custard pie in a Mack Sennett movie. A lesson learned – do not attempt to make an apricot meringue pie when drunk....
My first proper dinner for friends in my new flat was TERRIFIC! Progress on the jigsaw was made and Rosalind found a bag of coins that had emerged from the lock up and decided to see how much money I had forgotten about. She made neat piles of 1ps, 2ps, 5ps, 10ps, 20ps, 50ps and...
Oh Carole! Lounging poolside on a fur rug, only YOU could get away with that! Well on Saturday the entire contents of my lock-up were transported in a van and carried up four flights of stairs by two beefcakes for hire and 5 true and trusted friends. Everything is IN. I am surrounded by hundreds...
Oh the lovely William. His moustache puts me in mind of Charley’s. I am so, so, so loving my new home. Boxes everywhere and lots of scrabbling going on every time I need to find anything but I’m loving it. 10 year old Shirley popped in for a snoop around on Saturday and her reaction...
Stan looks how I feel, somewhat frazzled! I am moving house tonight. Yes tonight! Everything I own is going to be in one place. I can hardly believe it. I will be installed in my 1930s Palace of Solitude behaving like I am in an episode of Poirot. I’ll be the Miss Marple of Muswell! ...
Is Rudi on board a boat here? I think he might be, in which case I am happy. For I am off on a boat trip later myself. A blind date with someone called Oliver. I am breaking all dating rules by not meeting on neutral ground. What if he is a nutter and he...
Oh my goodness Rita was so gorgeous. Here’s a picture for fans of “opera gloves” – there is a whole site dedicated to film stars wearing opera gloves somewhere in this crazy world that is the internet. There’s an Angel (Dust) Food Cake in the oven. I’m trying a new technique – cooking it on...
“I only want to talk about the nice things.” A superb afternoon and evening incorporating much Joan and Bette madness was had today. The noodles were very strange but tasty. Incorporating half a pound of cheese (a whole standard supermarket portion plus a bit extra) plus almost a whole brick of butter (we left about...
“I didn’t bring your breakfast, because you didn’t eat your din-din!” Happy Birthday Blog! It is 4 years since this blog was stared and my goodness, what a lot has happened. A commemorative batch of Bette’s Baked Beans are in the slow cooker – it was the very first dish I made, on a rainy...
Rosalind has always been an inventive cook. Once she invited me over for dinner and we drank so much wine that all she could manage in the end was a square of chocolate melted into a bowl of creamed rice. Last night she excelled herself though. She had some of the Chicken From Parma I...
“Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the dinner ready when you get home” Hmm. Thanks for that Duke! Well the clue should have been in the title of the dish – but that was VERY, VERY cheesy. As someone who hasn’t eaten much cheese for about 5...
Did anyone see me on the tele last night? Market Kitchen was on twice and I watched it with two different bunches of chums. The first screening (with champagne and crisps) was at Paulette’s place and it was so weird seeing myself on the box. The food looked very good – much more appetising on...
Just back from a wonderful weekend in Stroud with Gary C and chums. Two days of belly dancing, eating a vast amount of delicious food and consuming a vast amounts of red wine and fruity cocktails. Fabulous! Just wanted to write a quick blog entry before the site goes offline for a few days. It’s...
Oh what FUN it was to be on Market Kitchen! They had cooked up 4 dishes to be sampled but I was so nervous I didn’t take a bite of any of them! Alex James from Blur was on the show too and my favourite moment was seeing the look of horror on his face...
My lovely work colleague Kim came over last night for a trying on session and Cary’s Pie. We are going to an awards ceremony next week and Kim wanted something vintage to wear. My wardrobe was raided, many frocks were paraded up and down the landing and a decision was made. Well, a choice of...
Tonight’s post is a slow process because to be frank, I am absolutely sloshed. Usually a fast touch typist, tonight this is like typing underwater… My lovely Walthamstow chums have been over for lunch and it was supposed to be a dinner and a movie affair – Barbara Stanwyck’s wine soaked leg of lamb with...
My lovely friend Gary C is coming to stay for a couple of nights next week so I have made a batch of Rudi’s spaghetti sauce for us to have one night for dinner. I couldn’t get the Italian sausage I usually get for this dish so bought Sicilian sausage instead. I hope that won’t...
“Beauty does not come with creams and lotions. God can give us beauty, but whether that beauty remains or changes is determined by our thoughts and deeds.” Wow, Dolores you are a wise, wise woman. I shall only think beautiful thoughts and do beautiful deeds from now on. Edmund came to dinner last night and...
Oh my goodness! It is with much excitement that I report that the first edition of Vintage Life magazine is out and it has my article on GLORIA in it. Oh how very lovely! I am going to try and link to it here… http://www.exacteditions.com/exact/browse/588/1101/6824/3/49/0/ I had heared nothing from the editor for months so...
Bette looks how I feel. Mildly pissed off that her marmalade yet again hasn’t set. I am beginning to come to the conclusion that it must be the ratio of fruit to sugar that’s to blame rather than my technique. I’m going to have to do some research on preserves. It was nice to have...
Well, the competition has closed and the winner has been announced. The answer to the question, “Which fruit did Gloria Swanson regularly keep in her handbag?” was AVOCADO. Quite a few of you guessed correctly, and everyone amused me greatly with their reasoning for choosing certain fruit, but only one person could win the frock...
I’ve been putting off testing this as it looked like a bit of a challenge. It was, but it was worth it! Basically I made a Rita Hayworth’s Angel Cake then followed Claudette’s instructions for fancifying it with home made lemon curd filling and lemony frosting. Oh YUMSKI as my French colleague Marie-Agathe put it....
Mmmm. The Tuna Pie was good. Little pastry biscuits on top. Yum, yum. I’m looking for an alternative Cary recipe for the book to replace the apple pie. He’s got some good ones too. He’s a man who loved his fish. This could be the one. Chicken of the Sea in a pie. It’s a...
Lolita over at Lolita’s Classics has done some lovely work colourizing some pictures of Thelma Todd. Wish I knew how to do that, I’m sure I could spend many a happy hour colouring in! One of her readers left a link to a brilliant song and dance routine featuring Hot Toddy and I’m going to...
“Years ago the public used to hound me but now I can go shopping in peace.” Brand new test cook Kim sent over a report on her cooking of the shrimp dish. She also, much to my delight, sent a photo of the finished result which I shall load up to the Flickr site (you...
“The monster was the best friend I ever had.” Aw Boris, that’s so SAD! I am so lucky that I have such wonderful friends. And some who REALLY love the Silver Screen Suppers project too. King loves it so much that he made a great big gorgeous pie for us last night EXACTLY to Boris’s...
“…don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.” It’s a good point Bette, we just CAN’T have it all… As someone once said, you can’t expect to have a great job, a great relationship and a great place to live all at the same time. You can only have maximum two at once....
Bonita, Bonita, Peanut Eater. OK, I am going to try and channel the spirit of Bonita this evening if I ever get it together to get out of the house and go to the Rock ‘n’ Roll night at the Music Palace. I will be going on my own and won’t know a single person...
“It’s a strenuous job every day of your life to live up to the way you look on the screen.” I admit that this week I’ve let it all go a bit! It’s been sooooooo busy and stayed at Paulette’s last night and the night before. This resulted in my wearing the same rockabilly cardigan...
“If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.“ Cheer up then Katharine, you look like you are in a right old strop! Oh alright then, please yourself…. Gadzooks, just when I think I can drop Katharine’s recipe from the book I get a report from a test cook saying she...
Oh what joy, home in time for Desmond Carrington on R2 with nothing to do but listen in. Got up early to get Janet’s cookies in the oven. I broke my own rule and made them with spreadable butter. Mistake. They weren’t all firm and crisp like they should be, but soft and chewy. Nice,...
Ah, Sunday afternoon and Columbo on the tele. Heavenly. Again, I have a humdinger of a hangover and red wine lips. Temperance month is not really happening is it? I’m cooking some of Ollie’s Spaghetti Sauce in an attempt to feel better. It was a wonderful evening last night chez Jean. It was Oscars night,...
I’m very excited about Olivier’s Oscars party tomorrow. He has the whole thing on tape and a bunch of us are going to pretend we are watching it “as live” whilst chowing down on a few Silver Screen Supper specialities. I’m doing the canapes and cake and will report back on what we had on...
Gorgeous! What a babe! This week I have had a bit of an “emotional gust”. Luckily for me, on the night it happened Paulette was still up when I walked past her house and so I went in and had a cry. She gave me a big hug, some sound advice and a bag of...
I missed the Movie Memorabilia Bazaar at the Cinema Museum the other weekend because I was too hungover to leave the house. But lovely Dorothy was there, not in her usherette uniform this time, but still working the Silver Screen Suppers magic nonetheless. She made some of Anna’s Tea Cakes and reports back that special...
“Do what you feel you have a flair for doing, and if you are good enough at it, the money will come.” I do hope so Greer, because I am stony broke! I think about my Glasgow chums every time I try and preserve my curls by wearing the spotty shower cap they gave me...
Hello Sailor! Definitely feeling full of the joys of spring now that I have successfully made an Angel Food Cake. There is a picture of it on the flickr site – I personally have never seen anything like it! http://www.flickr.com/photos/fritzyritz/4414358525/ The secret is obviously all in the whipping. Last time I tried to whip the...
Oh I am having such fun this weekend. Doing a LOT of writing work and a LOT of cooking. Fab. It’s Sunday and so I decided to treat myself to Bette’s favourite Sunday morning breakfast dish. And delicious it was too. It’s the first time I have tried it but wanted to have a test...
Ah bliss. A night in with some of Dick’s Chowder, a bottle of expensive wine and “Stella Dallas” on DVD. The expensive wine is my new plan. I am going to see if I spend less money on booze if I buy GOOD wine and only drink a glass of it each night rather than...
