Pheweeeeeee! What a night! It was Vincent all the way with the following of his recipes being rustled up at Silver Screen Suppers Towers for a Haloweeeeeen party: Bloody Mary, Liver and Bacon Pâté, Oxtail Creole and Pumpkin Pie.
Welcome to a Halloween special at Silver Screen Suppers Towers…
It was the inaugural Halloween Cookalong and at the end of this post will be links to the wonderful worlds of my fellow participants. I heartily recommend that you go on a little blog tour and see the wonders of Vincent Price recipes being made for Halloween all around the world.
So here is how my Vincent Price themed Halloween went…
The night before the big event my squeeze came over and we had two types of Vincent Price Goulash I had taken out of my freezer (christened by him as “the frozen archives”) the day before. I am a terrible hoarder of all things, including frozen foodstuffs so one version was the Vincent Price Goulash Corinna and I had last New Year’s Eve (2012/2013) made with venison (yum yum) and one was the Vincent Price Goulash we had the year before for New Year’s Eve (2011/2012) made with beef. Both were lovely and I am here to tell the tale so both goulashes survived cryogenic processing for longer than they probably should have… Here’s a rotten photo of what was actually a delightful dinner.
I was really excited on Halloween morning when the link to the Vincent Price Goulash demonstration film I made with my chum Nathalie for the British Film Institute’s Gothic season went live on the interweb. Once I got over how goofy I looked I liked it. My mum said it made her laugh which is ultimately the best thing I could have wished for. If you fancy checking it out, here is the link:
Cooking Vincent Price’s Goulash
I got event specific presents from Mr R – what a great guy – he’d bought me a Vincent mug:
and a 45rpm of Vincent doing The Monster Mash which was played many times on the kitchen record player as we got down and dirty with masses of lambs and pigs livers, bacon, oxtails and other slightly gruesome foodstuffs…
He also did a great job of pumpkin carving:
I couldn’t resist serving Pickled Onion Monster Munch as a little appetizer because I love them and they seemed appropriate:
Mr Rathbone made the Bloody Marys and the Liver and Bacon Pâté so there will be a guest post from him soon. I’ll let him explain why making the latter made him feel like he was in a “bloody abattoir”. For now, here is the Bloody Mary recipe which I believe he made to the letter and for my taste was perfect – very lemony and lovely:
Here is a pic of me and Heather (not her real hair) enjoying the Vincent Price Bloody Marys (and a beer chaser)
And here is the splendour of the pâté – mmmmmmmm – it was DELICIOUS. Report from the chef coming soon….
What a SPORT my new man is, not only was he knee deep in raw liver for most of Halloween he also grew a beard in order to pose as Vincent.
Vincent
Mr R
These pictures make me laugh out loud with pure joy. A lot. How fabulous! He grew that beard SPECIFICALLY so he could pose for me. Wow. Here is a man who understands why I love the recipes and food writing of Vincent Price so much….
Back to the Cookalong… I’ve never cooked oxtail before and I loved picking up a great big bundle of bony old tail bits from my local butcher – Midhurst Butchers in Fortis Green. I more or less had to climb over an enormous tree that had come down in the mega storm just to get to it.
Why did I order Oxtail ahead of time and get great amusement out of the butcher mishearing my name as JANICE? Because this recipe was kind of delivered to me by the ether as the one I should make for the Cookalong. I have a spreadsheet of all my film star recipes and Vincent’s Oxtail Creole was the 500th recipe to hit the spreadsheet – I took it as a sign…
Vacuum packed and labelled up for Janice, the oxtail was on the boil at 3.30 – served at around 9pm so the meat was falling off those tailbones into the mix and it was a good old fashioned stew like yer nan used to make. The boys both had seconds – me and Heather are liver lovers and had eaten about half of the pate between us so were more demure about the oxtail. Not very photogenic but it was GOOD with mashed potato.
Here is the recipe:
And for pudding? It had to be pumpkin pie of course…
I used the pastry recipe from Vincent’s Crostada Di Mele pie in the Treasury of Great Recipes and the filling from the Pumpkin Pie recipe in the Vincent and Mary Price’s “Come Into the Kitchen Cookbook”.
MMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmace! It was very macey because the lid flew off my mace jar as I was making the filling and a bit extra went in the mix, so next year I will measure it more precisely. Here’s the recipe:
And what was everyone else up to? Well check all of these out my pretties! There will also be some guest posts coming soon here from Cookalong participants who don’t have blogs. Until then, feast your eyes on the splendour of Vincent recipes for yummy things like liver, steak and HEARTS being tackled by food bloggers all around the globe. It was so much fun organising this Cookalong – roll on next Halloween……..
Cookalong posts go live today – Monday 4th November so I will add links as they come in – have fun on your blog tour!
I had a great time doing the Cookalong. Thanks for organising it. Sounds like you had a fab Vincent food filled evening, GG
It was BRILLIANT – thanks for participating – loved your post, your steak looked amazing…
BRAVO!
What a night.
And mad props to Mr. R for his faithful VP impression.
I cannot wait to hear about the bacon liver pate because I might have to get on that.
I am so happy to have participated!
Mad props indeed. It was a surreal night!
and of course, I LOVED your post about the stewed heart. Bravo to you too crazy offal loving lady! John Waters is in town and there was a bit in the paper here yesterday saying how much he felt Liverpool was like Baltimore as the boys are good looking and the girls are kick-ass! I say hell yeah, the one I know that lives there certainly is…
Jenny–This was a FABULOUS blogging challenge! I am proud to have been a participant, darling. Looking forward to seeing more of the guest posts too. btw–your new man is a KEEPER! It has been so much fun learning the ways of Vincent Price Cooking. And I still need to get on that Joan Crawford post (I haven’t forgotten!) Thanks again for organizing, and BRAVO on your spectacular post! Oxtail?????
I loved every single minute of it Mimi! Your post made me laugh out loud several times. Oh yes, Joan Crawford – do it – do it – do it!
Loved cooking along but fear my post wasn’t dramatic or bloody enough. Thank goodness you didn’t give me the heart though. Mr R sounds a treasure….
Your post was gorgeous Sally, really lovely. Wait until you see the bloodyness of Mr Rathbone’s guest post, coming soon. It was like a slaughterhouse in my kitchen! He is indeed an absolute treasure!
Jenny, thanks again for such a fun idea! Can’t wait to see what you and your friends come up with next!
You are now in the gang Cherie – you’ll never get away!
Thank you so much for organising such a great event. Here’s to next year’s!
It was pure pleasure all the way ducks, I had so much fun I am already thinking about next Halloween!
Of course you have a kitchen record player! I would expect no less. I have to crank our living room turntable up really loud to hear it in the kitchen.
Sounds like quite a party. Wish I could have flown to London and crashed it! I love oxtail and liver, so I would have been in heaven. Plus, you topped it off with Bloody Marys and Pumpkin Pie! What could be better?
Love Mr. R’s Vincent Price homage. He is indeed a sport!
Also–I totally need a Vincent Price mug.
Yep, I had a mad dream that I was watching a documentary about people who had record players in their kitchens and I woke up and thought, hang on a minute, brilliant idea!
Next time you are in London Lauren you WILL come to my place for dinner – definitely, I demand it!
Vincent mug is my new favourite thing!
Very humbling experience to be surrounded by such high calibre food enthusiasts! I’m inspired to create.
Isn’t it wonderful? I am inspired to never ever leave my kitchen – apart from to do a photography course, my pictures are pants! Your liver looked yummy Lisa!
Divine! Best cookalong since the last COOKALONG! Vincent Price for the WIN! I think I have a Miss Piggy Cookbook somewhere – I am not sure that theme would be as POPULAR. Mr R is a KEEPER!
Thanks Susie – Mr R is going to be blushing to his fingertips to see that he’s got approval from bloggers all around the world. That beard was definitely worth growing – ha ha!
DO the Miss Piggy cookalong – I am IN !
If I had a dime for every pumpkin pie I ate that had a rat on it….Oh, wait. That’s a fake rat, right? Never mind.
Mmm – rats on pies. Yes. You might like…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ1fyx91of4