Well, my work on the Vincent Price cookbook is done! I delivered all the final tweaks to my co-writer Peter Fuller yesterday and as we must celebrate all the wins these days, fashioned myself a little cocktail.
This cocktail featured in an advertising campaign for Angostura bitters fronted by Vincent.
“Over ice, stir 2/3 any good whiskey, 1/3 sweet vermouth, two dashes of Angostura. Stewpendous!” Indeed it was! I followed Vincent’s cocktail with a portion of Donald Pleasence’s Prawn Curry from the freezer. I should have watched The Monster Club, they are both in that, but not on screen together alas…
All the Angostura print ads I can find that feature Vincent’s recipes are collected together in this post if you’d like other ways of using up that bottle in the back of your cocktail cabinet! If you want to know when Supper with the Stars is available, skip over here and sign up to the mailing list.
There will be news about a forthcoming cucumber crocodile contest coming soon too!
See those green and red circular things on the top of my cheese cubes? Those are cocktail onions I dyed with food colouring. Is it my imagination or could you BUY coloured cocktail onions here in the UK in the 1970s? Perhaps I am thinking of coloured cherries, which I know you can still get in the USA but not around these parts.
This morning when I woke up, I do what I do every weekday and checked for any comments on my blog posts. Today there was one from someone who wrote, “My boyfriend is suicidal that he cannot get any Barry Normans pickled onions please let me know how I can get hold of some…”
I wish I knew Claudine, I wish I knew! For those youngsters and those not from these shores, Barry Norman was a legendary film critic here in the UK and I wrote a post about these delicious onions way back in 2015 Alas, now they are no more. The supermarkets have stopped stocking them, therefore Opies stopped making them. Around May 2019 it seems.
I am distraught of course, but those of you who know me and my hoarding tendencies will not be surprised to hear that I have a jar in my fridge.
Now I know these are collector’s items, I am going to cut each onion into quarters and eat them on cocktail sticks to make them last!
Woow! Congratulations on getting it done!
Yay! Thanks VT, it was a bit of a sprint towards the end but I’m very proud of it! Jx
Congratulations!
P.S.
I got your Colombo cookbook and we are watching the series…Thanks!
Yay! Wonderful Elizabeth. I’m tempted to watch all the Columbos again soon – I’ve missed him!
Congrats on the achievement. I’m currently searching for a Nero Wolfe cookbook my Mom had along with a community cookbook that might have some relatives’ recipes. Where will I be able to purchase a copy of your book so I don’t have to do more searching? Thanks in advance.
Congratulations on finishing the book!
Thanks ducks! It was a lot of work but we got there!
Hi Mark – ooh I didn’t know about the Nero Wolfe cookbook. Are you in the USA? I found a few copies on AbeBooks which are a reasonable price https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?cm_sp=SearchF-_-topnav-_-Results&kn=nero%20wolfe%20cookbook&sts=t – this might also be a good place to look for the community cookbook too. So the Vincent Price books will be available directly from my co-author Peter. The best way of finding out when they are available is to sign up to his mailing list https://vincentprice.aweb.page/supperwiththestarssignup – we are planning to do a less glossy version of the book that will be available directly from Amazon but that will probably not be until next year. The full colour extravaganza will be available in November. Jx
The Manhattan was the first cocktail I ever made and also drank at The Hotel Russell back in the day cocktails were just about affordable for dates and other special occasions in ritzy hotel bars . Tres sophisticated and dead easy to make. Shame about Bazza’s onions I remember seeing quite a stack of them in a Budgens or some such once, but the jars were in such a manky condition, like they’d been in the stockroom for a long time, I did not purchase any this time, but If I’d known they were there because they were being discontinued and they were basically just trying to get rid of them I most certainly would ! I’m not sure they were ever a big seller or really caught on with the public . Or maybe he just took the recipe to the grave with him !
Ahh, the halcyon days of affordable cocktails and Barry Norman pickled onions!
Congrats on you finishing up your manuscript!
I love the cute cuke croc!!! :o)
These would be such fun to make with your grandkids!