Category Archives: Los Angeles

Poppets, I plan on being home for Christmas…

December 13, 2018 by Vickie Lester

Me? Excited? Much? This time of year tends to send me floating toward seventh heaven. (Does anyone know what the other heavenly levels, say 1-10 are? Just curious.) Where were we? Ah, yes. The thought of home and friends and family immediately sets me to planning meals. What to do? Well, being in Savannah has exposed me to creations in the kitchen that tilt toward sweet. Sugar. It turns up in by the heaping spoonful in tea and dessert…and salad, […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Christmas, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertaining, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Recipes, Uncategorized • Tags: chocolate, chocolate decadence, chocolate mousse recipe, Christmas, dessert, hot cocoa recipe, Mom and Dad, my lady ancestors, recipe, recipes handed from one generation to the next

A holiday kiss from grandmother to mother to daughter to you – our recipe for Pavlova…

December 12, 2018 by Vickie Lester

Or as we gals call it — Schaum Torte. That’s my mom. She made a show stopping dessert and here’s the recipe: First of all preheat your oven to 275 degrees, then cut up a large brown paper bag and line a baking sheet. Now separate 6 six eggs. (Put the yolks aside to make a lemon custard, or, if you’re not inclined toss them away.) Beat the six egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Very, very gradually add […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Christmas, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertaining, fashion, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Parenting, Photography, Recipes, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: birthday cake, dessert, easy dessert, holiday dessert, Hollywood, kiss, meringue, meringue dessert, my family recipe for pavlova, pavlova recipe, schaum torte recipe, show stopper, slice of heaven, strawberries and whipped cream, wedding cake

Twitterpated over Christmas…

December 9, 2018 by Vickie Lester

This is a very disturbing picture. The wondrous beauty, Ann-Margret, has birds in her hair. Now, I know they’re fake – but, really, birds? My mom had boxes of these things in the sixties and when everybody else had a Christmas tree strewn with tinsel and shining glass trinkets our tree looked like an aviary. It didn’t sparkle, it was wired full of synthetic animals. Am I still bitter? Well, I guess I am. Last year the house was scented […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Christmas, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Photography, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: Ann-Margret, Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas tree, happy holidays, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Mom, sparkle

Cher’s got you babe…

December 8, 2018 by Vickie Lester

Doesn’t the Christmas season bring you back to your childhood? I think I’ve mentioned in a comment here or there that I have a friend whose babysitter was Cher, well, not exactly a babysitter — but even as she began her recording career (in her late teens) it was she who often kept her kohl-lined eyes on him. Today she’s still watching over in the Twitterverse and I like to keep up with — Stand & B Counted. Ann-Margret was […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Christmas, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Music, Photography, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: Ann-Margret, avant-garde, babysitter, behind the scenes, Cher, Christmas, Christmas decorations, Glogg, Hollywood, recipe for glogg

I met the mister on a movie set…

November 25, 2018 by Vickie Lester

That’s me in the middle with two green goblins who never made it to the screen. It’s not the movie I met my husband on, that was another movie a few months earlier. My mother was tired of me lurking around the house post-college and the next thing I knew I was learning all sorts of things about low budget non-union movie making — oh, and I met the love of my life one day when we were shooting a […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Romance, Story, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, anniversary, courtship, first film job, i met the mister, indie film, low budget movie, Production Assistant, romance behind the scenes, write what you know

How do you like them apples! A Thanksgiving dessert for the man I met on a movie set…

November 20, 2018 by Vickie Lester

There’s a fine mist in the towering oaks outside my window, branches covered in Resurrection Fern, a lace of Spanish Moss trailing below — something tells me I’m not in Kansas anymore, and by that I mean the old sound stages at MGM. I am far, far from home and about to make Thanksgiving dinner. It will be delicious and adapted to my surroundings, for instance, there are no cake pans in my rental, but there are skillets I can […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Recipes, Uncategorized • Tags: apple cake, apple skillet cake, breakfast with the Mister, holiday baking, holiday dessert, Marilyn Monroe photographed by Nickolas Muray, recipe, romance on a movie set, Thanksgiving

“Fruitcake is my kryptonite,” an admission from a friend…

November 18, 2018 by Vickie Lester

“He left Hollywood and renounced the pursuit of fame, joining a brotherhood of Franciscans who supported their monastery by refilling ink cartridges and baking fruitcake, available at Amazon.com.” That’s a line from my first novel, summing up the future for an actor in dire need of redemption. Obviously fruitcake means something to me too, and I wouldn’t be stretching it to say it has to do with the transformative act of baking. Every November I stir this batter together and […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Books, Christmas, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Recipes, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, a Hollywood whodunnit, baking raises my spirits, british wedding cake, climate crisis, comfort baking, fruitcake, fruitcake recipe, recipe

“I wanted my stardom without the usual trimmings.” Veronica Lake 1922-1973

November 14, 2018 by Vickie Lester

“I’ve reached a point in my life where it’s the little things that matter. I’m no longer interested in doing what’s expected of me. I was always a rebel and probably could have got much farther had I changed my attitude. But when you think about it, I got pretty far without changing attitudes. I’m happier with that… I was never psychologically meant to be a picture star. I never took it seriously. I couldn’t “live” being a”‘movie star” and […]

Categories: Art, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, based on the novel by Thorne Smith, femme fatale, film noir, hollywood rebel, I MARRIED A WITCH, rebel, Rene Clair, Veronica Lake

“We cling to the edge of the continent, shaken by loss, too foolish to run, or too much in love.” Steve Lopez on California

November 12, 2018 by Vickie Lester

I have a feeling all the places I was describing in this excerpt from my first novel are ash. The first photo included is of Malibu, circa 1960. The second photo at the end of the post I borrowed from a friend. I visited the canyon above the beach described below to see a production designer. A prominent actor from a Hollywood dynasty frequently appeared to check in on her father. Everyone lived in cottages that had originally been built […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Fiction, Film, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #amwriting another novel about Hollywood, behind the scenes in Hollywood, cabana boys, Malibu, Malibu fire, surfers, Topanga Canyon, what you lose in a fire are your links to the past

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