Category Archives: Thanksgiving

I admire anyone, even if they’re 5, if they can break into song before 8 in the morning…

November 29, 2015 by Vickie Lester

I’ve started taking walks in the morning, spurred on by my doctor’s advice. I asked during my last checkup if I should start training with weights to prevent osteoporosis, and my esteemed physician of 25 years replied, “No, you’ll probably just hurt yourself.” So in the mornings I grab the only Boston garb that’s suitable for our weather in Southern California and step outside. Around the corner there’s a park, and as I rambled I spied someone of very small […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Books, Christmas, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Thanksgiving, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Weather, Writing • Tags: Boston, California Spanish, happy holidays, menopause, perimenopause, Spanish Colonial, thankful, what passes for winter in Los Angeles

I am thankful for you…

November 26, 2015 by Vickie Lester

For editors, for digital savants, for connoisseurs of scent, for kind hearts around the world, for book clubs, and for this thing we call the Internet. The places we go, the people we meet, the perfectly wonderful communities we build…online. My editor sent me this: An excerpt from: Faulks on Fiction: Great British Characters and the Secret Life of the Novel The paragraph made me laugh aloud, because there is an expectation from readers of a kind of personal knowledge […]

Categories: Advertising, Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Life, Literature, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Publishing, Story, Thanksgiving, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #itsinhiskissbyvickielester, Edith Head and Gloria Swanson had great respect for each other, I am thankful for book clubs, I am thankful for editors, It's in His Kiss by Vickie Lester, Sebastian Faulks quote, Thanksgiving

Bogey and Bacall married at Malabar Farms in Ohio – Happy Thanksgiving

November 26, 2015 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Architecture, Blogging, Choreography, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Humor, Life, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Relationships, Story, Thanksgiving, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Wedding • Tags: Bacall, Bogart, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Thanksgiving, turkey, wedding Malabar Farms

Reprise: Thanksgiving at our house…

November 25, 2015 by Vickie Lester

Hello dear readers, This in no way resembles what the house looks like in real time. By this point I have become the person who the child refers to as “Boss” and who the sainted man that married me is kind enough to endure. They are probably setting the table, laying the fire, or trying to ignore the string of invective coming from the kitchen. I am cooking. I am cooking pretty much what my mother cooked and her […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Cooking, Culture, Design, Film, Hollywood, Humor, Los Angeles, Marriage, Photography, Relationships, Thanksgiving, Writing • Tags: cooking, family, family traditions, feast, grandmother, Happy Thanksgiving, humor, husband, kitchen, Mother, Thanksgiving

Gary Cooper turns to Mom for a delicious ranch breakfast, home in Hollywood for the holidays

November 25, 2015 by Vickie Lester

When I was a kid the holidays were spent either in mountain snow, or desert sun. I was campaigning for Palm Springs at Christmas, but with family and friends coming in from across the pond, across the country, and across town, we’ve decided to make Hollywood holiday central. This time of year — from Thanksgiving to the New Year — breakfast seems more of an event than dinner. I love the scent of coffee brewing on a chilly morning, the […]

Categories: Books, Choreography, Christmas, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertaining, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, London, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, New Year's Day, New York, Palm Springs, Photography, Recipes, Thanksgiving, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: first light, Gary Cooper breakfast, Gary Cooper's buttermilk griddle cakes, happy holidays, Hollywood holiday central, Montana ranch breakfast, Palm Springs Christmas, pancake recipe, when the mister makes breakfast

It’s time for Vickie Lester’s “how to” Hollywood Thanksgiving Dinner

November 24, 2015 by Vickie Lester

Face it, if you’re serving the feast this year there’s a lot of work to be done. Walk in my door, and you will be directed to the living room with a crackling fire in the hearth. Most likely, The Mister will pour you a beverage and there will be what I call vestigial nibbles on the coffee table (spiced nuts and marinated olives) because really, you should fast for a day before what’s to come — belly distention and […]

Categories: Blogging, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertaining, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Story, Thanksgiving, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: a Martha Stewart moment, a novel by Vickie Lester, a traditional Hollywood Thanksgiving menu, holiday dessert, how to make Thanksgiving dinner, Marilyn Monroe and Cole Porter at the Cocoanut Grove, Thanksgiving menu, Thanksgiving recipes

The calm before Thanksgiving is about to break…standby for complete recipes and “how to”

November 23, 2015 by Vickie Lester

When I was a little girl sometimes I would wake and pad down the stairs to the kitchen early on Thanksgiving morning and my mom would already have a 22 pound bird trussed up, stuffed, and ready for roasting. Her face would be rosy, her coffee cup empty, and now that I’m older I recognize the expression she wore. Something like appreciation for the quiet I had just shattered, anticipation for the gathering of family friends to come, and gratitude. […]

Categories: Advertising, Architecture, Blogging, Books, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Fiction, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Parenting, Relationships, Story, Thanksgiving, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: a traditional Hollywood Thanksgiving menu, gratitude, Happy Thanksgiving, holiday dessert, how to make Thanksgiving dinner, I have plenty to be thankful for, Vickie Lester

Dining with Dietrich

November 22, 2015 by Vickie Lester

Marlene Dietrich’s Zabaglione “Mix three yolks of eggs with three tablespoons of sugar until the mixture is creamy and whitish. Then add a bit more than half a cup of Marsala wine. Mix. In a double boiler beat the mixture with an eggbeater till it rises. Do not boil the mixture. Use a large enough pot so that it can rise almost to double the amount. If you are courageous you can forget about the double boiler and do […]

Categories: Architecture, Christmas, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertaining, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Recipes, Thanksgiving, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: 'tis the season, Christmas, holiday dessert, holiday season, Marlene Dietrich, Marlene Dietrich in Angel directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Marlene Dietrich recipe, sabayon recipe, Thanksgiving, zabaglione recipe

Over the river and through Beverlywood to Grandmother’s house we go…

November 20, 2015 by Vickie Lester

I look at images like this and I remember my grandmother’s house. The teenagers in my life get the same glazed look they exhibit whenever I turn the channel to TCM. “It’s old-timey!” Which, of course, is why we (the Royal We) love it. And then they wander off to do homework (I have my suspicions). Now, as to the title of this post, I must remind you the L.A. river is paved concrete so old that islands have formed […]

Categories: Architecture, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Film, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Story, Thanksgiving, Travel, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: Apple Strudel recipe, grandmother, how to roll a strudel, Melanie Griffith, Michael Douglas, Shining Through (1992), Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving in Los Angeles, The Beekman Boys