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BEGUILING HOLLYWOOD

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Vickie Lester makes a silent star’s fruitcake in November so it can get tipsy by Christmas

November 15, 2017 by Vickie Lester

Hello, poppets! This weekend I will be stirring up a fragrant, delicious, decidedly old school recipe that evokes the spirit of a spicy warm holiday, and that means fruitcake. Never fear, there will be no disgusting green cherries, or sickly sweet lumps of candied pineapple. My recipe will make two loaves of cake. The longer you age it the more mellow and scrumptious it becomes. Some people place the cakes in a tin, in a cool place, for up to […]

Categories: Christmas, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Recipes, Story, Thanksgiving, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: baking, Christmas, comedienne, cooking, Favorite Recipes of the Movie Stars, fragrant, fruitcake, fruitcake recipe, good cook, Grandmother's fruitcake, Hal B. Wallis, heirloom fruitcake recipe, Hollywood, Louis Fazenda, no disgusting green cherries, Old Hollywood, philanthropist, producer, recipe, silent movies, Vickie Lester makes fruitcake

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“Unless you were raised by ferrets in the Catskills, you’re going to know this is a problem.” Josh Marshall

September 10, 2017 by Vickie Lester

What has this to do with baking? Let me back up a little bit and we’ll get to that. Josh Marshall is a journalist who writes about the political scene. He is astute, insightful, and sometimes he cracks me the-hell-up. So in the midst of one of his essays on nefarious insider doings with foreign powers he’ll get me to remember a point by cracking wise. At times a little levity goes a long way. Click here to read the […]

Categories: Architecture, Art, Blogging, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, Friendship, Gastronomy, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Photography, Recipes, Story, Theater, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: almond lemon cake recipe, baking, baking raises my spirits, cake, comfort baking, grandmother, holiday baking, Mother, recipe

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Married on Thanksgiving Day, 1927, Silent Star Louise Fazenda and Producer Hal B. Wallis

November 15, 2014 by Vickie Lester

Categories: Architecture, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Theater, Truth & Rumors, Valentine's Day, Wedding • Tags: 1931, baking, Christmas, comedienne, cooking, Favorite Recipes of the Movie Stars, fragrant, fruitcake, fruitcake recipe, good cook, Grandmother's fruitcake, Hal B. Wallis, heirloom fruitcake recipe, Hollywood, Louis Fazenda, no disgusting green cherries, Old Hollywood, philanthropist, producer, recipe, silent movies, Vickie Lester makes fruitcake

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It’s a good night when @kfullermendez calls me from the east to herald a moonrise over the west. #goodnight #supermoon #sweetdreams @heybillkuhn @antiquegoddess

“These stories seem at times to be stories of a long-lost world when the city of New York was still filled with river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationary store, and when almost everybody wore a hat. Here is the last of that generation of chain smokers who woke the world in the morning with their coughing, who used to get stoned at cocktail parties and perform obsolete dance steps like “the Cleveland Chicken,” sail for Europe on ships, who were truly nostalgic for love and happiness, and whose gods were as ancient as yours and mine, whoever you are.” . I picked up a sweet #volume of short stories in the new year, continuing my #love affair with fictional Manhattan. . . . . . #stories #manhattan #nyc #johncheever #bookbliss #bibliophile #exploretocreate #empirestatebuilding #architecture #streetscape #citylife #literature #author #writer #bookstagram #bookstoread #cityscape #skyscraper #bluesky #writerslife #thestoriesofjohncheever

Traveling SW I promised @heybillkuhn I’d take pictures... Over breakfast in the dining car I learned how to bet the horses. Sharing a meal with people I’ve never met is now one of my favorite things to do. . So relaxing watching the country roll by, thinking about what to make for Christmas dinner back home. #Pavlova? #ChocolateMousse? For recipes check out the link in the profile. . . . . . #trainstation #exploretocreate #artofvisuals #waiting #portrait #citylife #architecture #homewardbound #urban #dawn #interior #graphicdesign #art #lifeisbeautiful #journey #style #friends #everyonehasastory #itsinhiskissbyvickielester #amwriting another #hollywood #novel

Sometimes places look #enchanted — because they are. This town sends me. There’s a little free library in front of the police department, #design students everywhere you turn, early risers who stroll around the park, and #bookstores like @thebookladybookstore where you can browse and talk for hours — discovering #treasures. All that and I had a eureka moment working on my manuscript. Where am I @williee64 ? In #Savannah! Thank you @heybillkuhn for giving us a proper introduction 😘. . . . . . #bibliophile #books #amwriting #library #exploretocreate #historichome #federalarchitecture #architecture #december #hollywood #novel #author #southerncharm #style

It’s the #morning before #Thanksgiving in #Savannah and I found lady bountiful on my #walk to the market. It’s #bright and beautiful and last night on the #movie set they made it snow — glorious fluffy frosty stuff — which I can’t share pictures of, but I can share stories and a #recipe for a #delicious #dessert, link in the profile. . #goodmorning! . Am #onlocation with my #beloved #writing another #Hollywood #novel.

“Eloise, if you keep touching those rocks we’ll never get to the park...” So said an exasperated mom to an exploring toddler, exceptionally layered against the cold, as the wind cut down 72nd street. She was dressed for an expedition but this LA dame certainly wasn’t... However, I did get to bask in some #maxfieldparrish blue. #thankyou @kfullermendez . . . . . #centralpark #cityscape #exploretocreate #nyc #bluesky #pond #fredericklawolmsted #design #garden #urban #autumninnewyork #fallingleaves #water #artofvisuals #eastside #manhattan #citypark #westcoastmeetseastcoast #autumncolors

“I felt better knowing he was only a bus ride away, a straight shot down Fifth Avenue; and in the night when I woke up jarred and panicked, the explosion plunging through me all over again, sometimes I could lull myself back to sleep by thinking of his house, where without even realizing it you slipped away sometimes into 1850, a world of ticking clocks and creaking floorboards, copper pots and baskets of turnips and onions in the kitchen, candle flames leaning all to the left in the draft of an opened door and tall parlor windows billowing and swagged like ball gowns, cool quiet rooms where old things slept.” . And yes, I will be journeying east from #losangeles with a traveling companion that weighs a little more than my computer, but ever so much more engaging. . . . #bookstagram #bookquotes #bibliophile #reading #thegoldfinch #newyorkcity #novel #goodreads #literature #dickensian #shelfie #library #bookish #author #bookworm #painting #design #shadowandlight #artofvisuals #exploretocreate #october #autumnmood #flashofdelight #nothingisordinary #wordswilltakeyouthere

The wind knocked the power out in the dark of #MondayMorning and at first light I turned to coffee and #EdithWharton. “I read the other day in a book by a fashionable essayist that ghosts went out when electric light came in. What nonsense!” All Souls’ and After Holbein, short stories in the #spooky #Halloween #spirit. Ah, and what do you know, the whir of electricity and we’re back on the grid. . . . . . #shelfie #bookstagram #author #writersofinstagram #bookworm #bookshelf #bibliophile #library #ghosts #goodmorning #goodreads #october #autumn #pumpkin #painting #homedecor #artofvisuals #postitfortheaesthetic

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