Tag: recipe

Where a lack of punctuation can lead…

March 21, 2018 by Vickie Lester

Funny thing about blogging, sometimes your posts pop back into circulation and you find, because you wrote in haste, and didn’t check, there might be a sentence lacking commas that would lead one to believe you were inciting violence in a recipe, instead of what you intended, which was to use a term of endearment for your readers. Behold! (And by the way, if you click below you will *fund* oops! correction! *find* a wonderful dessert recipe most suitable for […]

Categories: Blogging, Books, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Movies, Photography, Recipes, Uncategorized • Tags: comedic timing, dessert, I am thankful for editors, Lucille Ball, Pavlova, recipe, Technicolor, Ziegfeld Follies

“It was my Uncle George who discovered that alcohol was a food well in advance of modern medical thought.” P.G. Wodehouse

March 21, 2018 by Vickie Lester

Spring — snow flurries in New York, and drizzle in L. A. — if I were a drinking woman, I would, to paraphrase Wodehouse, get my shimmer on. Right now it seems the world is suffering from the aftereffects of being bamboozled. Do you know what a Prairie Oyster is? They drink it in the movies to cure a hangover, or, to brace you for what lies ahead. Does it work? I seriously doubt it. Here’s the recipe: Put one […]

Categories: Blogging, Books, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Movies, News, Story, Uncategorized • Tags: bamboozled, Carmen Miranda, Cary Grant, chicanery, definition, P.G. Wodehouse, Penelope Lively, prairie oyster, recipe

“Don’t f#ck with me, fellas. This cowgirl has been to the rodeo before.” Joan Crawford, without doubt, knew how to flame broil…

December 11, 2017 by Vickie Lester

Joan Crawford looking very festive. Her recipe for Broiled Steak with Roquefort Cheese — a-okay for a carnivore’s Christmas — is below. Serve with crispy roast potatoes and a green salad and you’ve got a meal to celebrate. The way you get quartered potatoes to crisp up when you roast them is to boil them for five minutes, drain well in a colander, shake them up so that they dry and the surface can absorb oil, and then put in […]

Categories: Architecture, Blogging, Christmas, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertaining, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Recipes, Uncategorized • Tags: Christmas, crispy roast potatoes, grilled steak, how to tell if your steak is done, Joan Crawford, Joan Crawford Christmas, medium rare or well done, recipe, wintery dinner

1. Never quit. 2. Be yourself. 3. Don’t put too much flour in your brownies…Katharine Hepburn and another recipe for the holidays

December 6, 2017 by Vickie Lester

…The day of our appointment was gray and wintry. Walking the long blocks to Turtle Bay, my father and I didn’t speak much. It felt as if we were about to meet the Queen. Miss Hepburn greeted us warmly. With casual hauteur, she provided us with tea and some of her famous brownies. Though she was in her 70’s, she had a youthful look, enhanced by her girlish clothes: a turtleneck, a black cardigan and shabby khaki-green pants. We talked […]

Categories: Art, Blogging, Christmas, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, New York, Photography, Story, Theater, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: be yourself, brownie recipe, Christmas, immanuel kant, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn's brownie recipe, recipe, rules for happiness

Joan Crawford, a roast beast, and father-in-law Douglas Fairbanks’ recipe for lemon meringue pie…

November 17, 2017 by Vickie Lester

Ms. Crawford married into Hollywood Royalty in 1929. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was 19, she admitted to 20, and his parents were anxious to have them wed before they hopped into bed. They were divorced by 1934, but here they are photographed in the happier days of 1931 by the inestimable Edward Steichen. Oh, and I promised you Fairbanks Sr.’s lemon meringue pie recipe, it’s in the photo below, beneath the banana-mayo mess that I recommend you skip right over. The […]

Categories: Art, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Recipes, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Edward Steichen, Hormonal Danger Zone, Joan Crawford recipe, JoanCrawford, lemon meringue pie recipe, recipe, shotgun wedding

Thanksgiving pumpkin pie – from the kitchen of Fred MacMurray and June Haver

November 16, 2017 by Vickie Lester

After his beloved Lillian died Mr. MacMurray was fortunate to find June Haver, with whom he had a wonderful marriage and adopted two more children. I don’t know who did the cooking at home, but this pie is a traditional favorite with my family because it is a pumpkin chiffon, the perfect finale to kind of a gut busting meal – you know what I mean…

Categories: Blogging, Books, Cooking, Culture, Entertaining, Entertainment, Film, Friendship, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Life, Los Angeles, Marriage, Memoir, Movies, Photography, Recipes, Relationships, Story, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized • Tags: actor, actress, behind the scenes, coconut, cooking, Fred MacMurray, gingersnap crust, history, Hollywood, Hollywood Recipe, June Haver, Los Angeles, Movie Star, Old Hollywood, pumpkin chiffon pie, pumpkin pie, recipe, rum, Thanksgiving

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

“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

Being of a certain age, the Rolling Stones are my equivalent to Baby Mozart, so sometimes I listen to their music and cook to calm down…dinner for six with Vickie Lester

November 21, 2015 by Vickie Lester

Braised Chicken with Olives, Carrots, and Preserved Lemon: 1 chicken cut into pieces and 4 thighs 8 carrots 1 large onion 2 handfuls of Castlevetrano olives with pits 8 sundried tomatoes in olive oil Enough chicken stock to cover the chicken (2 cups-ish) Enough olive oil to barely coat the bottom of a braising pan (just a smidge or your chicken won’t brown) 1 quarter of a preserved lemon A couple of fresh thyme sprigs 1 tsp. minced rosemary […]

Categories: Advertising, Art, Blogging, Books, Cooking, Culture, Design, Entertainment, fashion, Film, Gastronomy, History, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoir, Movies, Music, Photography, Recipes, Truth & Rumors, Uncategorized, Writing • Tags: #MickJagger, apple berry cinnamon crumble recipe, braised chicken with olives carrots lemons, Hollywood behind the scenes, Hollywood facts fictionalized, John Pasche design, recipe, rolling stones lips and tongue, sticky fingers tour, therapeutic cooking

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