Tag: recipe

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

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

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

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