COOKING WITH JOAN CRAWFORD

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By Jenny Hammerton

(October 8, 2023)

Are you ready to sprinkle some stardust around your kitchen?

From the earliest days of Hollywood, movie stars shared their favourite dishes with fan magazines, syndicated newspapers and cookbook compilers. I’ve been collecting these film star recipes for around 25 years, and my stash now numbers over 8,000. I’m gradually cooking my way through them. Some of the results are wonderful, some are inedible, but I always get the feeling that the glamour of tinsel town is rubbing off on me when I am elbow-deep in singing cowboy chilli or mashing up some glamour girl guacamole. Continue reading →

Six California Kitchens-Recipes for Sally Schmidt’s Portuguese Duck & Sausage plus Apricot & Cherry Clafoutis

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“Six California Kitchens is the quintessential California cookbook, with farm-to-table recipes and stories from Sally Schmitt, the pioneering female chef and original founder of the French Laundry.

Sally Schmitt opened The French Laundry in Yountville in 1978 and designed her menus around local, seasonal ingredients—a novel concept at the time.

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NEW YEARS CHEER- A Nostalgic Look at Past New Years Through Images, Movies and Music

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Welcome 2023!

We have brought back some of our favorite images, videos and music from our last version of this celebration and added new finds and fun. You will find music, food, drinks, photos and more. From Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Ella Fitzgerald to Chuck Berry, Etta James, The Ramones, L’l Nas, Nina Simone, and watch The Grateful Dead’s New Year’s Eve 4+ hour concert to close Winterland following a collection of Dead NYE concert posters. There are superheroes, favorite cartoon characters, movie stars from the silent era onwards, comedians including Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Laurel & Hardy and the Three Stooges plus how to  countdown to midnight with Star Wars.

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THE AUTOMAT–Recipes, In The Movies & More

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Assembled by Gary Meyer

(Updated November 21, 2022)

The theatrical release of a new documentary by Lisa Hurwitz, The Automat, has taken me back in time with its wonderful clips from classic movies and discussions of food favorites of our youth from Baked Macaroni and Cheese, Chicken Pot Pie to Custard Cups and Pumpkin Pie. It is essential viewing for those interested in the history of restaurants in the 20th Century, the combining of technology and home-cooked meals and a trip down memory lane even if you were born too late to actually visit one. But we also cover contemporary attempts at automated food. We have included many photos, film clips, recipes, music, and related links to supplement your enjoyment of The Automat now playing in theaters and at film festivals—only on the big screen. 

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2-2-1: Your Ultimate Recipe for Ribs

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By Kristy J. Norton

Like most budding pitmasters, you may have heard of the 3-2-1 method of cooking ribs but the 2-2-1 process may be a bit of a mystery.

Photo by Luis Aleman

Well, the 2-2-1 method is pretty similar. For this process, you smoke the ribs for 2 hours, uncovered. Then, you wrap the ribs and cook the ribs for another 2 hours. Finally, you unwrap the ribs and then cook for an hour, until the ribs are done.

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BREAKING BREAD ACROSS BORDERS + Recipes

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By Joyce Goldstein

A-Sham celebrates the food of the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon) in a three-day event where Arab and Jewish chefs cook their traditional foods together, sharing family recipes and culture.

 

BREAKING BREAD, a new documentary by Beth Elise Hawk focuses on the annual A- Sham Arabic Food Festival in Haifa, a city with a healthy cultural life enjoyed by both Arabs and Jews.

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