Category: Bourbon

Malice In The Hollow

Hello, cocktail lovers and Agatha Christie readers. While this post might not be our usual “Dining With The Dame” feature for March, fret not! Instead, consider it a literary aperitif, a tasty prelude to the main course.  Today’s recipe is a cocktail called “Malice in The Hollow.” This concoction is a playful riff on Hedda Hopper’s recipe titled “Malice in Hollywood,” which I found in the fantastic book “Recipes for Rebels” by a friend of the blog,  Greg Swenson. Greg, being the good sport he is, I’m sure won’t mind a little tampering with Hedda’s, original recipe!  The Hollow, a 1946 novel by Agatha Christie is our current Dining With The Dame read.  

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Hedda Hopper and Agatha Christie

Hedda Hopper, an American gossip columnist and actress, was born in 1885. This makes her a contemporary of Agatha Christie, who was five years younger. Intrigued by a possible connection between the two, I began to research. Perhaps, I thought, Hedda had starred in a film adaptation of one of Christie’s acclaimed novels. Sadly, this was not the case.  

However, the Wikipedia article for the 1965 version of “Ten Little Indians” (also known as “And Then There Were None”) cites an article by Hedda Hopper. This tantalizing detail sparked my curiosity. Did their paths ever cross beyond this single reference?  Calling all Agatha Christie and Hedda Hopper superfans! If you have any information about a deeper connection between these two ladies, please share it!

Now, let’s shift gears. “Malice in Hollywood” is a fitting description for Hedda Hopper’s career. She wielded her pen with a vitriolic touch, becoming one of the most feared figures in Hollywood. Furthermore, her staunch conservative views fueled her column during the McCarthy era, where she relentlessly denounced those with leftist leanings.

Hedda Hopper

The Malice In Hollywood Cocktail

In Recipes for Rebels, Greg says that Hedda was said to have created the Malice in Hollywood Cocktail in the 1940’s.  The OG recipe is below.  

Hedda Hoppers Malice in Hollywood

 

The Malice In The Hollow Cocktail

I am not fond of Bourbon so I have changed the ratios and added some lemon juice to balance out the sweetness of the Apricot Brandy.  

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Malice In The Hollow

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A bourbon sour, based on Hedda Hopper’s Malice in Hollywood

Ingredients

Scale

2 parts Bourbon (ideally Jim Beam black)

2 parts Apricot Brandy

1 part lemon juice

Dried Apricot and Lemon peel to garnish

Instructions

Combine the bourbon, apricot brandy and lemon juice in a shaker

Shake over ice then strain into a cocktail glass.

Garnish with dried apricots and a twist of lemon

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Next week’s post will be our Dining with The Dame for The Hollow, so there is still plenty of time to read it if you so desire!  

Also, why not pop over to Amazon and buy a copy of Recipes For Rebels?  It is a beautifully curated book of celebrity recipes which I am sure you will love!

Have a great week!

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Admiral Highball – Appointment with Death

Hello food lovers and crime readers!   Today we have not only an Appointment with Death but also a meeting with an Admiral!  An Admiral Highball that is! As mentioned in my previous post on Manakish, there is no food mentioned in Agatha’s Appointment with Death.  There is however a mention of the cocktail called a Highball. I searched through my cocktail recipes and decided that an Admiral Highball would be my drink of choice for this book.

Why you ask?  Well…Admiral Highball sounds like he might be a character in a Golden Age murder mystery.  Or one of the potential murderers in a game of Cluedo.  “It was Admiral Highball in the boatshed with a fishing rod” sounds almost too good to be made up!  More importantly, though, the Admiral Highball contains bourbon and I thought that was a nice nod to the American Boynton family who feature in this story!

Admiral Highball 1

Also, welcome to the RFFMT family, the gorgeous Carmen Vaseranda!  She’ll be popping in now and again to give her verdict on fruity concoctions. She is an absolute beauty isn’t she?

Appointment with Death – The Plot

You know how sometimes you may feel your mother is a little overbearing and/or demanding?  I hear you.  But believe me.  None of our collective issues prepares us for Mrs. Boynton. She’s Flowers in the Attic level mad in her control over her family! Formerly a prison warden, Mrs. B treats her adult children like her former prisoners!  Their touring party consists of her adopted adult children Raymond, Carol, Lennox, her own daughter Ginevra, and Raymond’s wife Nadine.

They are all somewhat psychologically scarred by their years under their mother’s control – some more than others.  Then Mrs Boyton is found dead.  She was taking medication for a heart condition so was her passing from natural causes?  Or something more sinister?  Admiral Highball 2

We have

  • Poirot overhearing the following words through an open window on his first night in Jerusalem.  “You do see, don’t you, that’s she’s got to be killed?”
  • Raymond Boynton catching feelings for Dr. Sarah King, a member of their travelling party.
  • Nadine on the verge of leaving Lennox due to his mother’s control over them
  • Ginevra Boyton increasingly losing hold of reality
  • A number of missing hypodermic needles
  • Some missing digitoxin
  • A tiny mark on Mrs Boynton’s wrist.  Could it be from the prick of a needle?
  • Pretty much everyone lying because they think someone they love did the evil deed

It’s a tangled tale.  Good thing we have Poirot on hand to bring the wrongdoer to justice!

Appointment With Death – The Covers

This, even if I do say so my self is an amazing collection!  Three Italian and one Vietnamese for a start!  I know I always gush over the colours but each and every one of these is amazing!

Appointment with Death Collage

Just as quck aside, you may be wondering why both my photo above and one of these pics has a Buddha when the story is set entirely in the Middle East?  Well it’s because at least once Mrs B is described as a Buddha:

“here, like an arch priestess of some forgotten cult, like a monstrous swollen female Buddha, sat Mrs Bonyton”

But none of above covers  prepares us for the mec plus ultra of covers for Appointment for Death which is, of course, the Tom Adams cover.  Just imagine you have heard the above plot points and seen the covers that came before you.  And instead of using motifs like an older, fat woman, scenes of Jordan, or a  threatening Arab (not even remotely featured in the story but back in the day apparently no one cared about casual racism) you come up with this!

Bravo and a standing ovation for Tom Adams.  I have no idea what your cover means, it bears no relevance to the script.

But I love you for creating it!!!

And hate you for giving me nightmares because of it!  I mean what the hell is that  coming out of that woman’s head?

The Recipe – Admiral Highball

Admiral Highball 3My recipe for the Admiral Highball came from The Mammoth Book of Cocktails by Paul Martin

Admiral Highball Recipe

Mr Jefferson Cope took another sip of highball and went on:

“I’d like to tell you, Dr Gerard, just a little of the Boynton family history”

Appointment with Death – Agatha Christie

Links to The Christieverse

I was able to find three references to other books in Appointment with Death:

  • Colonel Race and the Shaitana murder are mentioned by Colonel Carbury (Cards on The Table)
  • Nadine speaks of Poirot’s accepting the official version of the truth in the case of the Orient Express
  • Miss Pierce says she read all about the ABC CaseAdmiral Highball 4

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Appointment with Death

  • Coffee (twice)
  • Whisky Soda (twice)
  • Tea (Twice)
  • Soda Water

As I said at the top – not a huge amount to choose from!

Last time I posted I was heading to Darwin, later this week I am doing a two-day work trip to Adelaide.  My reading material on the flights will be next month’s selection, Murder is Easy. Adelaide is considered the weird murder capital of Australia so goodness only knows what I’ll find there!  Actually, maybe I won’t take Murder is Easy – I don’t want to give some nutter any ideas!

Have a great week!

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Rhinestone Cowgirl – For Cowboy Day

Welcome back to Cowboy Day part 2.  This one is most definitely not for children so let’s assume the little darlings are tucked up in bed, the cows have been lassoed, the horses fed and watered, the little doggies have been got along and the sun is well and truly over the yardarm.  All this means that it’s time to crack open a bottle of Kentucky’s finest and whip up a cocktail…Howdy cowdy, it’s the Rhinestone Cowgirl!

 

Rhnietone Cowgirl

One of the many joys of blogging…apart from drinking bourbon cocktails at 2 pm ‘cos it’s your “job” are the people you meet.

I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of my blogging chums in real life (Hey Jenny and Battenburg Belle, hope you are having a super Cowboy Day celebration); then there are some like the wonderful Greg who organises this cookalong and Yinzerella who runs Pieathalon who I may never meet IRL but who are much-adored pals.

Then there are the people that you “meet” while researching a topic who are just too amazing not to talk about!  I had thought that Mrs Elizabeth Wilton who made the Beetle Pie might be my most favourite person ever.  But then, while googling about for pictures of Dolly Parton and wondering if I should have made Dumplin’s for my Cowboy Day fare, I encountered the original Rhinestone Cowgirl….ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a rowdy Cowdy hoot and a holler for Bobbie Nudie!

 

Who?  You might be asking right about now.  Particularly, if, like me, you initially read her name as Boobie Nudie ( definitely now my new porn name)!  Well, there’s quite the clue in the photograph above.  The guy standing next to Elvis is Nudie Cohn.  He made that Gold Lamé suit.  He was also Bobbie Nudie’s husband.

These two began a company called Nudie Rodeo Tailors which has an absolute cavalcade of famous patrons. Elvis, Roy Rogers, Cher, Elton John, Robert Redford,  The Beatles, John  Wayne, Dolly Parton and countless others – all dressed by the Nudies!

And, as you can also see from the above, Bobbie Nudie remained a glamourous Rhinestone Cowgirl well into her later years!

Here are just a few cuts from the Nudie tailor’s back catalogue

 

 

For more celebrities in Nudie Suits you can click here.

Here’s a couple  more of shots my girl Bobbie:

And, here’s the recipe for the Rhinestone Cowgirl. Why not make one up and then let’s sit a spell, because we’re about to get gossipy!

Rhinestone Cowgirl (Difford’s Guide)

Rhinestone Cowgirl

The Nudie Tailors label is iconic just within itself  Here it is:

And rumour has it that our girl Bobbie is the model for the naked cowgirl on the label!

Huh….maybe she was Boobie Nudie after all!

Sadly, Bobbie Nudie passed away in 2006 at 92 years,

Her obituary in the New York Times showed her at 92 in a floor-length beaded skirt, a bandanna around her neck, a rifle in her hand and her walker at the ready. In announcing her death, The Times called her “the purveyor of glitter.”

Truewestmagazine.com

What a fashion inspiration for all of us!!  I love her so much!!!!!  😍😍😍

Thanks as ever to Greg for organising the Cowboy Day Cookalong and inviting me to celebrate with you!   You are a true gem in a world of rhinestones!!

Happy Cowboy Day all, and if you do raise a glass today, please raise a toast to the wonderful Bobbie Nudie!