Angela Lansbury's Kitchen Sink Salad Demo

Plus some info on the progress of Murder, She Cooked Vol 2

Jan 24, 2024

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who responded to my shoutout for test cooks. I am processing all of your feedback and will be sharing some of your fabulous photos here soon.

Lots of folks have told me that they are looking forward to having Murder, She Cooked #2 on the shelf next to #1, and this makes me insanely happy.

I thought some of you might like to follow the book’s progress, so I will share how I am getting on via this newsletter occasionally. Like Jessica, though, I have to finish another book first…

Some of you may know I am working on a book called Cooking the Detectives. This will be in a similar vein to Murder, She Cooked and Cooking With Columbo but will cover many other favourite sleuth-led shows such as Poirot, Cagney & Lacey, Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch, Miss Marple, Hart to Hart - there is a long list!

In 2024, I’ll occasionally be sharing draft chapters of the next book with members of the Cabot Cove Club (aka paid subscribers). I will also begin sharing video demos of all the Angela Lansbury recipes in volume 1 of Murder, She Cooked - even the one with oysters in… This gives me the fear, but I am gonna do it anyway!

Here’s the first video demo, free to all, to give you a taste of what’s in store.

If any of you make Angela’s salad, I would love to hear how it turns out for you. Reply to any of these Murder, She Cooked emails and send me pix if you think to take any.

My next video will be a demo of Angela’s Mustard Vinaigrette - a very handy dressing to have in your fridge that comes with a typo warning…

If you want to be the Julia Child of Cabot Cove

and watch video demos of all of Angela’s recipes, sign up here. A monthly subscription costs less than a cup of coffee at the Joshua Peabody Inn!

The idea behind Murder, She Cooked.

The seed for writing the Murder, She Cooked book was planted in my mind when I was in Birmingham, UK, doing a book launch event for my Columbo cookbook.

Gavin, one of the organisers of the event at the Staying Cool penthouse suite in the legendary Rotunda, said, “You should do one of these cookbooks to go with Murder, She Wrote,” and I had one of those Jessica Fletcher, end-of-the-episode lightbulb moments right there and then.

That was in 2018. But I didn’t reflect and pause. I got onto the internet and bought the box set immediately! After watching just a few episodes of series 1, it was game on! I had a look at my movie star recipe spreadsheet to check that I would have enough recipes from the stars and co-stars and was thrilled that I did. Here’s a tiny snapshot of a small section of my spreadsheet.

There are currently 8,474 recipes on my spreadsheet, so I’ll never be short of things to cook!

That Bea Arthur Cream of Carrot Soup is very good, by the way - here’s a link to two of Bea’s recipes on my Silver Screen Suppers website if you are a fan of the divine Golden Girls.

Anne Baxter’s Mexican Cheese Supper Sandwich is seriously good too…

But hang on, I’m getting distracted by food here. I’m so hungry!

Writing Volume 1 of Murder, She Cooked

I had fully intended to write about all of the Murder, She Wrote episodes in one book, but I soon realised it would be HUGE if I did that, and it would never fit through a letterbox…

So I decided to split it in two.

My favourite part of writing the first book was receiving feedback emails from folks worldwide who tested recipes for me. During the two lockdowns we had here in the UK during the COVID-19 epidemic, those emails really made my day during some lonely times, especially when they included photographs like this!

Vol 2

The first step for Volume 2 was to identify which recipes still needed testing. When I began work on the project, as I thought I’d be doing everything in one fell swoop, I was sending out recipes for all 12 seasons and the TV movies, so I already had feedback for some.

I got a list of recipes together and called out for test cooks here on Substack in October. Lots of fabulous feedback has already come in, and I will be sharing photographs of some of the delights which will be featured in Volume 2 very soon.

A big THANKS A MILLION to all my test cooks - love you forever!

Coming next on the Murder, She Cooked Substack

The next instalment of Murder, She Cooked will feature episode 22 of series 2

so keep an eye on your inbox. If you are reading this online and would like to receive the episode guides and recipes directly by email, just sign up below.

Until then, my beloved Fangelas!