Deadline for Murder

Murder, She Wrote S3:E7

Aug 14, 2024

Jessica is thrown into the world of newspaper reporting when an ex-colleague needs her help. In her youth, J.B. cut her writing teeth as a cub reporter, and she is dismayed to hear that her beloved boss from those days, Haskell Drake, has suffered a heart attack.

The new slash-and-burn boss at the paper calls him a “burned out has-been,”

Jessica, however, knows him to be an “outstanding newspaperman.”

Haskell sniffs a big story when his bullying boss dies under mysterious circumstances and gets back into scoop mode. He manages to smuggle a typewriter and some cigars into the hospital

and asks Jessica to do some legwork so he can work on the reporting.

J.B. can’t resist, of course. But when she visits the hospital with important findings, Haskell feels she’s not getting to the point quickly enough. He waves a cigar around, “Hold it, hold it! Where’s your lead paragraph?” he asks.

“I’m coming to that,” Jessica says firmly.

But he’s impatient; “Before you do, they’ll be reading the vitamin content off their cereal boxes!”

Taking off her spectacles, she says, “You know, it’s all coming back to me now. Why I chose to marry Frank rather than pursuing a newspaper career with you.”

But as Haskell says, and we all know this to be true, Jessica would have made a first-rate newspaper reporter. She has a nose for a good story.

Don’t poison your guests with hospital food like chipped beef and tapioca pudding when you watch this episode;

these stuffed mushrooms would be much more appropriate!

Katherine Cannon’s Stuffed Mushrooms

12 large mushrooms

1 large clove of garlic, minced/crushed

1 tablespoon olive oil or safflower margarine

½ cup chopped scallions/spring onions

½ cup chopped salted cashew nuts

3 oz cream cheese, softened

Poultry seasoning to taste

½ cup fine seasoned breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 450 ℉.

Remove the stems from the mushroom caps and dice the stems. Lightly sauté the mushroom caps and garlic in the olive oil for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the caps and set aside. In the same pan, sauté the diced mushroom stems, scallions, and cashews. Blend this mixture with the cream cheese, poultry seasoning and breadcrumbs. Stuff the mushroom caps with the mixture, place in a shallow baking pan and bake for 15 minutes.

Makes 12 stuffed mushrooms, about 6 servings.

Next on Murder, She Cooked

OMG IT’S MAGNUM!

Dinner And A Movie

This month’s Dinner And A Movie suggestion is My Man Godfrey (1936) featuring Carole Lombard and William Powell. Come and join us, watch the movie in your own sweet time and if you feel like it, have an accompanying star-spangled dish, or cocktail.

This month’s cocktail is the Carole Lombard Golden Fizz - it’s a cocktail that is easy to make non-alcoholic if that’s your bag. It’s from my new 1933 Cocktail book facsimile.