Death Casts A Spell

Murder, She Wrote - S1:E9

The "Tonight on Murder, She Wrote" preamble to this show makes me laugh a lot. There are great soundbites from Jessica and other stars of the episode, plus we see her jumping onto a motorbike and speeding off into the distance in pursuit of a car. 

Diana Canova plays the very excitable Joan Germaine, an assistant editor at Jessica's publishing company.

Joan's got an idea for Jessica's next book that she wants to pitch. She's obsessed with a stage hypnotist called Cagliostro, and I must admit when he strolls past in his white safari suit, I can almost see the attraction.

Joan says, "Men fear him; women adore him!" Jessica's response is, "I've never heard of him!"

Of course, Cagliostro has heard of J.B Fletcher, and she is invited to a special in-person press session with him. Unfortunately, Jessica is held up in the lobby by a crazed fan

and misses a murder, but she has a good snoop around when she arrives on the scene.

She's got her eyes and ears fully alert, which is more than can be said for most of the other folk in this episode.

When Joan is pitching her book idea to Jessica, they are drinking rosé wine, which would be appropriate with Diana's Meat Loaf. Pre-dinner, if you are partial to a cocktail, you could bark out an order for "Double Gibson Rocks"

without a please or thank-you as Mrs Kellijian does.

Diana Canova's "Amazing" Meat Loaf 

1 lb lean ground round

1 lb lean ground pork

1 cup sour cream

1 egg, beaten

½ cup Italian-style breadcrumbs (herb flavoured)

½ cup mild onion, chopped

½ green pepper, finely chopped

½ teaspoon seasoned salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1½ teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

½ cup chilli sauce

2-3 slices lean bacon, optional

Preheat oven to 325℉.

Combine the beef, pork, sour cream, egg, breadcrumbs, onion, green pepper, salt and black pepper to taste, and Worcestershire sauce.  Mix well, preferably with hands, so that all the ingredients are well blended.  Mound the meat loaf into a foil-lined baking pan. Coat the outside of the loaf with chilli sauce to form a glaze.  Lay the bacon slices on top of the loaf if desired.  Bake for 1½ hours or until the loaf is done and the bacon is crisp and brown.

Serves 6-8

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Next week on Murder, She Cooked, a recipe from the kitchen of Edie Adams.

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If you like Columbo, you might like my Cooking With Columbo cookbook

and if you have never been to a Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote live show, check out the amazing Tim Benzie’s website here. Tim did a private show for my hen night. Can you guess which episode we did?

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Cheerio for now, tune in for another episode next week!