Death Stalks The Big Top

Murder, She Wrote S3:E1 and E2 - it's a double!

Mar 13, 2024

Ooh, a family wedding! One of J.B.'s many nieces is getting married,

with all the stress that sometimes goes with a big wedding. Especially if the bride's grandmother is a snob and a driven social climber.

Jessica puts her acting skills to great use in this episode, going undercover to infiltrate the Carmody Family Circus.

She wears a giant hat and enormous heart-shaped sunglasses, looking utterly bonkers but fabulous too.

J.B. is right at home with the carnies. She casually picks up a chimpanzee who crosses her path and kisses it,

then chats away in a broad, fake accent to one of the circus-folk Maylene, who has impressively bouffant backcombed hair.

Of course, there is a murder to solve, but Jessica immediately knows that the elephants are not to blame.

This is a two-parter, so there are two recipes to accompany it. A young Courteney Cox plays the beautiful bride, and Jackie Cooper (attention: spoiler alert!)

her grandfather. So why not have Jackie's macaroni for lunch and watch part one, then have Courteney's scones with a nice pot of tea whilst watching part two?

Jackie's dish is almost a macaroni and cheese, except there is no cheese in it! When I made this for my ex-boyfriend Vic, I constructed two versions, one with and one without. We did think it was good with added cheese, and I don't believe Jackie would mind too much if you decided to bung some in.

Jackie Cooper's Curried Eggs and Macaroni

½ pound macaroni

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

½ -1 tablespoon curry powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups milk

6 hard-boiled eggs, cooled and sliced

Buttered breadcrumbs

Bring a pan of salted water to a boil, place the macaroni in it, and let it cook until tender. Drain and rinse with hot water until all the starch is removed.

Next, make a cream sauce. Melt the butter and add the flour, curry powder, salt, and milk. Cook until thickened and add to the macaroni.

Place the macaroni in a baking dish, alternating layers of macaroni with layers of hard-boiled eggs, ending with the macaroni on top. Sprinkle with buttered breadcrumbs and brown under the broiler/grill.

Serves 4-6

Courteney Cox's Currant Scones

3 cups all-purpose/plain flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda/bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut up

⅓ cup dried currants

1 large egg, lightly beaten

¾ cups plus 1 tablespoon of buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Lightly flour a large cookie sheet.

In large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the butter and blend until mixture resembles fine meal. Stir in the currants. Mix in the egg and ¾ cup of the buttermilk to form a soft dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough ¾ inch thick. With a 2½-inch round cookie cutter, cut out as many rounds as possible, gathering the scraps together to use up all the dough.

Transfer the rounds to the prepared cookie sheet. Brush the tops with remaining buttermilk. Bake the scones for 18 minutes or until golden-brown and cooked through. Serve warm with butter or jam.

Makes 12 scones

Next month on Murder, She Cooked…

Do you like classic movies?

On my other Substack, I propose a classic film to watch each month with an accompanying recipe.

This month it is Rebecca

with an excellent recipe for Chicken Fontaine - skip over here to check it out.

In-Person Events

I’m going to be at the Hippfest Silent Cinema Festival in Bo’ness, Scotland next week. I’ll be introducing a screening of some silent cinemagazine material and hosting a Joan Crawford cocktails and canapés workshop. It would be so lovely to meet some of you, the Hippodrome is my favourite cinema in the whole world. Skip over here for details

Me on a podcast!

The fun interview I did with Christina Webber for the Hippcast podcast is out now. If you’d like to hear me chatting about why Joan Crawford never sat on a bar stool with her back to the room,