Hooray For Homicide

Murder, She Wrote - S1:E3

This episode has a spectacular opening, as Jessica appears to be strangling someone with a piece of rope. 

But, instead, it turns out that she's acting out a possible murder scenario for a forthcoming book.

She walks back to her typewriter, saying to herself out loud, "I've decided to go back to the bayonet; it's a lot cleaner." Feeding a crisp new piece of paper into her trusty Royal KMM Magic Margin, we see her in her golden zone. This is what Jessica loves to do, working through her plots, figuring out twists and turns and getting the words down on paper.

Her concentration is interrupted by the telephone. Her friend Agnes calls to let her know she's being talked about on TV.  

The Corpse Danced at Midnight, J.B.'s book, is being adapted by a controversial Hollywood producer Jerry Lydecker. He claims it will have everything the modern audience wants, namely music, sex and violence.  

Jessica is outraged that her novel is going to be debased. Her plot certainly did not involve a psychotic killer using a flame thrower on a group of breakdancers!

She gets on a plane to L.A. quick smart. Much skulduggery ensues.

Samantha Eggar plays Marta Quintessa, the costume designer on The Corpse Danced at Midnight. Rocking up at the studio wearing an enormous hat and driving an open-topped sports car, she invites Jessica to hop in.

Agreeing with J.B. that Jerry and the screenwriter have trashed her plot, Marta becomes her Hollywood confidante. I like to imagine them sitting down together to share some wine, a tostada salad and a good gossip.

Samantha Eggar's Tostada Salad

1 lb ground/minced beef

1 can red kidney beans 

1 head lettuce, shredded

2 tomatoes, diced (not too fine)

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

1 avocado

1/2 bag Fritos (regular size, crushed)

Thousand Island dressing to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Tabasco or hot sauce

Taco sauce (optional)

Brown meat in a pan that has a lid, add the drained kidney beans, cover and lower heat for 10 minutes.

Combine the lettuce, tomatoes, onion and cheese (this can be done ahead), add the Fritos, meat and bean mixture and sliced avocado.

Add Thousand Island dressing (not too much as it will be too wet). Mix everything together, add salt and pepper and Tabasco or hot sauce to taste. Offer the taco sauce at the table. Serve with French bread and wine. 

Serves: 6-8

Enjoy sprinkling some stardust around your kitchen! If you try Samantha’s salad, do let me know how it turned out in the comments below. All thoughts on this episode are welcome too.

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Next week on Murder, She Cooked, a recipe from the kitchen of Lynn Redgrave.

Here come all the linky-links!

More movie star recipes can be found over at the Silver Screen Suppers blog - 15 years and counting.

You’ll find me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook by searching for Silver Screen Suppers.

Would you like to test a recipe for the forthcoming Murder, She Cooked book? Leave a comment on this post or drop me a line via this link to my contact page.

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?

My typewriter logo was designed by the divine Thom Kofoed - do check out his etsy shop for loads of great goodies.

Everyone who tests a recipe for me will receive a postcard featuring an Angela Lansbury recipe, commissioned from my wonderful food illustrator friend Miriam Figueras.

It won’t be that big, of course! Do you like my Jessica Fletcher raincoat?!

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