Sudden Death

Murder, She Wrote - S1:E16

A relative of Jessica's leaves her some shares in his will, and when every man Jack seems keen to buy them from her, she becomes very suspicious. J.B. is always canny with her money. Stingy no, but canny, yes. She flat out refuses all offers.

She's utterly thrilled when she discovers that these shares make her the part-owner of a football team. Jessica is always interested in absolutely everything and immediately hotfoots it to the sports field to immerse herself in the competitive world of The Leopards.

She's soon sporting a rather jaunty knitted scarf in the team colours.

Everyone loves Jessica (except the ne'er-do-wells, of course), but this is the first episode to show us how great she is with kids. She strikes up a lovely friendship with Jill, the daughter of Zac Farrell, a Leopards team member.

Zac is played by Olympic gold-medal winning decathlon athlete Bruce Jenner, now known, of course, as Caitlyn Jenner.

I love the ending of this episode where Jessica does just the right thing with her sporty shareholdings. But, as I said at the top, she's not stingy. She is, in fact, an extremely generous benefactor.

Here’s a vegetarian recipe for a pasta dish you could enjoy whilst watching this episode.

Bruce Jenner’s High Jump Pasta Primavera

5 cloves garlic, sliced

Olive oil

4 or 5 carrots, sliced

1 bunch broccoli, chopped

6 zucchini, unpeeled and sliced

2 green bell peppers, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

1 yellow bell pepper, sliced

Seasoned salt to taste

Seasoned black pepper to taste

Garlic salt

Garlic powder

1 x 12-oz package bow-tie pasta

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 bunch basil, chopped

Basil sprigs

Sauté the garlic in a small amount of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat until tender.  Add the carrots and sauté for 8 to 10 minutes.  Add the broccoli and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 to 6 minutes.  Add the zucchini and green, red and yellow bell pepper and cook until tender.  As the vegetables cook, season them to taste with the salt, black pepper, garlic salt and garlic powder.  Add a small amount of oil if necessary.  While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the pasta according to the package instructions.  Drain well and pour into a serving dish.  Spoon the vegetables over the pasta, add the cheese and chopped basil and toss to mix.  Garnish with basil sprigs.

Serves 4-6

Next week on Murder, She Cooked, a recipe from the kitchen of the legendary Ron Masak.

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.

All testers will receive a postcard featuring a specially commissioned illustration of an Angela Lansbury recipe, artwork by Miriam Figueras. Not this big though!

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

Got a Joan Crawford fan in your life? My Cooking With Joan Crawford book is only available from Blurb.

Only a few copies of the Vincent Price cookbook left so don’t delay if you’d like one of these.

Check out Tim Benzie’s Solve-Along-A Murder-She-Wrote website here. His shows are an absolute HOOT - Tim did a private show for my hen night. Can you guess which episode we did?

Check out Thom Kofoed’s etsy shop for loads of great goodies plus he’s doing T-shirts now, including one featuring our beloved Angela Lansbury.

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