Welcome to 2021 people of the internet! What will this year bring I wonder? I’m tempted to say that it can only be better than 2020, However, that seems a bit too much like waving a red flag in front of a particularly vindictive bull that tells me to hold it’s beer even as it is pawing the ground and getting ready to charge. So, let’s swiftly change the subject….hmmm…speaking of alcohol….this is the Evita!
The Evita was my cocktail of choice for NYE and a very good choice it was. It has the fruity sweet-sour flavour that I love. And the colours – acid lime green with a flash of orange from the garnish are like a neon version of the more traditional deep green and red of Christmas. Kind of festive edgy if you will. Or 1970’s chic if you won’t.
Evita – The Cocktail
The Evita cocktail contains vodka, melon liqueur, lime and orange juice. You can find the recipe here. There is another cocktail called the Eva Peron which has very different ingredients so make sure you get the right one if you want to make it. Which you should because it is a delightful little tipple!
Evita – The Woman
Truth be told until I started researching for this cocktail did not know all that much about Eva Peron aka Evita. This is what I knew:
She was the wife of the Argentinian president
There was a musical written about her which includes the song Don’t Cry for me Argentina
Madonna played her in the film version of the musical
She was very glamourous and wore gorgeous clothes
I cannot write the name Eva Peron without first writing the name Eva Person and having to correct it.
What I did not know:
María Eva Duarte met Colonel Juan Peron in 1944 and married him in 1945. He became President of Argentina in 1946
During his presidency, Eva, who became known commonly as Evita worked tirelessly to help the poor people of Argentina and to give women full suffrage.
She spoke publicly on labour rights and ran the Ministries for health and labour.
She set up a charitable foundation dedicated to social justice and helping sick and poor Argentinians
And set up an all-female political party.
In 1951 she announced her candidacy for the nomination of Vice President of Argentina, an act that was hugely popular with poor and working-class people.
She was forced to withdraw her nomination because of failing health.
Eva Peron died of cancer in 1952. She was 33 years old.
The Inspiration
What an amazing woman and what an absolute inspiration! Also, what great timing because this is the time of year when I, (and many other people around the world) are setting goals and making resolutions for the New Year.
Learning about this wonderful woman’s life really made me rethink the goals I had started to set – instead of the usual save more, spend less, drink less, exercise more goals maybe this year I will try to live with some of Eva’s grace and devotion to her cause and conviction. Why not make this the year of being strong, vocal and politically active for the causes I care about. And if I can also have all the glamour and wear some pretty dresses that is a bonus!
So, my friends, let’s all raise a toast to Eva Peron. May she inspire us to live our best lives in 2021!
Mr. Castevet came in, holding in both hands a small tray on which four cocktail glasses ran over with clear pink liquid. “Mr. Woodhouse? A Vodka Blush. Have you ever tasted one? They’re very popular in Australia,” Mr. Castevet said. He took the final glass and raised it to Rosemary and Guy. “To our guests,” he said. “Welcome to our home.”
The Vodka Blushes were tart and very good.
The above quote comes from the novel of Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin. Roman Polanski turned the novel into a classic horror film of the same name in 1968. Here’s me joining in the toast with Rosemary, Guy and their neighbours, The Castavets. Unfortunately, due to lockdown rules, I can’t welcome anyone into my home at the moment. But I can toast absent friends. So when I raised my glass, not only was it to join in the fun of the movie, but also to Jenny of Silver Screen Suppers because, despite being many miles apart we are doing a recipe collab around Rosemary’s Baby!
Opening Credits – The Vodka Blush
The film opens with an unseen woman singing what sounds like a creepy lullaby over city street noise and these gorgeous hot pink credits! Believe me when I say that there is barely a second of this film that has not been poured over by film critic and fan alike – even the credits have been their own article!
I chose to begin my Collab with the paler pink of a vodka blush and utterly agree with the phrase that they were tart and very good! Sweet / sour is one of my favourite flavour profiles so the Vodka Blush suited my tastes perfectly! And it was so pretty as well. I added a little sprig of Rosemary to mine for obvious reasons!
You can find the recipe for a vodka blush here. It is really easy to make – just three ingredients!
Act Two – Rosemary’s Baby Plot And Mia Farrow’s Yoghurt Gazpacho
Rosemary’s Baby centres around a young couple, Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse (played by John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow) who we initially meet searching for a new apartment in New York. They decide to rent an apartment in the Bramford building despite it having a dark past. They move in and Rosemary sets about decorating the apartment. (For an in-depth description of the inside of the apartment, click here).
Guy and Rosemary meet their neighbours, an older couple, The Castevet’s who invite them round for dinner and vodka blushes. Despite being initially reluctant to go, Guy hits it off with Roman Castevets and starts spending more time with him. Rosemary has no such feelings about Minnie Castevets and even though you can tell she is too polite to say so, is annoyed when Minnie and friend pop over unannounced. Minnie gives Rosemary Terry’s pendant, a supposed good luck charm containing a stinky substance called “tannis root”.
Guy who had been up until then a bit part actor lands a leading role when the man who was going have the lead goes blind. Buoyed by his good fortune Guy and Rosemary go full steam ahead with their plans to start a family. On the night Rosemary is ovulating, the couple are having a romantic dinner when Minnie brings over some “Chocolate mouse”. Rosemary eats very little of it but almost immediately starts to feel very ill and passes out.
During this time she has a “dream” in which she is a raped by a demon while Guy, the Castevets and their friends watch on. She wakes up covered in scratches. Guy laughs off her concern saying he didn’t want to miss out on baby-making night (this scene is so gross and really cements out view of Guy as a self-centred narcissist not to mention rapist!).
Shortly thereafter Rosemary discovers she is pregnant and here her nightmare begins. Her pregnancy is not easy – she is losing weight and in constant pain. Rosemary then comes to believe that the building is the home to a coven of witches lead by Roman Castevets. She becomes increasingly suspicious of Guy wondering if he is also in league with them.
Rosemary tries to run away but Guy and Doctor Sappirstein track her down. They return to the apartment and she goes into labour. When she awakes she is told that the baby was stillborn. However, over the following days she starts to hear a baby crying in the Casavet’s apartment. She picks up a knife and sneaks into the apartment to find Guy, the Castevets and other members of the coven gathered around a bassinet over which hangs an inverted cross. Guy confesses that in return for fame he gave the child to Satan who is, in fact, the baby’s father.
Through all of this Mia Farrow as Rosemary is luminous. She is so beautiful (even when she is meant to be looking gaunt and ill) and her clothing throughout is pitch-perfect! More on the clothes can be found here.
Also pitch-perfect is the recipe Jenny sent me for Mia Farrow’s yoghurt gazpacho! I adore Gazpacho but had never tried one with yoghurt before. It was delicious. So refreshing and would be perfect for a hot summer’s day. The gazpacho is so tasty and the yoghurt so soothing that I made it again a few days later when I had a stomach ache! Confession – I ate so much of the gazpacho I could barely eat the second course! But that just meant more leftovers. Also, the recipe calls for parsley which I added for the OG version. The second time I made it, I only had basil so I added that instead. It changed the flavour but was also delicious!
The Final Act – John Cassavetes Minted Meatballs and Spooky Tales about Rosemary Baby
Jenny also sent me the recipe for John Cassavetes Minted Meatballs. Before we get to them, you cannot believe the problems I have had writing Cassavetes and Castevets in the same post. I don’t think I have written it correctly ONCE.
I was quite prepared to hate these meatballs based solely on the fact that John Cassavetes character in Rosemary Baby’s is such a tremendous arsehole. I’ll hand it to him though. The meatballs were good. I ate mine on cheesy bread. I had filled myself up on three glasses of the gazpacho by the time I got to the meatballs so I only ate two on the night but they heated up really well for lunch during the week.
The mint was really tasty in these. I am thinking that the next time I make these, I will use lamb instead of beef because mint and lamb go so well together. What I liked best about these meatballs though was, as they cooked, the grains of rice started to poke out, making them look like little spiky sea urchins in a sea of to tomato sauce!
And now here are some weird facts about Rosemary’s Baby – which has been called ” the most cursed hit movie ever made”.
Krzysztof Komeda, the composer fell off a cliff at a party and suffered terrible head injuries. He was in a coma for four months before passing away (incidentally the same fate that befalls Rosemary’s friend Hutch in the film).
The year after the release of Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski’s pregnant wife Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Manson family.
The Manson Family wrote “Helter Skelter”‘ in blood on the walls of the Tate crime scene.
Helter Skelter is a song off The Beatles The White Album. Mia Farrow was in attendance for at least part of the recording of the White Album. The Beatles song Dear Prudence is about her sister.
The Bramford Building is, in reality, the Dakota Building. MArk Chapman shot John Lennon to death outside this same building on 8 December 1980.
Little bit spooky no?
Huge thanks to Jenny for the recipes and for joining in !!! It is always nice to collab on something and this one was well and truly a breath of fresh air during lockdown! You can read about her experiences with Rosemary’s Baby here! Oh, and I hope she won’t mind me sharing this photo which was of Jenny doing her Vincent Price impersonation. I will always think of it as the Rosemary’s Baby picture now!
Back in my school days, we had an annual music competition where each House had to arrange and sing a song of their choice to assorted judges, family, staff and fellow schoolmates.
One year the song selected by my House Music Captain for all of us to sing started like this:
Bonnie and Clyde were pretty lookin’ people,
But I can tell you people,
They were the devil’s children.
I had no idea who Bonnie and Clyde before then but wow! Believe me, just those opening lines were enough to send me racing to the Encyclopedia Britannica for more! Pretty people? Of course I wanted to know more. Pretty people who were also evil? My 14-year-old mind was blown. Who knew such a thing even existed!
Why am I telling you all this?
Because a little while ago the lovely Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers asked if I would test out a cocktail recipe for her upcoming cookbook. The cocktail was the Faye Dunaway cocktail, and Faye played Bonnie Parker in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.
And oh boy, you want to talk about pretty looking people?
Oh, the glamour!!!!
The Faye Dunaway Cocktail is also pretty glam! It was invented in 2011 by Jonathan Humphrey of the Drake Hotel in Toronto and was inspired by the film Chinatown, which stars Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson.
The recipe for the Faye Dunaway cocktail calls for mango juice which I was unable to find. I also do not have a juicer so I puréed a fresh mango. I was a little worried because the mango purée was quite thick but it worked out perfectly. So do not despair if you also cannot find juice. If fresh mango is unavailable frozen would also work perfectly!
The Faye cocktail perfectly balances sweet, spicy and sour flavours in a glorious mix of mango, lime and chilli. It’s sooooo good! I loved it – it reminded me of sunshine and holidays and tropical climes! I made this exactly as per the recipe. However, even though this is divine as is, I can’t help wondering what it might be like if you also brought in a salty element by edging the glass? Salty, sweet hot and sour being the four elements Thai cooks try to bring into balance. Because that is really what the flavours of this cocktail reminded me of…cocktails on a beach in Thailand.
Faye’s birthday is coming up on January 14. I was going to hold off posting this until the day itself. Then I thought it would be much more fun to give you all a chance to buy the ingredients so we could all celebrate her gorgeousness and iconic fashion sense by donning a beret and drinking one of these in her honour!
I will be trying the Salty Faye myself but if anyone makes either version, please let me know what you think!
And speaking of iconic fashion…I had so much fun trying to find the Dinah Shore look a few weeks ago that I thought I would give it another go.
Here is my take on Faye’s Bonnie and Clyde look fashion via my very first post on Polyvore. Because don’t we all need a little bad girl glam every now and again?
Oh, and for anyone who is wondering how our music competition turned out?
The judges said that our singing and arrangement were spot on but that the content was inappropriate for both us to be singing and our audience to be listening to!
If you would like to hear the scurrilous lyrics not fit for the mouths of good God-fearin’ girls (and see some photos of the real Bonnie and Clyde) here’s a YouTube of that song:
Many thanks to Jenny for the opportunity to help with her book (I will let you all know when it is ready to be purchased, it’s going to be awesome!) and for selecting such a fabulous recipe for me to try!
Hey people of the internet..I know, it’s been a while… it’s been a pretty shitty start to the year.
My step father passed away a couple of weeks ago and it’s been a horrible, weird, grief filled couple of weeks. Maybe I’ll talk about it more in time but at the moment….it’s still all a bit too raw. I had written most of this post on the Peter Piper cocktail before all the shit got real. So, here it is, pretty much unedited because I just want to get something out to resume some semblance of normality….
Don’tcha just love it when two three of your favorite things come together in a perfect storm of awesomeness? Of course you do! Which is how I came to find the Peter Piper cocktail.
The original Peter Piper Cocktail comes from a recipe by Georgia Hardstark and Alie Ward. So, here are some things you need to know about Georgia Hardstark.
She can make a mean cocktail
She loves vintage clothes
Along with Karen Kilgariff she is the host of one of my favorite new podcasts, My Favourite Murder
One of which would be reason enough to like her. All three combined? OMG….massive girl crush!
Also, here are some things you need to know about the Peter Piper cocktail. Actually, no just one.
The original recipe requires dry vermouth. Do not assume that just because you had dry vermouth the last time you made a cocktail, that you will still have dry vermouth. More specifically, do not wait until you have your vodka on ice in the damn cocktail shaker to realise that the dry vermouth has either disappeared into some Bermuda Trianglesque worm hole surrounding your bar cart or you drank a damn sight more of those Lord Suffolk cocktails on NYE than your memory has so far allowed you to admit. My money’s on the worm hole. Because you know, a lot of things go missing from that area of the dining room. And the stuff that is left? The levels also mysteriously change. Spooky..
Also, the girls used pepper vodka, I made my own chilli infused vodka and used that. That is super easy to make – I just chopped up a Bird’s Eye Chilli and put it into a 100ml jar filled with vodka and left it for about a week. And there you have it. Spicy vodka, perfect for mixing with pickle juice, and because you have no dry vermouth, a splash of Fino sherry. With a kick of heat from the vodka, briny sour from the pickle juice, a hint of sweet and nuttiness from the sherry….the Peter Piper is truly a thing of beauty! Perfect to drink with some salty chips whilst listening to your favourite podcast!
As far as I am concerned one of the best things to come out of 2016 for me was a new found love for the podcast. I have always been a big pod listener but l feel that last year raised the bar. So, whilst we sip our Peter Piper’s I’m going to take you through my Top 5 of the pods I discovered and loved in 2016.
These are vaguely in order of my discovery of them and not necessarily my love of them. Except the first three are probably also my top three in terms of love too.
1. The Black Tapes
It’s kinda X Files with loads of creepy children, music that will make you die within a year of hearing it, missing wives, and villain who looks like a Sexy James Bond. Not to mention evil monasteries and people having their faces ripped off.
Start with: You really need to listen to these in order. Start with S1, Episode1.
Standout Episode: The creepy knocking on Alex’s sleep tape gave me chills
2. Tanis
What have I not already said about my love for Tanis. (Brought to you by Pacific North West Stories who also produce The Black Tapes?).
Oh yeah – Both The Black Tapes and Tanis have been on hiatus for a while but The Sandy Island episodes which are for Patreon subscribers only? Totally amazing and made me fall in love with Tanis all over again. Also see my Tanis inspired cocktail posts:
Start With: As with The Black Tapes you need to listen to this in order
Standout Episode: I really liked S1 E3, The Girl in The High Tower which touched on the death of Elisa Lam. And anything with Geoff Van Sant. Or MK. So all of them.
3 My Favourite Murder
Who thought a podcast about murder could be hilarious? Well, let Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff change your mind. And just in case you are wondering, never disrespectful about the victims. They may not be the best researched of all the true crime pods that I will list but they are by far my favourite. I love these gals!
And OMG, the memes that have come out of this. From the catch cry “Stay sexy, don’t get murdered” to “You’re in a cult, call your dad” to “Here’s the thing, fuck everyone”
Don’t Start With: The Canadian Greyhound Bus Cannibal. This one scared the crap out of me. I was almost too scared to go on public transport for weeks after listening to this one!
Start With:The Alphabet Killer. This is absolutely what fascinates me about these things. No spoilers but how did that thing become his thing? Also the one on Israel Keyes. He looks like a guy you would see at a beachside pub wearing a polo shirt and boat shoes and talking too loudly to his bros. Not a serial killer, rapist, bank robber and arsonist. The Israel Keyes episode also spawned the now famous rules of hiking:
Go in packs of five
With knives
With fucking Rottweilers
With knives taped to your hands
And knives taped to your Rottweilers
And then just tons of guns
And just start shooting at any sound you hear
Anyone who fucking approaches you – shoot them
Other: They also have the best fan made merch. I just ordered one of these “Stay sexy, don’t get murdered rings” off Etsy. I feel it’s my version of the WWJD bangle.
4. Casefile
This is also true crime but from Australia. And if MFM is entirely personality driven, Casefile is the facts ma’am just the facts. The host is even anonymous. This is not exclusively Australian content but there is a lot of it on here, proving that when it comes to nutters and psychopaths, we can certainly hold our own with the rest of the world!
Start With: Peter Falconio. I remember this case so well. I also remember how they demonised his poor girlfriend in the media.
Standout Episode: Snowtown. OMG. Find out what happens when a group of people who individually were only ever going to be losers and fuck ups meet up. Spoiler – it ends with bodies in barrels.
In Adelaide.
Of course.
5. The Sofa King Podcast
These guys started following me on Insta so I gave their pod a listen and have not stopped. It’s a mix of true crime, cults, conspiracies, mysteries, and things that go bump in the night.
Start with: Their take on Dahmer. Because no one else will tell you that they found a painted preserved penis in his work locker. For real.
Standout Episode: The 411. This is about people going missing in National Parks. I laughed so hard whilst listening to this that I had to pull my car over to the side of the road because I was no longer capable of driving. Believe me, you will never see Gary Coleman in the same light!
Cornichons, pickled jalapenos, green olive to garnish
Instructions
Add the vodka, pickle brine and sherry to a shaker filled with ice.
Shake it like a polaroid picture.
Pour into 2 glasses and garnish with a sliced cornichon, a green olive and a pickled jalapeno.
Enjoy!
Okay, so I have a couple of 1990’s magazines and a 1990’s cookbook on pasta and risotto, all from my personal collection to share with readers. Point me in the way of your favourite podcasts or let me know if you share my faves and these can be yours! Leave a comment here, on Facebook or Instagram or tweet me.
Have a wonderful week! And give someone you love a big hug….
I conjured up the Eld Fen Martini based on a Twitter suggestion by the Tanis Podcast. And here it is:
But first….
What Is Eld Fen?
Eld Fen also known as Old Fen or King Wurm is a….presence. And it’s seriously fucking creepy. Eld Fen sleeps in the darkest part of the deepest forest. But it’s waking up. And it’s coming…..
Ever walk alone in the woods and all of a sudden the hairs on the back of your neck prick up and you know something else is there? You can’t see it or hear it….yet…but it’s there? Just waiting? Now imagine doing that in the dark. And you walk into a circle of birch trees and the crisp smells of the forest fade into something that is sweet and swampy and rotten all at the same time.
You thought you would be safe in the circle but you’ve turned around a few times trying to find the thing that is out there and now you have no idea which direction is home. Which is scary because you’re out there in the dark all alone.
Now multiply that fear by a thousand. Because the truly frightening thing is that you’re not alone. Because you’ve woken it up. And it’s coming.
And when it does? There will be blood. And madness. And unspeakable horror.
That’s Eld Fen.
There are magical things….
Sweet hopscotching Jesus! I was trying to give you all the Tanis-y creepy chill and managed to scare myself!. Good thing I’ve got a lovely martini to calm me down!
What Is The Eld Fen Martini?
It’s an Eld(erflower) and Fen(nel) Martini with a splash of Chartreuse. So it’s sweet from the Elderflowers, anisey (Tanis – y?) from the fennel and herby from the Chartreuse. Delicious. The perfect pick me up after a hard day’s work searching for a place that may or may not exist. And may make people crazy when they find it.
The hardest thing about making the Eld Fen Martini was trying to walk the line between making something that conveyed the swampy, sickly aspects of Eld Fen without making it so disgusting that no one would ever want to drink it. I felt my first attempt, which did not have the Chartreuse, was too pretty, this did not at all convey swampy, hint of pus look I wanted.
Hmm….
I bet you never read that last sentence in a food blog before. And now you know why I chose Eld Fen over Hint Of Pus Martini.
What do you mean you don’t want to have a drink with me? It’s not real pus. It’s Chartreuse. Made by Monks. And not those spooky Order of Cenophus Monks from The Black Tapes. These are proper French Monks who are far too busy tending their garden of 130 herbs so they can make lovely, delicious Chartreuse to:
Kidnap an itinerant
Rip someone else’s face off.
Sew said face onto itinerant
Push itinerant off a monastery tower.
Oh FFS, as if I hadn’t already scared myself enough with Eld Fen. Now I’m freaking out about murderous monks!
There are dangerous things….
I wanted the garnish on the Eld Fen to maintain the dark edge. My favorite maraschino cherry was just a little bit too perky for this. So I went with a blueberry /blackberry garnish. And OMG, if you give these a teeny squish? They start to release little lines of juice which look like veins or splashes of blood! Perfect!
Give the fennel seeds a few good whacks with a pestle or heavy rolling pin.
Place the water, sugar, fennel seeds and chopped fennel in a small pan.
Bring to a boil, then simmer for around 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Strain to remove the fennel and fennel seeds.
Place in fridge until required.
For The Cocktail
Chill your martini glass.
Pour the vodka, St Germain, fennel simple syrup, lime juice and Chartreuse into a shaker filled with ice.
Shake, baby, shake.
Pour into your martini glass.
Garnish with blueberries and blackberry that have been slightly bruised to release some juice.
Enjoy!
Notes
You will have enough Fennel Simple Syrup to make plenty of these!
Nutrition
Serving Size:1
To find Eld Fen, you need a Navigator.
Why you would want to find Eld Fen is utterly beyond me. Is your tv broken? Play some Words With Friends, read a book, write a blog, take up yoga…there are so many things you could do with your life that do not entail pushing you to the brink of sanity and life itself. But if you must find Eld Fen…you’ll need a navigator. And that’s where we’ll go next time….
4. Casefile
