Clara Bow's Vanilla Marlow

"A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is
tired, hurt and bewildered"

I've been feeling a bit like that myself lately Clara but it's getting better...

London is FROZEN. It took me two hours to get home from work as trains were on go-slow, buses were cancelled or turned back from slippery hills and I had to walk all the way from Archway. Blitz spirit prevailed as we all tried not to fall over shuffling down Crouch Hill to the Broadway. It's like a Victorian scene outside my house, I just looked out the window and there is a bunch of boys chucking snowballs at each other. Lovely.

So it seems an apt kind of evening to blog the results of Lita's testing of the Marlow - not a success alas. I'm going to have to write more in depth instructions about cream whipping and milk steaming I think. Lita approached the recipe with gusto - but rather too much gusto unfotunately and the resulting curdled mess did not impress her husband! Attempting to fix the marlow reduced this very glamorous domestic goddess to a jibbering wreck but she did volunteer to give it another go once she has recovered from her diva moment!

Not right now though, too bloody cold for ice-cream!

Clara Bow's Vanilla Marlow

"We had individuality. We did as we pleased. We stayed up late. We dressed the way we wanted. I used to whiz down Sunset Boulevard in my open Kissel, with several red Chow dogs to match my hair. Today, they`re sensible and end up with better health. But we had more fun. "

I am so thankful to all the people who populate the internet with marvelous things. I have just stumbled upon the above quote which has saved me from making the grave error of suggesting in a magazine article that Clara Bow zipped around Hollywood with Red Setters in her convertible. Oh lord. Can you imagine?

Mis-remembering is a strange, strange thing. So many facts get mixed up in the brain and I can't shake myself of the feeling that it was something to do with Laura Mulvey and her post-it note infested copy of "Runnin' Wild" that made me get this key fact wrong. What a weird situation that was, waiting to go on Women's Hour with me staring into space with mind completely blank and Laura swotting up on Clara.

I'm so excited that BUST magazine is going to publish a little article I have written about Clara's Vanilla Marlow. How fab. I thought I'd better give the recipe a little test before it goes in so I made some this evening in preparation for the girls coming round tomorrow night. I now know how much the specified 20 marshmallows weigh...

By the way, is Clara wearing an APRON in this picture? Surely not. She almost always admitted that her "favourite recipes" were courtesy of her cook rather than made by her own fair hand. Clara, you poseur!

Clara Bow's Chicken Chartreuse

"I wanna go home, I miss my cook"

I am loving Clara this week. She is keeping me sane during the insanity that is involved in preparing 9 seperate lectures for the upcoming cruise. My brain is ADDLED and I feel like doing a Clara and just sitting down and playing poker with my cook.

I made Clara's chicken dish for the new beau as a note under the recipe in the Photoplay book said, "try it on the boyfriend". I made little individual portions in ramekins as I couldn't find a circular ring mould (!) He seemed to like it and said in a broad Jamaican accent "Rass, that's good" so I guess that's the seal of approval.

Clara Bow's Vanilla Marlow

"I wanna go home. I miss my cook."

Ruth is beside the stove cooking up Fred MacMurray's Egg Burgers De Luxe for our breakfast and Clara Bow's Vanilla Marlow is "done and done" and settling down in the refrigerator. We are going for it in a big way on day two of the cookathon.

The anticipated Silver Screen Supper Scrap never really came to blows. We perched at a bar at the very edge of Ocean City and broke down the list of 50 into Ruthie's and mine. Distracted every now and then by a couple who had "got themselves drunk" we dished them out with the minimum of fuss. We were both VERY pleased with our list of 26 (for we had forgotten Fred and Claudette so couldn't limit it to 50) and had the added treat of seeing a girl at the bar with her top off displaying an ill fitting pink bra to the two boys she was with. Jim the barman reassured us that it was all OK as everyone knew each other and she in fact lived with a GIRL so everything was fine - unless the GIRL found out...

I am very excited about all my lovely ladies - Clara, Bette, Louise, Joan - can't wait to get all the biographies out of the lock up and get into bed with them and a big vat of Vanilla Marlow.

P.S. Yum. I am liking the Vanilla Marlow - a bit like a frozen Vanilla Milk Steamer and plus LOW FAT because it is almost totally composed of Marshmallows.