Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category
Tuesday, August 21st, 2012
I had one hell of a shower for my first born. Numerous gifts were given. I had been to my fair share of showers, both for weddings and babies, and now I wanted a big, fancy one of my own. Kimme had the best house, so she threw it for me with my other BFF, Kimberly. Robin made the unforgettable-to-this-day desserts.
Two of the gifts were what seemed at the time like simple, not-too-much-thought-put-into-it gestures. A white stuffed bear. And a brown stuffed bear.
By the time Oliver was only a few months old, he clung to those two bears — they had become his best friends, his security bears. Before the age of one, he would never leave the house without white and brown bear.
I was hired for a small part in a small movie, on location in Texas. I would be gone a week. Oliver, white bear, brown bear and I boarded a plane. I hired some random local girl to watch my baby while I worked on set. Things went well and I hired her for the following day too. But when I came back to the hotel, brown bear was missing. We went into panic mode, though the teenaged girl seemed way relaxed. I grilled her. “Where were you when you last saw brown bear?” She did seem to recall something about the pool area. It was now evening, dark already and we all went down to comb the pool area. No brown bear. As we were about to give up, I looked into the trash and there he was looking very forlorn, ready to take a trip to the local dump. He would never have been seen again had I not peeked into the trash can. What a relief. Separation anxiety averted. (more…)
Tags: B-movies, Baby Showers, best friends, Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake, California Cuisine, Chez Panisse Restaurant, fredde duke, Stars Restaurant S.F., Stuffed bears
Posted in Recipes | 12 Comments »
Monday, August 20th, 2012
I saw a beautiful fruit tart today, but I didn’t buy it. Though one brief glimpse of its light crust, glistening white cream & assorted seasonal berries and our whole intense love affair came rushing back.
It’s the mid 1970’s. The place: Patrick Terrail’s West Hollywood restaurant Ma Maison. An old house on Melrose converted into the most innovative, modern French restaurant of its day. It was so very French and so very Hollywood, and when those two worlds collided on that patio of Astroturf and umbrellas, it was magic.
Big Hollywood deals were made, infamous fights broke out, and occasionally I was lucky enough – if someone with more money was paying—to be there, enjoying the food. That’s where it began – an infatuation that would turn into a stalker’s obsession. They had me at crème anglaise.
I was there a lot with Jackie Mason, which sounds so random, sort of like my celebrity dreams, but he was a friend of my dad’s and we went as his guest, or vice versa. Often, when we were at a meal with Jackie, he would do his bit:
Gentiles never finish drinking, Jews never finish eating. What do you think Jews talk about for breakfast? Where to eat lunch. At lunch: “Where should we have dinner?” (more…)
Tags: Bistro Gardens Restaurant, Charmers Market Restaurant in early 80's, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, Kiwi Tart recipe, Ma Maison in the 70's, Spago, The Ivy Restaurant, Wolfgang Puck, Wolfgang Puck's kiwi tart recipe
Posted in Recipes | 2 Comments »
Monday, July 30th, 2012
I remembered her face immediately. Lisa walked into our high school and our lives after having disappeared many years before. She had made a brief appearance in grammar school. Just a few years at Beverly Vista, then vanished.
We looked at each other as our nearly grown-up selves, knowing instantly we had once been close. And we started up again.
I introduced her around. She was now a beautiful flower child and stepped into life at our school so easily. Lisa Saunders wore white peasant shirts and the oh so ubiquitous bell-bottoms of our time. Chris Head, a wild musician type, became her boyfriend. And now Lisa adopted a new name and we were all on board to call her by her new moniker, Gypsy. In fact, coming and going as she had, in and out of our lives, she was a gypsy. I usually hate when people change their names, but this one suited her. (more…)
Tags: Bearnaise Sauce, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, grandma raising teen girl, Gypsy, Lisa Saunders, old hippie friends, Pandora's Box, Scandia Restaurant Pyttipanna dish with bernaise sauce, Sunset Strip for teen runaways, the strip in the 60's
Posted in Recipes | 14 Comments »
Friday, July 20th, 2012
My least favorite subject is toxic mold. But somehow, mold lead me to a summer in Malibu. My house was under reconstruction for nearly two years to get rid of the stachybotrys. My health had been compromised, my spirit was low and my husband and I rented a little house on the water to change it up. Start fresh.
Anyone who knows me can tell you my favorite place to live is on Old Malibu Road. It feels like home, even though I was only a renter for a few years a lifetime ago. I long for it, I dream of it. And for this one particular summer, eight summers ago, I lived the dream.
Be careful what you wish for. I wished for crashing waves to lull me into slumber. Well, this house was SO close to the water – in it, during high tide — that it sounded more like a tsunami, not that I really know what one sounds like. My husband could barely stand it. So, he kind of gave up and only visited on weekends. When those waves struck the pilings the house shook. It almost felt like the next one might carry the house out to sea. I invited the world and no one came. Seriously. The Mogull girls came that first weekend and promised they would be visiting all summer. Never again. All my other friends, same story. Usually when I’ve lived on the water, you have to keep it on the down low because too many people just show up. Not this time. So, it was just me and my kids. (more…)
Tags: cream cheese pesto pumpkin seed dip recipe, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, making friends at the gym, Old Malibu Road, recipe courtesy of Leslie Simmons Potts
Posted in Recipes | 15 Comments »
Friday, June 29th, 2012
You probably don’t know this about me. I’m in a cult. I never mention it. I try to keep it on the down low. It’s been almost 10 years now since we formed. We do call ourselves The Cult. My son Oliver is the one who coined the name. He saw this photo of a woman in our group and she was in an eerie graveyard with drapey, Indian-type clothes. A mist hung in the air. Each day, as he saw us passing hundreds of emails back and forth he said, “So, that’s your cult leader?” It just stuck. We all thought it was hilarious.
Here is how we found our way to each other. Sometime around our 30-year reunion from high school there was an AOL online group of 50 or more peeps from our school chatting away about our upcoming fiftieth birthdays. Some were just observers and some were the ones doing all the talking. I was in the latter group. I know, surprise. The bigger group was getting annoyed at how much we liked to communicate. They might express it directly or they might say something like “take me off the list.” Yet, there were still the lookie loos. One day, the cult leader grabbed our core group of 10 or so and formed a smaller group. You had to be tech savvy to move over, and I wasn’t, so she did the work for me. Now it was official, we were a cult. Trendsetters that we didn’t know we were, we may have been the original social network. (more…)
Tags: banana boat bikes, Beverly High class of 71, class of 71, cults, D.Boos's recipe for salsa, Diana Boos, fredde duke, recipe for salsa, reunions
Posted in Recipes | 12 Comments »
Friday, June 15th, 2012
Finally a story about another man in my life other than my dad. Are you relieved?
I’d like you meet my husband. Here he is.
And these are just some of the reasons that I love the man. I also like him because he is smart and funny. And handsome. But, it’s his generous spirit that has always blown me away.
Quickly, some back-story you might need to know.
Michael is only a few years older than me, yet seems like he’s from another generation. When we drive in his car, he listens exclusively to jazz. He just loves that whole Sinatra era, rat pack thing.
Some years ago when I knew my friend Ricci Martin had written a book about his dad Dean, (yes, that Dean) I called him up for a signed copy as a gift for my husband. I didn’t know if my Michael would even read it. He did. Then he got to work on a secret gift. Secret to me at least. Let me clarify something. I’m not all that close with Ricci. We have a lot of the same friends, so sure, I can make that call to get the signed book, but we don’t really stay in touch. I knew nothing of my husband’s plan. But, he had read that Dean’s favorite scent was Woodhue, a cologne made by Fabrege. Ricci’s father had been gone quite awhile and Michael thought it would make a great gift if he could find a bottle of the now discontinued scent. First he made a call to a few relatives. My husband’s uncle George had been the CEO of Faberge. No luck. It hadn’t been made in years. Then he started a search on the internet and it led him to eBay and he found a never used bottle. He purchased it and then asked me for Ricci’s address. I asked why. And, he told me this story. That after reading the book, he went on a hunt to find Dean’s son Ricci a bottle of Woodhue. I think Michael doing that touched me even more than it did Ricci. (more…)
Tags: Emmy nominated writer Michael Barrie, fredde duke, Freddy Duke, great coats as gifts, great scripts, michael barrie, sardine and pasta recipe, song plenty of money and you, writer
Posted in Recipes | 24 Comments »
Friday, June 1st, 2012
Disclaimer: As a society, we put way too much emphasis on the size of a woman’s breasts when it’s the size of her brain and heart that matters. End of disclaimer. You’re now going to read a tale of Big Tits.
I grew up in a near circus environment of comics, entertainers, bohemians and one stunning Playboy Playmate. She was also an alluring actress on the big screen — she had co-starred with Louis Prima in my father’s 1961 movie “Twist All Night” –- and she was gorgeous beyond belief — and to add insult to injury—NICE. I loved everything about her, especially the big breasts and British accent. I’m kidding, the accent was fine, but it was those tits that I looked up to! Literally. I looked up to them. My dad talked about them so frequently and openly that I started to think of them as not an appendage but as another whole personality. “Her tits have got tits,” he would say. My own mother didn’t have tits that had tits. She barely had them at all. And, unfortunately, I would never end up that endowed myself, but dream on as a child I would. (Again, not important. See disclaimer above.) People would ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up, Fredde?” And I would answer proudly (as if this were a normal, Leave-it-to-Beaver fantasy): “I want to be a Playboy bunny, just like June (not Cleaver)!!!”
My idol, June lying by my father’s pool, 60’s
(more…)
Tags: breast cancer site, breasts, fredde duke, Freddy Duke, Hugh Hefner, idol's, June Wilkenson, June Wilkinson, large breasts, Maurice Duke, Smoky Martini recipe
Posted in Recipes | 19 Comments »
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
I wonder how I can write any story about this time without the sex and drugs, but let me try. I first moved into an apartment on Old Malibu Road with my boyfriend. When we split, I moved girlfriend roommates (Wendy, Diana) in and out so I could stay on the beach, but still be able to afford the pad. We partied a lot. But in our own homes. You see, several of us that were friends were scattered across the beach in different places. And we would float from one house to another. A lot.
Friends that would come visit me would wander to one of the boys’ homes and then might not come back until the following day. I’m not saying who or with whom. And I won’t implicate myself except to say– the name Heidi Fleiss comes to mind. Don’t get the wrong idea, I was never paid for my “matchmaking.”
The other friends who had apartments on the same beach I will name. At least, I will give you first names. Billy, Ricci and John. (more…)
Tags: Beecher's Cafe, Beecher's Cafe at Cross Creek, fredde duke, Freddy Duke, fun times before aids, John's Garden, John's Garden at Cross Creek Malibu, Old Malibu Road, Old Malibu Road in the 70's, pecan pie recipe, sex and drugs and rock and roll
Posted in Recipes, Reviews | 11 Comments »
Sunday, May 6th, 2012
I have a very good friend and we have done everything at exactly the same time. Three kids. Divorce. New Marriage. Always within a year of each other and always there for each other. When we were in our single lives, raising kids alone, we would often have family meals at one of our homes with all the kids. We had each other’s back.
Our first-born sons were the best of friends. They were artists and did not necessarily fit in with the other sporty boys. My husband once said about them, “Are you sure they didn’t once walk through a toxic fog together?” We still laugh about that. Sometimes we would think it was a brilliant idea to “mainstream” the boys by sending them on YMCA camping trips to the mountains. They would come back coated black from dirt, stunned, as if we had sent them off to an inmate labor program. Unlike all of our other kids who would return from these excursions so happy, laughing with a pack of new friends they’d made, these two were miserable. (more…)
Tags: Chez Puce, childhood best friends, childhood best friends with mothers that are best friends, crepe recipes, Friends- Elton Johns song, great mushroom crepes, photo's courtesy of Cathy Mogull, story courtesy of Cathy Mogull, Third Street Promenade
Posted in Recipes | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
From left: Billy Vera, Alan and Kris Duke, Rita Coolidge
I cannot trace the exact moment, but somehow we started off on the wrong foot. And like a big wave, our discontent swelled over time, neither of us knowing the origin of it. We had both dug our heels in the sand.
When my sister-in-law, Kris, turned the big 4-0, my brother threw her a party. A really big one. Kris had always been a fan of Rita Coolidge, so naturally, Alan booked Rita for a private concert to honor his wife. He went all out.
As the big day approached, my one-day-to-be-husband urged, “You should really get along with Kris.” I agreed. I thought it was time to bury the hatchet.
So I did.
I went to a hardware store and bought a hatchet. I also purchased a beautiful gift bag that I filled with sand. Actually, cat litter. Where else can you get sand? And I buried that hatchet. (more…)
Tags: 40'th birthday parties, Alan Duke, Billy Vera, cats that we love, fredde duke, Freddie Duke, Freddy Duke, Kris Duke, Maurice and Evelyn Duke, Michael and Erica Duke, Pumpkin Bread Recipe, Rita Coolidge
Posted in Recipes | 15 Comments »
