Welcome to the Joan Crawford Virtual Reality Dinner Party!
Jenny, the proprietress of Silver Screen Suppers, hosted the dinner party in celebration of the release of her book, aptly titled, Cooking With Joan Crawford.
So, what’s the deal with the dinner party? Like the Pieathalon and Knoxapocalypse before it, bloggers from around the globe joined together and cooked the same weird food. In this case, a 3-course menu featuring recipes attributed to the screen legend herself:
- Danti-Chips
- Steak with Roquefort
- Crepes Suzette
I, because I was going to a party at Casa del Rick & Ronny, didn’t do the entire dinner, so I decided to make the first course: Joan Crawford’s Danti-Chips. I don’t know if it is supposed to be pronounced like “dainty” or “dante” or “dan-tee.” But whatever.
Although Jenny went rogue and mucked about with the ingredients and the order in which they are layered, I faithfully followed Ms. Crawford’s instructions–for fear that her ghost come at me with a wire hanger.
So here are the very, very classy and high-end ingredients, per her recipe:
It said potato chips/crisps. So I went for a crisp–the generic Pringle. That there is American cheese, some sweet pickles (which I sliced), and a can of deviled ham.
Deviled ham because don’t know what potted ham is. Honestly, I don’t know what deviled ham is. But I do know that it is patriotic, camouflaged, and supports our troops.
Now, like I said, I didn’t want to question Joan’s culinary know-how, so I stuck to the recipe. That included layering the ingredients in a completely counter-intuitive way. I totally get why Jenny switched it up. But like I said:
So it went Pringle, cheese, sliced sweet pickle, and then a dollop of deviled ham (which looked and smelled like cat food).
I popped them into the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.
And here is the end result:
I must admit that these didn’t do it for me. But the party-goers went nuts. I mean, people raved. I really should have made more than 16 of them. But how was I to know that Pringles topped with ham paste would be such a big hit?
Well played, Joan. Well played.
And congrats to Jenny on her book! You can read more about it HERE. And here is a lovely little trailer:
And here is the trailer to my favorite of Joan’s movies:
But let’s face it, Bette’s the real star of that one.
Looks like something she might have created during a drunken episode.
If I ever manage to marry well, in the Jane Austen sense, I shall direct my time and resources to the creation of a Broadway musical of “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,” ideally with Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone in the Davis/Crawford roles respectively.
I feel like someone already wrote one.
But your casting is AMAZEBALLS.
So I’m watching Feud and will be making these for a snack. I’m used to Devils Ham with mayo or mustard not by itself….
Potted ham is exactly like what you used. It’s literally canned ham. Spam would work too.
Also, I don’t know why I’m looking at these recipes and putting my 2 cents, I’m a vegetarian hahahaha. (But man, this stuff is interesting.)
Some trivia I found the other week when reading up on Bette Davis (watched All about Eve) – and this struck my fancy about WEHBJ?
Joan Crawford and Davis had feuded for years. During the making of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Bette had a Coca-Cola machine installed on the set due to Crawford’s affiliation with Pepsi (she was the widow of Pepsi’s CEO). Joan got her revenge by putting weights in her pockets when Davis had to drag her across the floor during certain scenes.
I watched All About Eve earlier this week. It was on TV. Isn’t it just the best? The dialogue is fantastic And I think a little ahead of its time (even though the main plot is aging woman vs. young ingenue). Margot Channing is a broad!
[…] – Angela and Matthew in Bath, my crazy food blogging chum in Baltimore Yinzerella from Dinner is Served, the super elegant Sally in Dubai over at My Custard Pie, new “real life” friend Peter […]
Wow! Yours do look completely different! Same delicious though. xx
[…] GAD I WISH I LIVED IN BALTIMORE. Seems like a never ending party! Her lovely blog post about it is here – and there are more photos and Joan related GIFs […]
I’m not gonna lie but I’d eat it. I think I would also just put a bunch of chips out and kind of splash everything on like nacho toppings because I get a little gluttonous sometimes…Also, I don’t think I’ve tried deviled ham before.
I don’t think you’re missing anything when it comes to the deviled ham.
But what do I know? Folks go nuts for Vienna Sausages!
I can see this being good in a salty/fatty sort of way. I can’t help but think liverwurst would be really good in combination with the American cheese. I can picture Joan obsessively spreading potted meat on potato crisps…just to the edge…ever so neatly. Then, getting really frustrated with them breaking in her hand, and beating the kids as therapy.
LOL. A few broken Pringles and she’d be cutting down the whole yard, not just the rose bushes.
I didn’t think about Liverwurst. I really like Liverwurst.
For these celebrity recipes, I always wonder if the celebrity really made them in their everyday life. Like, when invited to a party, did Joan Crawford show up with a foil-covered plate of Danti-chips? Or if you stopped by for cocktails, did she serve you a plate of Danti-chips too?
I can’t imagine Joan doing anything remotely domestic.
Except for cleaning. Crazy bitch loved to clean.
(Flava Flav voice):
Woooooowwwww….
American cheese…WHY??@@@!!!! It’s not cheese! In fact, I was going to say that American “cheese” is equally as horrible as Provel “cheese.” Provel is the equivalent of chipped ham–it’s local. Provel is also the crap they use for the saltines-and-ketchup St. Louis “style” “pizza.”
(rant over)
I’m guessing there was a LOT of alcohol involved, because deviled ham and ANY cheese (much less American) is all sorts of wrong. But hey, you can’t argue with a woman that can wield a hanger like that!