Back in college my roommate and I spent an entire afternoon just going through the names of celebrities and debating their “fuckability factor” if you will, We actually made a “dudes we’d do” chart (please remember this was pre-2000. There were no smart phones or streaming. We were bored).
There were your standard folks in the queue (Tom Cruise: no George Clooney: yes) and then we somehow got to Frankie Avalon.
Yes. Frankie Avalon.
Would you do Frankie Avalon?
You can guess what I am going to say–because I would only remember this if this were the answer–we were in 100% in agreement that Frankie Avalon was a “yes.”
Why? I don’t know. Good hair? Maybe because he was in Grease? (that videocassette was on heavy rotation in our door room–we didn’t even have cable yet–hence the boredom).
While I mull that over, here is a condensed version of a recipe from Frankie that is slated to appear in Jenny Hammerton and Peter Fuller’s upcoming Vincent Price Co-Star Cookbook. They were kind enough for me to take it for a test spin.
Frankie Avalon’s Chicken Thighs with Peas, Sweet Vermouth, and Sherry
- 8 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt/salt flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup / 120ml dry sherry
- 1/2 cup / 120ml sweet vermouth
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 cup / 150g thawed frozen peas
Season the chicken all over with the salt and pepper. Brown the chicken in oil. Transfer the chicken to the baking dish.
Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the pan. Add the onion. Stir in the garlic. Add the sherry and vermouth and bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits in the pan with a wooden spoon. Pour the mixture over the chicken.
Bake until the chicken shows no sign of pink.
- Very much like chicken marsala but without mushrooms
- I love a chicken marsala
- If you switched the peas for mushrooms you could get very close to a marsala without dredging the chicken cutlets in flour.
- The meat cooked very nicely. Juicy. But I would strain more oil from the frying step–it ended up being a little greasy at the end.
- The sauce was a little thick/globby, but that was totally my bad—I over measured the cornstarch.
- This would be better with pasta than rice. Definitely pasta.
- It needs salt.
I sometimes think you’re my sister from another mister. I have seen Back to the Beach about a thousand times! It was often a midday movie in the summer holidays in the 80s/90s in Australia, as was Summer School. But I taped it so I didn’t have to wait. And although I’m 95% lesbian, yes, I would do Frankie Avalon. I think it was the way Frenchie looked at him that did it for me.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen Summer School!
The sound of Pee Wee enjoying a magic carpet ride on a surfboard is resounding around my flat in London. That is something I wasn’t expecting to see before 6am on a Wednesday morning. Fabulous. I now have a couple more Pee Wee moves to add into my go-go dance routines.
Brilliant test report, you are, as always, a star. Don’t forget to claim rental costs for Back to the Beach as a business expense when you do your tax return. Jx
OK, I first read this as Frankie Avalon’s Thighs and clicked a little too fast. Now that you’ve mentioned mushrooms, I want to have mushrooms AND peas with my chicken!