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  RECIPES FOR LIFE

  RECIPES FOR LIFE

  My Memories

  LINDA EVANS

  with Sean Catherine Derek

  Copyright © 2011 by Linda Evans

  Published by Vanguard Press

  A Member of the Perseus Books Group

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information and inquiries, address Vanguard Press, 387 Park Avenue South, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016, or call (800) 343-4499.

  Cover photo courtesy John B. Cahoon III

  Set in 11.5 point Adobe Garamond Pro

  Cataloging-in-Publication data for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-59315-648-0

  Vanguard Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail special. [email protected].

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  For Bunky, who has always been the wind at my back

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction: Chain Me to a Stove

  MEMORABLE MOMENTS

  Hollywood Here We Come!

  A Heart of Gold

  Bringing People Together

  California Dreaming

  Sweet Dancing Eyes

  The Long Walk of Fame

  Out of My League

  Dragged into Destiny

  My Magical MGM Days

  From Bikinis to Boots

  Marjoram, Missy, and Thyme

  Like a Second Mother

  My Dream Man

  An Unusual Recipe for Friendship

  My Béarnaise Fiasco or Meltdown Washout

  European Excursions

  Always a Great Notion

  The Duke

  Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

  Far from Evil but Scary as Hell

  The Trials of a Bunky

  Back in the Saddle Again—Almost

  Semisweet Memories

  The Best Revenge

  A Man of a Thousand Names

  Breakfast with Burton

  Raw Talent

  Take Two

  Fugitive Found

  A Whirlwind Romance—and Lifestyle

  Moon River, Wider Than a Smile

  Enter Nena

  Not So Tuffy

  An Avalanche of Mixed Memories

  Life without Marriage, but Not without Love

  The Part That Didn’t Get Away

  Nearly Disappearing into a Black Hole

  Friends for Life

  Love Never Ceases

  An Italian Love Affair

  What Goes Up Must Come Down

  I Was Never One of Charlie’s Angels, but He Was Sure Mine

  A Man for All Reasons

  The Jewel in John’s Life

  Golden Opportunities

  Nothing Like My Sweet Little Kitties; or, Circus of the Fools

  Forty Isn’t Fatal, It’s Fabulous

  Quick Draw McEvans

  George Burns and Other Sex Symbols

  I Love The Love Boat

  Angel of Death

  The Joys of Having Two Dysfunctional Families

  The Tuna Meltdown

  Not the Kiss of Death

  Blondes Do Have More Fun

  Better Than a Van Gogh

  Coyote Ugly: In the Eye of the Beholder

  My Heavenly Blue Angels

  The Weight of the World

  A Taste of a Real-Life Dynasty

  “Ritzy” Business

  Real Princes among Men

  A Royal Welcome

  Dynasty Fans Even in the Vatican?

  The Price of Fame

  My Spiritual Journey Leads Me Home

  March on the Capital

  There’s a Bunky Loose in the White House

  A Time for Change

  Music to My Life

  Bless You Jane

  Living and Loving in the Moment

  A Family Affair

  An Angel among Us

  Winter Wonderland

  Sweet Surprises

  A Symphony of Sights and Sounds

  Yanni’s Other Girl; or, My Rival in Venice

  Finding My Voice

  Always a Song in My Heart

  As American as Apple Pie, Almost

  Animal Lovers Unite

  Leap of Faith

  Eating My Way across the Country

  From the Frying Pan into the Fire

  Hell’s Kitchen: Heaven on Earth for Me

  My Just Desserts

  LIST OF RECIPES

  Mom’s Hot Dog Stew

  One of My Favorite Pastas

  Peach Heaven

  Mom’s Baked Mac and Cheese

  Missy’s Hobo Fillet

  Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas

  Puerco Picante

  Rice Casserole with Sour Cream, Cheese, and Chiles

  White Rice

  Fish Tacos with Garlic Aïoli Sauce

  Julia’s Béarnaise

  Duke’s Crab Dip

  Duke’s Crab Dip Omelet

  John Wayne’s Favorite Green Chile and Cheese Casserole

  My Famed Artichoke Dip

  Fresh Start Blueberry Muffins

  Luciana Paluzzi’s Pasta alla Matriciana

  Julia Child’s “Perfect” Hollandaise

  Hollandaise Sauce Made in the Electric Blender

  Asparagus My Way

  Dani and David Janssen’s Caesar Salad

  Ham Dani

  Chicken, Shrimp, and Mushrooms

  Leslie and Tony Curtis’s Lemon Soufflé with Raspberry Sauce

  Raspberry Sauce

  Frozen Raspberry Sauce

  Bûche de Noël

  Lose-Your-Figure Potatoes with Cheese and Garlic

  Strawberries and Decadent Sauce

  Warm Berries in Custard

  Julie Forsythe’s Sesame Chicken

  Ina Garten’s Filet of Beef Bourguignon

  Kung-Bau Chicken with Peanuts

  Plain Rice

  Dynasty Corn Pudding

  Chocolate Soufflé Pudding

  Molten Chocolate Cakes

  Mari-Carmen- style Paella

  Al’s Aïoli

  Great and Simple Cheese Soufflé

  Warm Butternut Squash Salad

  JZ’s Award-Winning Lemon Meringue Pie

  JZ’s Classic Crust

  Crab and Lobster Cakes with Mustard Beurre Blanc

  My Favorite Salad Dressing

  Baby Spinach Salad with Citrus and Avocado

  Felitsa’s Appetizer Meatballs

  Yorgo and Linda’s Pesto

  Stand-up Buttermilk Pancakes

  Roasted Pepper and Mozzarella Salad with Vinaigrette

  Best Ever Apple Pie

  Banana, Lemongrass, and Coconut Soup

  Hell’s Salmon

  Acknowledgments

  MY SPECIAL THANKS to my stepdaughter, Sean, for her loving gift of helping me put my life into words.

  Thank you to my dear friend Gary Craig, who inspired and encouraged me to weave my life and love of cooking together, which became the genesis of this book.

  My brilliant young friend Laura Craig put the icing on the cake by tirelessly and miraculously collecting the many elements that it took to show the story of my life.

  There are not enough words to thank my sister Charlie for helping me as
she always has.

  To my sister Kat and my brother-in-law Al: my heartfelt thanks for your love, support, recipe, and photos.

  To Nena: thank you for being my kitchen companion all those years.

  To Francine LaSala: thank you for the endless hours of help and creative joy.

  Thank you to Nancy Langkopf and Kim Hanley, my ever-faithful friends and helpers, who wear so many hats so well.

  I am so grateful to each and every one of these beautiful people for richly contributing to this book and my life:

  Tracy Johansen, Peggy Ledyard, Johan Pool, Stephen Breimer, Tony Williams, John Cahoon, Alan Markfield, Gary Bernstein, Kari Mozena, Ann Limongello, JZ Knight, Dani Janssen, Anne Stewart, Pilar Wayne, Diana Welanetz Wentworth, Julia Child/Random House, Ina Garten/Random House, Nancy Baggett, Yuk Mai Leung Thayer, Linda McCallum, Luciana Paluzzi Solomon, Anda Allenson, Yorgo Chryssomallis, Stephen Atkinson, Bunny Stivers, Julie Heath, Mark Shepard, Jennifer Hozer, Joel L. Bouvé, Dana Baker, Marlee Simmons, Gaye Ann Bruno, Carol Rosegg, Chris Nichols, Ashley James, David Bowers, Douglas Dubler, Barry King, Jerry Nagin, and Nolan Miller.

  I also want to thank the Ronald Reagan Library, George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, ABC, ITV, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., CBS, Blue Angels, Circus of the Stars, NBC, Playboy, Universal Studios, Crown Copyright, and the Vatican.

  And last, but certainly not least, thank you to Roger Cooper and Georgina Levitt and everyone at Vanguard Press for being a supportive family to me and making this dream come true.

  INTRODUCTION

  Chain Me to a Stove

  FRIENDS LAUGH WHEN I tell them “You could chain me to a stove and I’d be happy.” But it’s the truth. My two favorite things in life are people and food. Combining them by preparing meals for the people I love is simply my recipe for joy.

  Victory in London.

  My whole life I never could say no to food. I’m a mystery to my family. I was called “Bones” by my father when I was young and blessed with an incredible metabolism that allowed me to eat, eat, eat, with little consequences, and I still can. It has been one of the great pleasures of my life.

  I started cooking when I was about twenty-three. It was rough going at the beginning, and then I discovered Julia Child’s first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I was in heaven.

  As I continued to experiment and learn and grow, I found it wasn’t just the cooking I was deriving such pleasure from, it was also the cooking for. Finding the right menu for the right person was a wonderful experience, and when I hit it, the alchemy was delicious. Since the first time I cooked something special for someone and saw the joy it gave them, I’ve been hooked. It became my passion, though not my only passion.

  Ironically, I never planned to become an actress. I’d always dreamed of having children, a loving husband, and a beautiful home. Destiny definitely took me down a less traditional road. I have had beautiful homes, and two marriages that started off very lovingly, and I’ve been a stepmother instead of a mom. Not exactly what I’d had in mind, but God knows I have no regrets. Life led me in directions I never imagined, but it has always fulfilled my heart’s desire and has given me far more than I ever could have dreamed.

  Acting has afforded me a lifetime of meeting remarkable people around the world. Sometimes I can’t believe that I’ve actually dined with kings and queens and presidents, that I’ve been invited to everything from intimate dinners in quaint little villages to the most prestigious restaurants from Paris and Hong Kong to Sydney. I even spent my fortieth birthday in the dining car on the Orient Express en route to Venice.

  From Big Valley to Dynasty and everything in between and since, I have been collecting recipes. Some are from world-renowned chefs, others were handed down through the generations. Some are from friends and celebrities I have known, and, of course, many are from the hundreds of cookbooks I have amassed over the last forty years.

  I love experimenting: creating my own versions of recipes and testing them out on my friends. As I’ve said, one of the greatest gifts you can give to someone is to prepare their favorite meal. Being able to touch someone’s heart, while doing something I adore, is one of the reasons I so love to cook.

  Since those amazing Dynasty days, my life has continued to be a wondrous adventure, enabling me to travel the world, getting to know others and myself. I’ve learned so much more than just how to separate the yolk or all the lovely ways to set an inviting table. Certainly, my wild ride on Hell’s Kitchen with Marco Pierre White was one of the greatest cooking experiences of my life. I’ve come to see the complete picture, why it’s not just about preparing a meal, but the importance of friends gathering to share their hopes and dreams.

  This book is a love letter to all those I have known and cherished and shared wonderful foods with. I hope that you will enjoy the people, the recipes, and the banquet that has been my life—so far.

  Linda Evans

  Hollywood Here We Come!

  MY PARENTS WERE pretty typical of their generation: Mom cooked, Dad ate. My mother was one of those wonder cooks who could make gravy out of air and stretch a little pot of homemade soup to feed a small army, which she often did.

  In 1943 my parents decided to move west. They had been working for years as professional ballroom dancers on the East Coast, but after my sister Carole (who is now known as Charlie) and I were born, my mother retired and we moved from Connecticut to California. My grand parents, Tony and Marie, were managers of a U-shaped complex in Hollywood and we moved into a charming little duplex right next to them. I loved it because it was on Sycamore Street, which actually was lined with beautiful old sycamore trees.

  Daddy worked alone for a while, but then gave up dancing as well to become an interior wallpaper hanger / painter extraordinaire. He loved his job and would occasionally work in the homes of the famous, like Rudy Vallée and Dana Andrews.

  It was tough work in those days. Daddy did not have paint rollers in 1948 or water-based paint and all the work was done with large, heavy brushes. Charlie and I always knew what color he was using since his white overalls would be splattered with the “Color of the Day.”

  My father truly loved everyone and “never met a stranger.” Occasionally, he’d arrive home for dinner, walk in happy, and announce to Mom, “Add some water to the soup, honey, I’ve brought a new friend.” While driving home, he’d see a homeless man sitting against a wall and invite him to dinner. Daddy would always make the “new friend” feel at home, offering him a drink and, of course, one of Mom’s great meals. At the end of the evening, he would get back in his car and drive many miles to return the man back to where he found him.

  Mom and Dad—my dancing stars.

  Each time it was a brand-new friend. It gave Daddy great joy to give some happiness to an individual—even if only for one night. We all loved him for this.

  Incidentally, the only time Dad ever cooked for us was when we went to this little cabin in the forest. There were no modern conveniences, so Dad would just warm up a can of something or other on the wood-burning stove. But for a kid, that was more exciting than a fancy feast.

  A Heart of Gold

  WHEN I WAS around five and Charlie six, a mother and her little boy moved into an apartment in the back corner of our complex. The boy was very young, so my sister and I didn’t play with him much. One day, there was a large banner across the little boy’s door that read: ISOLATION POLIO–DO NOT ENTER. As a child it was hard for me to understand what was going on.

  Daddy, Charlie, Mama, and me happy to be in Hollywood.

  The little boy and his mother were quarantined, so she could not even leave to go to the store. The neighbors ignored them, but our mother was far too compassionate to stand by and just watch them suffer. So, despite warnings, Mom would often cook meals for them and deliver them herself. In her heart, she believed she was safe and needed to do something to help.

  Sadly, she was wrong. Polio was a rampant and deadly disease. Sudde
nly, our mother started complaining of severe aches in her body. The only thing that my grandfather could think to do was to put hot towels on her back directly from a large pot of boiling water. I can remember her crying out in pain because they were so hot. He did this several times a day. Later, the doctors said that this probably prevented her from having permanent paralysis.

  Despite our grandfather’s efforts, the next thing we knew an ambulance came and took our mother to the hospital. They said she had polio, but was very lucky in that it only affected her left shoulder and arm, and her right leg.

  In the hospital, each day they would lower her into a pool, where, miraculously, she could move her arms and legs. She promised the nurses that she would do the Scottish hop (a dance step she knew, having been a professional dancer) down the hallway on the day she left.

  While our mother was in the hospital, my sister and I were sent to separate homes to be taken care of. The families were strangers to us, but kind. Visiting days from Daddy were wonderful until he had to leave. Meanwhile, he was busy arranging for us to move into a new house in North Hollywood.

  I remember the day my father, sister, and I moved into our first new home, and even though it was a small, two-bedroom in the Valley—with no lawn, just sand in front and back—we thought it was a palace.

  A few months after we moved in, my mother was finally ready to leave the hospital. All the nurses, doctors, and interns lined the hallway and applauded her as she danced out the door. Thank God. Prayers are answered!

  Our mother came home to our brand-new house. Needless to say it was quite a joyous occasion for all.

  Bringing People Together

  WHEN I BEGAN writing this book, I tried to remember when I first realized that even a modest, home-cooked meal can bring a person joy. One of my earliest memories of this is my mother’s Hot Dog Stew.

  It must have been around 1951, during the Korean War, because we often had a house full of servicemen to feed. A cousin on leave started bringing by a few of his buddies for dinner, which soon became a regular event at our house. Mom loved being able to do something special for these young men. Most were far from home and missing their own families. But we had very little money, so Mom cooked up her Hot Dog Stew.

  The good old Hot Dog Stew days are the only entertaining I remember my family doing, besides Thanksgiving and Christmas. When I was fifteen, my dad passed away and my mother went on Social Security, so there would be no more parties. But the memories of how much everyone loved my mom for cooking for them is still fresh in my mind and heart.