Herein begins another new feature that I am excited to finally start. Dinner and a movie, Deelish Dish style! Do you guys remember TBS' Dinner & a Movie that played on Friday nights back in the day? You know..."Beans and cornbread, doo doo dooo." (I always thought it was "Peas and cornflakes", ha.) Well I guess it's still on, though without the same hosts and all the pizzazz I remember from the mid-nineties. As a kid, this show was my Friday night. A classic favorite film played and discussed while the (uber-dorky) hosts cooked a meal with a coordinating title and related theme. Beetlejuice and "Dearly Departed Sole", for example, or When Harry Met Sally and "What Am I, Chopped Liver?" Brills, just brills.
We're going to do the same thing here, on Deelish Dish & a Movie, or, DD & a Movie. We'll be making all sorts of things...entrees, apps, drinks, desserts, you name it. The pick may be featured in the film, have some relation to the title or plot, or just seem like a natural pairing (this is my game, I make the rules). I'll pick a favorite, pop it in the DVD player, and cook up something to munch on while enjoying the flick. So, you ready?
Up first...The Ghost & Mrs. Muir! And just in time as it's raining here in the Bay Area for what will probably be the last time before summer, and I'm cozying up on the couch. This movie, introduced to me by my cousin, introduced to her by our nana, is naptime gold. The moody music, the blustery cliffside scenes, the soothing classic black-and-white images of candlesticks, haunted cottages, and daytime snoozes under weighty quilts with warm milk, will make anyone's eyelids fall deliciously heavy....the opening credits alone have a Pavlovian effect on my cousin. I tease her that she needs to make it to the first line of dialogue before she is allowed to pass out.
The story centers around Lucy, a recently widowed mother who moves into a haunted cottage and strikes up a unique relationship with the house ghost: grumpy former sea captain, Captain Gregg. In one of the first scenes, she goes to the local real estate office to find a—what turns out to be haunted—house, whereupon the owner, Mr. Coombs, tries to dissuade her from choosing Gull Cottage. Her entrance finds him at his desk, napkin tucked at the collar, salting and eating a hard boiled egg. How perfectly British, I know. And every time I watch this movie, I want to eat that egg.
I rarely eat hard boiled eggs, but how good does a slightly warm one with a dash of salt sound? With some tea maybe? On the couch, on a cold, rainy day? Zzzzzzzzzzz. I'm sorry, what? I dozed off for a second.
Watch this ever-cozy, ever-romantic classic and put a pot of water on. It will make you want to move to the seaside, plant a monkey puzzle tree, fall in love with a ghost, and eat some hard boiled eggs. Every time.
Some juicy bits of GAMM movie trivia....did you know:
This is one of the few films by 20th Century Fox that does not use the opening trumpets, and instead, plays that beautiful score (that lulls us all into dreamland...).
The cliffside shots are supposed to be England but were actually filmed in Carmel, California.
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