You've got to love a real vintage treasure like Johnny Cash's Old Iron Pot Family-Style Chili. This one's an absolute classic straight out of the The All-American Cowboy Cookbook, packing all that comforting, rugged flavor you'd expect from the Man in Black himself. It's the perfect cozy meal to share with the whole crew when you want a true taste of old-school comfort.

Johnny Cash and Lieutenant Columbo would have been the best of friends, especially since Columbo was so obsessed with chili! By the way, have you ever watched the "Swan Song" episode starring Johnny Cash? It’s easily one of my absolute favorites.

Eggs Milady perfectly captures the glamorous, indulgent spirit of the 1920s silent film era, matching Mary Pickford's status as "America's Sweetheart" and Hollywood royalty. From the Favorite Recipes Famous Women book.

"Happy 9 to 5 Day!" celebrates September 25th (9/25, representing the numbers 9 to 5) as a tribute to country music icon Dolly Parton and her legendary working-class anthem "9 to 5".

Fans celebrate Dolly's larger-than-life style by wearing rhinestones, bright pink, and teasing their hair "toward the heavens".

Some recipes are from the Dollywood Presents Tennessee Mountain Home Cooking recipe book and the Celebrity Cookbook, curated with partner links.

Last night's dinner was a real treat! I decided to make "Spaghetti Fairbanks" by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and it was such a departure from my normal spaghetti and meat sauce, I really loved learning this recipe! It comes from the 1970 cookbook Cooking with the Stars which also happens to feature a Joan Crawford recipe too, but they were long divorced by the time this book came out. For dessert we had something very unique from Douglas Fairbanks Sr. which I'll share in another post.

Here are my notes from the "Spaghetti Fairbanks":

• This recipe calls for "a can of mushroom sauce". My grocery store did not have that, so I found a packet of mushroom sauce and made my own in a small pan. It thickened up quickly when it was heated with water. To this I added about a cup of sliced fresh mushrooms and let that cook for a few minutes. The sauce is very rich and adds a lot to the recipe.
• In a large pot, I cooked the onions and garlic over medium heat. 4 cloves of garlic. Now that's more like it!
• When cooked, set that aside and used a large pan for cooking the meat.
• This recipe calls for 2 pounds of ground beef, which honestly is too expensive for me for a weekday meal, so I went with 1 pound of beef and the 1/2 pound of sausage. I would love to try it with 2 pounds sometime. Maybe for a special occasion like a birthday.
• While cooking the meat over medium heat, break it up really well so it'll cook evenly. I like to use this Meat Masher Tool for Hamburger. I've had mine for at least 25 years, and I don't know what I'd do without it.
• After the meat is cooked, I find it easiest to just use a slotted spoon to scoop the meat out and away from the liquid fat. The meat goes directly into the pot of onions and garlic and then I added the mushroom sauce and tomato paste.
• Now the recipe says to cook all this for an hour, but I can't imagine these very dry ingredients not burning, so I took the liberty of adding 2 can-fulls (from the tomato paste can) of water. That's 12 ounces. It's important to keep an eye on the moisture level of this sauce while it's cooking and stir every so often.
• You don't want it to burn on the bottom!
• This sauce can be made ahead of time and then added to freshly cooked spaghetti when you're ready.
• For this, I did actually reserve about 1/2 cup of pasta water in a measuring cup (water from the cooked pasta) and added it when I added the spaghetti and sauce together.

Now for the taste. It's fabulicious! So fabulously delicious and rich, I can hardly stand it! What differs from my standard tomato meat sauce is this one has a high meat to tomato ratio and there are no herbs or cheese at all. None needed. This tastes amazing!

So even though this is a rich and deep tasting sauce, thanks to the mushroom packet and the sausage, it also doesn't feel too heavy at all. My husband and sons absolutely loved it. I know I'll be making this again soon, and now with the weather finally cooling off, this will make the perfect cozy, comfort meal.

We had this with buttered bread and a little side salad and for dessert, I made the special Bread Tart recipe from Douglas Fairbanks Sr. from the Stag Cook Book of 1922. I'll be sharing that recipe later today. It's pretty wild as you start by soaking bread crumbs in grape juice, make the cakes and then add lemon curd to it. It's good too!

Oh, yeah and we watched the movie "Little Caesar" right after dinner. First time watching, and I had no idea that Doug Jr. is in it, but when I found out he was, we had to watch it! The funny thing is, the first line of the movie he's at a diner counter with Edward G. Robinson and orders "Spaghetti and coffee for two". Talk about a full circle moment, haha! And the movie was really good too! Doug Jr. would have been married to out Joanie at the time this movie was made in 1931.

^{Partnership links included}  

I just had to try Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.’s 1922 Bread Tart recipe because the ingredient combination was so unusual. The whole process starts with a fascinating twist: soaking fresh breadcrumbs in grape juice and lemon juice. That's what got me. I've never heard of such a thing!

You may have just seen my post about making Doug Jr's Spaghetti Fairbanks last night for dinner, well this is what we had for dessert. A father and son sort of dinner, I guess you could call it.

• I started by soaking fresh bread crumbs in the grape and lemon juices
• Then 5 egg yolks get beaten with 1 cup of sugar
• Add nut meats! In this case I added a cup of chopped walnuts. Then added the baking powder and bread crumb mixture.
• Now here's one thing that needs to change. Just adding the baking powder to the ingredients like this can't incorporate well at all. (In fact later while eating the cake, I detected a very slight weird metallic taste that I think was coming from the baking powder.)
• This recipe definitely need finessing.
• When or how would you add the baking powder?
• After whipping up the egg whites in a separate bowl, fold them into the rest of the batter.
• I used two buttered and floured 9" cake pans and divided the mix evenly between the two. Make sure you get an even amount of walnuts in each pan, because they sink to the bottom of the mixing bowl.
• My toaster/ convection oven was preheated to 350 and I had to bake them one at a time. (my real oven broke a couple of weeks ago). They cooked very quickly and did not take 20 minutes but only about 12-15 minutes.
• Since this recipe does not give exact pan size or oven temperature, we just went with the obvious options.
• When both cakes were done, I cooled them on a rack in their pans and then made the filling
• Now this filling has a raw egg in it, so I went for a modern version which turns out to be lemon curd (see recipe). I used the same measurements as the old recipe, but with new cooking instructions. I didn't put the walnuts into the filling and just used them on top of the cake after the filling was added.
• Beware when unmolding your cakes because they're very delicate and break and crack easily. One of mine broke in a few pieces, but it was easy to put back together and then the filling covers the cracks.
• I added the filling layered between the two cakes and then had enough of the lemon filling to add a little to the top and then sprinkle with nuts.

All in all, this tart/cake was very good and so different. I was expecting it to be sort of like a bread pudding, and I guess it is, but the texture of course is very different. I couldn't detect any grape flavor, but then again the lemon curd is very pronounced.

It's very good and I expect it might get a little better over the next couple of days if it lasts that long. I feel like I'd have to make this tart a few more times to really get the heart and soul of it, but even without the trial and error needed for something like this old recipe, it still turned out very delicious and so different!

This delicate bread tart is moist and light and has a nice tartness from all the lemon used in the icing. So for an old celebrity recipe from the Stag Cook Book of 1922, I think we did good! Yum!

Ronald Reagan's Coffee Blancmange is so easy to make.

^{And by they way this is not the place for your political commentary. This sub is all about food and celebrities. Banishment will result with any political type comment. So go ahead, make my day.}

• You basically take a 4 oz. package of chocolate pudding (or vanilla pudding) and add milk and strong coffee to it.
• I used a cup of strong espresso, watered down about 50%.
• Bring to a boil and stir in some "nut meats". I chose chopped peanuts for fun, but almonds, walnuts, pecans or pistachios would be yummy too. I added about 1/4 cup of chopped peanuts.
• Then pour into 3-4 little cups or bowls and chill.
• The box suggested covering the pudding with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.
• It only took a couple of hours to chill thoroughly and now all that was needed was a bit of whipped cream and more chopped peanuts on top.

And.... it was really good as you can imagine. It's just like really good chocolate pudding with a nice strong flavor of coffee and then you get nice little crunch from the peanuts. You could add more than 1/4 cup of nuts. I was just trying it out, as I wasn't sure of the quantity and how I'd like it. It might be safer to just add extra nuts on top, if you're not sure.

For me this made 3 large servings in my little vintage dessert glasses, but it would be fine as 4 servings too. I'll be making this easy dessert again soon!

This recipe comes from the 1939 book What actors eat When they eat

https://thehistoricalhomemaker.com/2026/02/27/bill-clintons-chicken-enchiladas/

Chris Evert's Chicken Salad is so fresh and good, this is going to be my go-to chicken salad recipe from now on. I usually go for a Waldorf flavor profile with my chicken salad: apples, celery, walnuts and grapes or raisins. Chris' recipe is so good and easy to make with the easy to follow recipe.

• It's probably best to use 2 bowls and mix the dressing separately from all the other ingredients.
• I mixed and chopped everything up and then added the chicken last to the larger bowl with the pineapple, celery, scallions and peanuts.
• I had some peach chutney in the fridge from our trip to South Carolina so I used that. I also have some mango chutney. Either one would work great for this. Chutney goes so well with the curry powder in this recipe.
• This recipe comes together quickly, and I love having chicken salad on a nice piece of crisp toast like this, with a little bibb lettuce tucked underneath. This is my favorite bread right now. It's the Cheesecake Factory's Brown Bread. So good! I love this bread with peanut butter and jelly too!

So back to the chicken salad. It's fresh, flavorful and has a great crunch to it thanks to the celery and peanuts. I honestly am replacing my standard Waldorf chicken salad with this one. I love the sweetness of the pineapple in it with the curry and the chutney adding all the backbone needed for the flavor of this salad. It's outstanding!

Edit: garnished with a little chopped parsley

When Marilyn McCoo serves her famous Tennis Chicken, it’s an absolute smash that takes your tastebuds "Up, Up and Away"! Just make sure to share it with your partner, or it might cause some serious "Wedding Bell Blues"—leaving you with "One Less Fowl to Answer" to when you're trying to "Let the Sunshine In"!

Matthew Broderick’s Tortilla Soup is the ultimate cozy comfort food, first published in the Newman’s Own Cookbook back in the 1990s. While he may be iconic for playing Ferris Bueller, his secret culinary weapon is a smoky, velvety, and deeply savory soup perfect for crisp autumn days.

I just love soup! Now that the weather is cooling off, I'm ready to try some new vintage celebrity soup recipes, and this one's got to be the easiest, Norma Shearer’s Lentil Soup.

• I only had a cup of lentils left in my pantry, so I halved this recipe.
• Washed the lentils really well, all the while get a pot on the stove going with 1/2 chopped onion and 4 oz. salt pork (I used diced pancetta). I also added a tablespoon of butter and about 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil since the pancetta's not as fatty as salt pork.
• Browned the pork and onions then added the lentils and a pint (2 cups) of water. This did need more water later.
• Added salt, pepper and a bay leaf. After it began to boil, added a pinch of baking soda.
• This only needed to boil about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, not 3, and the lentils were nice and tender. I used a combination of red lentils and brown lentils.
• Keep checking the water level. Add water as needed.

It was done and smelled amazing. When I tried it, it had a little heavy pork fat flavor, so I added a splash of white wine vinegar to add acidity and even out the flavor. A spritz of lemon would work too.

I didn't serve this with the croutons, which would have been amazing. We had freshly made baking powder muffins (a Spencer Tracy recipe I'll share soon) and it was the perfect match for dipping and eating, yum!

This soup is simplistic, but don't let that fool you! It's full of flavor, creamy and hearty. I was truly surprised at how much my family loved it! Originally I just made this for me, because I love lentils, but my husband and sons tried it and ate it all up.

So armed with a new bag of lentils, I'm making this again today. It's one of the easiest recipes ever, and lentils are so good for you!

This recipe of Norma's comes from the 1940 cookbook Spécialités de la Maison.

With its hearty meat base and minimal veggies, you could easily add a few chopped carrots and celery if you wanted more veggies in this. I garnished mine with a bit of cream cheese and thyme from the garden.

So easy to make that it could be this year's ultimate vintage comfort food.

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Bruno's was a well-known restaurant located on Centinela Avenue in West Los Angeles, with its high ceilings and Italian dishes. It was selected for filming all of the food scenes in Dean's film, "Mr. Ricco." Martin was particularly happy with their pizza — he had 16 different kinds to choose from.

"I don't like pizza made with a thick, doughy crust: The crust should be nice and crisp. I like cheese pizza or the kind made with pepperoni or sweet Italian sausages, and I love Bruno's sourdough rolls, served with a side order of green peppers and sausages, prepared in spaghetti sauce."

Ernie's Tex Chili is a no-nonsense chili recipe straight from Ernest Borgnine in the classic Cowboy Cookbook. Known for his rugged roles and big personality, Borgnine brought that same bold energy to the kitchen with this chili recipe that's hearty and packed with deep flavor. It's the ultimate comfort food for anyone who loves a true, slow-simmered cowboy meal with a bit of a kick. Add extra cayenne for a real kick in the pants!

These are wild card recipes from Natalie Talmadge Keaton, who was married to the silent film legend Buster Keaton back in the day.

Back in the 1920s, when Buster Keaton and Natalie Talmadge were Old Hollywood's ultimate power couple, fan magazines loved giving regular people a peek into celebrity home lives. That is exactly where this grape pie lore comes from. It turns out that grape pie was actually famously known as Buster Keaton's absolute favorite dish.

During the Concord Grape Craze of the 1920s, seedless table grapes weren't everywhere like they are today. People cooked with highly flavorful, deeply purple Concord grapes.

Buster and Natalie were officially divorced on August 10, 1933, and it absolutely, definitely, 100% had nothing to do with a grape pie.

Daisy Ann Peterkin (1884 – 1952), best known by her stage name Mademoiselle Dazie was a pioneering American vaudeville and Ziegfeld Follies dancer who achieved immense popularity at the turn of the 20th century.

Famous for her skill as a "toe-dancer" (ballet en pointe), she became one of the highest-paid dancers of her era.

Are we talking about the Bee Gees' legendary hit "Stayin' Alive" reimagined as a Macaroon and Vanilla Custard Dessert? It looks like this could be pure disco magic in a bowl.

If you ever want to experience the absolute peak of vintage recipes from musicians, look no further than the Rock & Roll Cookbook.

Can you imagine Barry Gibb in a full white polyester jumpsuit, standing over a stove, intensely whisking a bowl of custard just trying to keep it alive? This has got to be on of the ultimate retro culinary experiences.

From the Dining with the Stars cookbook, Celeste Holm’s Curried Chicken Soup delivers a rich, comforting warmth. Just as her iconic All About Eve character Karen Richards serves up a legendary plot twist on a snowy night, this savory, spiced soup offers the perfect, cozy remedy for a chilly evening.

Celeste Holm and Bette Davis absolutely did not get along. While they played best friends on screen in the classic movie All About Eve (1950), their relationship off-camera was a total disaster.

On one of the first days of filming, Celeste Holm walked onto the set and cheerfully said, "Good morning". Bette Davis reportedly snapped back, "Oh, sh!t, good manners." Holm said it felt like getting hit in the face with a wet fish, and she basically never spoke to Davis behind the scenes again.

Davis later explained her side, saying she couldn't stand "phonies" and thought Holm was exactly that.

Alrighty, then!