Angela Lansbury emigrated to the
United States from England at the the beginning of as World War II. With her
strong classical British acting training, she was soon contracted by MGM and received an Oscar
nomination for her two films films, Gaslight (1944) and The Picture of
Dorian Gray (1946). She later had her most famous film role as the mother-from-hell working with the Communists to overthrow the US government in The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
for which she received another Oscar nomination, and had the memorable line
"I keep telling you not to think! You're very, very good at a great many
things, but thinking, hon', just simply isn't one of them."
However, most everyone associates Angela
with her role as the mystery writer Jessica Fletcher in the TV
series Murder, She Wrote
which ran from 1984 to 1986 at a time when
older actresses found it almost
impossible to get a starring role in television or film.
On Broadway, Angela ruled the stage for
decades and won five Tony Awards, two of which were for iconic roles,
first as vivacious multi-married
Mame Dennis, whose famous motto is "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers
are starving to death" in the musical
Mame (1966), The second was as Mrs. Lovett in SweeneyTodd (1979) the love-struck baker who gained
fame for making pies from the flesh of those murdered
by her upstairs paramour, the demon barber of Fleet Street. The story of
Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett was based on two of London's most notorious
criminals. Sweeney was sentenced to death by the hangman, but Mrs.
Lovett was found
poisoned in her cell at Newgate prison.
So what would be more appropriate of a celebratory dish for Angela's
birthday than Mrs. Lovett's priest pie that was such a hit in Sweeny Todd
and watching a DVD of the original Broadway Musical?
Here are the delicious lyrics that describe this
delicacy.
Mrs. Lovett
Here we are, now! Hot out of the oven!
Mr. Todd
What is that?
Mrs. Lovett
It's priest. Have a little priest.
Mr. Todd
Is it really good?
Mrs. Lovett
Sir, it's too good, at least!
Then again, they don't commit sins of the flesh,
So it's pretty fresh.
Mr. Todd
Awful lot of fat.
Mrs. Lovett
Only where it sat.
Mr. Todd
Haven't you got poet, or something like
that?
Mrs. Lovett
No, y'see, the trouble with poet is
'Ow do you know it's deceased?
Try the priest!
Mrs. Lovett's Priest Pie
Ingredients
1&1/4 lb ground priest*
2 potatoes, diced
2 carrots diced
i parsnip diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup beef broth
1 TB thyme
3 TB fresh parsley, chopped
2 TB chopped garlic
1 TB salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup flour
Pastry (enough for double-crust pie)
1½ quarts oil
Instructions
1. Brown meat, add diced potatoes carrots,
parsnip, onion, herbs, garlic, salt, and pepper, cover and
simmer 45
minutes.
2 Heat oil in a large pan to 375º F.
3 Add flour and stir until mixture thickens.
3. Roll out pastry by the handful, spoon half-full with meat filling,
brush edges with egg yolk, fold pastry
over and crimp edges.
4, Fry in hot oil for 1 minute each, until dark golden brown
Makes 4 meat pies
* Because priest is becoming an an
endangered species, you can substitute ground pork which will have
the approximate fat content as priest.