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Guest blog by Beth Accomando, KPBS Cinema Junkie
One week down of Bonkers Ass Cinema’s delirious month-long Charles Bronson celebration and lots of death and revenge has already been served up with plenty more to come.
I have been cooking as many of these dishes and desserts as possible so Matt has some images of the food to post. My son asked me what I was doing and I explained. He thought about it for a moment and said, “So you are making food to go with a Bronson marathon that is just happening online and no one gets to eat it except me? Ok, Mom, I’ll take one for the team.”
After the White Buffalo-themed burger, he was thrilled about my ridiculously geeky endeavor.
April 8: Murphy’s Law (1986)
The week starts off with Bronson in Murphy’s Law and guess what? More revenge plus he gets handcuffed to a female criminal and they are forced to work together as a team. I did not want to do another revenge themed dish and did not have handcuff cookie cutters so I had to look a little deeper. So for tonight I am making Psycho Killer Arrowroot Cookies in honor of Carrie Snodgress’ character in the film. The actress insisted on not using just a gun for the murders and one of the numerous ways she chooses to off her victims is with an arrow (from a crossbow if memory serves me). Here is the recipe I used from Eat Nourishing because a psycho killer needs to eat healthy to be at the top of her game. The cookies melt in your mouth. I used some kick ass action cookie cutters for the shapes.
April 9: 10 to Midnight (1983)
OMG! 10 to Midnight is such insane fun and so many ideas to play off of. This one is about a serial killer as well but this one likes to stalk young women and his MO is to use a butcher knife and wear latex gloves and nothing else. So I made a Naked Chocolate Cake (this one is a caprese) that has no frosting but since the killer is clearly a nut case I added I little crazy dusting of powdered sugar. Then wearing my latex gloves I made some chocolate butcher knives for fun. You’ll need to buy a candy mold to make the knives and Epicurious has a good caprese recipe but I reduce the sugar to ½ or ¾ cups so that the chocolate and nut flavors pop more.
April 10: The Stone Killer (1973)
Revenge is served up yet again but this time I did a little digging into the backstory. The plot is described as being set in the 1970s and involving a Mafia don avenging the killings of some other dons from back in 1931, which was known as "The Night of Sicilian Vespers.” Sicilian Vespers also refers to a 13th century uprising in which Sicilians rose up against the French. The Times of Sicily website explains how Sicilians determined who might be French soldiers:
“It is said that even in encountering persons in civilian clothes, they were asked to pronounce the Sicilian word ciciri (chick peas), and if one happen to be French, he could not pronounce such a word correctly (the French pronounced that word kikiri) and he or she was killed. The insurrection, already secretly in the making, spread very quickly to every part of the island, and in very little time the French were thrown out of Sicily. All this started in Palermo at the time that the church’s bells were tolling the Vesper, the end of the work day, and for this reason this insurrection remained in the annals of history as The Sicilian Vespers.”
And that’s how I decided to make a Night of the Vespers Sicilian Chick Pea Salad with a recipe from Emeril, I added a bit more lemon juice.
April 11: The White Buffalo (1977)
This one is hands down my son’s favorite. In honor of the titular White Buffalo I made a Buffalo Burger smothered in white cheddar cheese and topped with cabernet onions and wild boar bacon. Yeah that’s all I have to say.
Here’s the recipe from Epicurious. I just added the wild boar bacon because I could.
April 12: Messenger of Death (1988)
OK I have to give in to revenge at some point so this one simply has an Avenging Angels Cake, which is shaped like an Angel Food cake but none of that wimpy white cake here. This is dark chocolate devil’s food cake with blood frosting. I go with Martha Stewart’s Devil’s Food Bundt Cake but bake it in an angel food cake pan and drizzle with a frosting made from confectioner’s sugar mixed with water and red food color till it’s the proper shade of blood for you.
April 13: The Great Escape (1963)
This one I love! Bronson plays a Polish prisoner known as the Tunnel King so I am making Polish Sausage Sandwiches in which you tunnel out the bread from a crusty French baguette and stuff a Polish sausage in. (Yeah I know how that sounds but whatever.) Top with some grainy mustard to look like dirt from the tunnel and you’ve got the Tunnel King Polish Sausage Sandwich!
April 14: The Evil That Men Do (1984)
And we end the week as we started with, surprise, REVENGE! Since Bronson heads to Guatemala at one point I did a little research into Guatemalan food and discovered this delightful dish that seems perfect, Fiambre. The name means "served cold" and it’s eaten only in Guatemala on All Saint's Day when you remember the dead. Apparently the dish evolved from families taking dozens of little dishes to the cemetery and over time they all got mixed together and ended up in this everything but the kitchen sink, easy to carry single dish. Since this film is about death and revenge served cold what better food to prepare than Holland’s Covert Fiambre.
