In the laundry room of my apartment complex is a chair and fold-out table upon which people leave random reading material. On that table this morning I found a softbound book titled, Pilar Wayne’s Favorite and Fabulous Recipes.
Whilst perusing said tome, I learned that from 1954 to 1976 its author, Pilar Wayne, was married to John Wayne. Besides being the wife of America’s most beloved movie cowboy, Pilar was also apparently quite the cook. And this book is her proof of it.
I also saw that Mrs. Wayne had autographed the book!
(Sounds like she had some tough kids. No surprise there; they’re John Wayne’s kids!)
Evidently Pilar took particular pleasure in cooking the fish dish above. If that bad boy doesn’t say “Hi! Eat me!”, what does? The recipe for this conversation stopper is below. It includes two envelopes of unflavored gelatin, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, and tabasco. Yum!
It certainly was fun getting this behind-the-scenes view into the life of John Wayne, one of America’s greatest movie heroes. Plus, I think it shed a little light on why he always walked so funny.
If anyone wants to see/read any more of Pilar’s recipes, just lemme know, and I’ll post ’em. I kept the book. How could I not? (Um … but I did replace it with about ten other awesome books.)
Follow-up post: How John Wayne proposed to his third wife (plus a pic of her Bananas Flambe!)
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