Bena Mae’s Kitchen: Murder, he wrote

I’m keen on blood spatter pattern. And I recognize blunt force trauma when I see it. I can tell a suicide victim from a murder victim right away. A suicide victim doesn’t shoot himself in the right temple with his left hand.  I’m good.
I learned all this from watching ID (Identification Discovery) on TV.  For the unaware, the show is about murder, adultery, secrets, and lies. It’s enough to feed your dark side if you have one. It’s also addictive.
ID, and cable TV have saved my life during the past two weeks of the RNC and DNC conventions. I watched bits and pieces of them but enough of something is enough…even banana pudding.
I did learn though, that all of the speakers in both conventions loved their mothers. Nothing wrong with that. But in looking back on presidential conventions of the past, I can’t remember FDR, Dwight D. Eisenhower, JFK, and others paying such an abundance of homage to their mother (although I’m sure they deserved it.) I’m not being cynical, I’m just saying…..
Times are different now, I guess.
So I took refuge in watching cable. Thank Heaven for Encore. Every night I could watch the master, Alfred Hitchhock in his old black and white series. Big plus…no commercials, and the off-chance of seeing a now-famous actor who was just in the start of his or her career. One night I saw a young Robert Redford in an episode. He was so cute.
It is much easier to predict the outcome of an old Hitchcock film than it was in the beginning. I guess we’ve become more blase, worldly wise and I don’t like it. I like the element of surprise which he was so good at.
It’s hard to name a favorite Hitchcock movie, there are so many. One I remember so well is “Shadow of a Doubt,” which stars Joseph Cotton and Teresa Wright. It is slow moving, slowly bringing an awareness that Cotton is a cunning villain which makes you want to  jump into the screen and warn everybody.
There’s no arguing that “Psycho” is the scariest. I still have trouble taking a shower when I’m home alone.
When Hitchcock got a letter from a man saying his daughter could no longer take a shower after watching Psycho, or from watching another movie called Diabolique in which a woman was murdered while taking a bath, Hitchock sent him this advice: “Send her to the dry cleaners.”

Quick Saucy Chicken Casserole

3 cups cut-up chicken or turkey
2 cans (10 3/4 oz. each) condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg. (16 oz.) mixed vegetables
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp. garlic
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. parsley flakes

Heat oven to 450°F.

Mix chicken, soup, vegetables, poultry seasoning and garlic in ungreased 13x9x2” baking dish. Stir Bisquick and milk until blended. Pour over chicken mixture. Sprinkle with parsley. Bake 30-32 min. or until crust is a light, golden, brown.

Makes 6 servings