The men have the Super Bowl... the ladies have the Oscars. (Who are we kidding? We only watch it for the Red Carpet, just like we only pay attention to the Super Bowl for the commercials.) For the 84th Academy Awards, we set out to make food that could somehow be related to each film nominated for best picture. Here goes...
Cocktails
Left - The Red Carpet Martini
Vodka, Cointreau, Pomegranate Juice, Lime
Center - The 84th Martini
Vodka, Pear Nectar, Amaretto
Right - The Oscar Cocktail
Champagne, Cognac, Bitters, and a Sugar Cube
Nominated Film - "The Artist"
A silent film based in France... therefore cheese and crackers were a necessity for the table
Nominated Film - "Midnight in Paris"
To continue the theme of French food, we chose a Fig and Olive Tapenade over Crostini
This was one of the favorites put out that evening... the only changes we made were to use goat cheese instead of cream cheese as originally suggested in the recipe. This tapenade will be a staple for future dinner parties and when a classy hors d'oeuvre is needed!
Nominated Film - "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"
This emotional film is obviously set in NYC, and what is more New York than pizza?
Mike made a fabulous homemade meat lovers and margherita pizza... delicious!
Nominated Film - "Moneyball"
This baseball themed movie required a meal that brings you back to the ballpark. What could be better than beer-burger sliders with cheddar and a fried onion ring?
Simple, easy, and hugely popular. Ground beef, about 1/3-1/2 cup of beer, palmful of garlic-onion seasoning blend, a little Worcestire, and you're done! Form into small patties, saute on a skillet for approximately 4 minutes per side, add a slice of cheese, cover the skillet and let the steam melt the cheese in less than sixty seconds. Future dinners may include a "slider tasting" since there are so many variations and ideas.
Nominated Film - "The Descendants"
My secret boyfriend, George Clooney, plays a father in this film set in Hawaii. And when we think of Hawaii, we think pulled pork sandwiches with pineapple!
Many thanks to our guest chefs who spent a long time prepping a fabulous tasting pulled pork!
Nominated Film - "Hugo"
French seemed to be a theme in this year's nominated films, so we went back to french cuisine with sauteed mussels and french fries!
Sauteed mussels in a white wine, garlic, tomato, and onion broth. Superb! (And who doesn't like french fries???)
Nominated Film - "War Horse"
Steven Spielberg's film about this amazing horse inspired us to use ingredients that are more common to the horse - apples and oats! Enter: Apple and Oat Cookie Bars!
We simply subbed the raspberry preserves used in the recipe for apple jelly and a sprinkle of cinnamon. What a simple, easy finger food dessert to satisy those sweet tooth cravings.
Nominated Film - "The Help"
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie Bites... if you don't understand the reference, get away from your computer and go watch the movie
Followed the recipe exactly (ok, we halved it) and then instead of baking a whole pie, filled little phyllo cups and baked those. We then topped with some bourbon infused whipped cream. These seemed to be the crowd favorite of the evening.
So there you have it! Nine dishes based on the Oscar-nominated films of this year's Academy Awards!
Some Party Pics:
Next Week - Fine French Cuisine! (And then we'll give the French thing a break, I promise)
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