the oscars

You know the drill around here. Lots of delicious themed food, betting, and talking crap about what everyone is wearing. There was pretty terrible weather, so unfortunately a lot of people canceled, but that just meant more food for the rest of us! 

I made a kale and spinach salad with almonds, craisins, and goat cheese (12 Years a Slave), corn with different toppings (Nebraska), chimichurri shrimp (Captain Phillips), "wolf" bacon cheeseburgers (The Wolf of Wallstreet), Texas sheet cake (Dallas Buyers Club), vanilla ice cream (Frozen), and moon pies (Gravity). Everything turned out great! It was also pretty exciting for me to be able to eat sheet cake, something I haven't done in over 7 years. (Not as good with gluten free flour and homemade vegan buttermilk, but beggars can't be choosers!)

We had a lot of fun and ate a lot of food. I have won the past 2 years with my friends, and almost lost this year! But I was able to pull away from Becky and Kristen for the win! That meant I got to keep the statuette again. I decided to put the winners name and year on the back so it can travel from person to person each year...obviously it didn't go that far this year. Maybe next year I won't get so lucky and they'll rip that statue from my grips! But for now, he's safe under my bed. 

the oscars, 2013 edition

Last year I had my first official Oscars party. I made a ton of food, won a bunch of money, and had a great time. This year the new tradition continued. Usually I see most of the movies up for best picture, but this year the only movies I saw were Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman. Not a good showing for me. I think that helped though. I typically will do my research and then change things based on the movies I saw because I really liked one, or the acting, etc. Because I hadn't seen anything, my emotions and usual switching didn't happen. The outcome? I did the best I ever have! I only missed 2! That will probably never happen again, so I'm basking in the glow of my incredible ass kicking. Anyways, on to the food!

All of my food labels and decorations laid out.

The betting station. For those of you (ahem, Rebecca) who are protesting my win, you can clearly see from the ballot I filled out before everyone arrived that I dominated.

Antipasto plate, freshly popped popcorn, and bipolar hummus (Silver Linings Playbook). I made regular hummus and then my sun dried tomato hummus and put them side by side.

Most of the food was based around the 2 movies set in the Middle East (Argo, Zero Dark Thirty) and the 2 set in the south (Django Unchained, Beasts of the Southern Wild). I made fattoush and kaftas (kabobs) with a yogurt dipping sauce which I called Frankenkaftas, since I made them smaller and Franken"weenie" like. I also made djambalaya and Beasts of the Southern Wild Rice. There were also loaves of stolen bread from Les Mis, and poisoned apples from Snow White.

I made Zero Dark Chocolate Pi (Zero Dark Thirty, and Life of Pi), and there were love and devotion bites for Amour.

It was a great night with friends, fun, and lots of food. Luckily most of it was eaten. I think I would have gotten sick of eating those leftovers forever. 

Cheers! Can't wait for next year!

the oscars

Last night were the Oscars! Since I was in middle school my family and I would watch it together and bet a quarter per category. To make it even more awesome my mom would make this amazing dinner with appetizers, dessert, the whole thing, and it was all themed with the movies up for that year. Once everyone started moving away, we decided to put $5 in the pot, and winner would take all. My family is pretty hard core about it and we all do our research. My mom goes a little more hardcore and creates a spreadsheet where she puts the winners from all of the award shows leading up to the big night. I don't go to that extreme, but I do read Entertainment Weekly, read the blogs, and keep up with the other award shows. 

Since I now have an awesome group of friends I knew I had to invite them all over and throw a party, themed food and all! I knew my friends wouldn't be as hardcore as my family, and it made me laugh when Katie texted me and told me her boyfriend said, "I don't know what the Oscars are but it sounds like a good time." It got even better when they came over and we were all talking about all the different award shows, and what they give awards for when someone, I think Katie asked what the Oscars were, and then what the Academy Awards were. A totally legitimate question, but with my insane families background with it, it made me laugh. I love my ridiculous friends.

So in preparation I started planning my menu about 2 weeks before, and thinking about what kind of decorations I might want that would be fun and not too corny. After lots of searching for the right recipes, and asking friends to help out on a few things, I was ready. First things first, I had to make labels for everything so people knew what they were eating and what it went with. I used my many corks to hold up the movie titles, and food labels. 

I set up the betting near the door. There were 12 people, including myself, and 9 bet which brought the pot to $45 for the winner. We already said everyone had to have their ballots set before the first award so I had mine ready to go before everyone got there. My family and I sometimes will change guesses at the last minute, but I knew with my friends they would call shenanigans immediately so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

I had a bucket on the floor for wine and champagne, and then on the bar we had red wine, water, and of course little paper umbrellas for The Descendants. (It's set in Hawaii.)

There were several appetizers while I finished everything up. I had fresh popped popcorn and caramel corn with little dragon prizes. (Popcorn: Moneyball, dragon crackerjack prizes: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

"Parisian" cheese and crackers for Midnight in Paris. (Thanks Alli!)

Here is the dinner spread all laid out.

Zucchini, onion, avocado and tomato salad: The Tree of Life

Hotdogs with bacon onion marmalade and spicy mustard: Moneyball and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (The second is set in New York)

Minny's Oven Fried Chicken: The Help

The desserts! There were Hugo's Favorite Pasteries (eclairs and croissants, thanks Sara!): Hugo; Minny and Clooney's Chocolate Coconut Pie: The Help and The Descendants (no, I didn't poop in the pie)

Black and White Cookies: The Artist (Thanks Emily!), and behind that, Extremely Loud Pop Rocks: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Michael, my brother in law's idea. He also wanted us to eat silent food for The Artist, like pudding and stuff. Thanks Larry for the pop rocks!)

In the end I kicked everyone's ass, including my family's ass! I don't think I've ever done so well. I think it was because I couldn't change anything last minute. I won a total of $65 from the two pots I was in. Here is the awesome winning ballot and my winnings. I missed best actor and actress and I still won with 19!!

After planning for 2 weeks and cooking for 2 days, it was an awesome night! I love my friends, I love entertaining and cooking for everyone, and I especially love taking their money! Who's ready for next year?