Thursday, February 21, 2008

Party Food

I'm trying to plan some offerings for our annual Oscars(R) watching party, now that there will be an Oscars ceremony to watch. We do it as a pot luck and we've asked people to bring appropriate Oscars themed food. Len has asked that no one bring milkshakes. We're both tired of the radio ad for There Will Be Blood (although I'm thinking about ham for Daniel Day-Lewis.)

I'm inclined toward some Russian zakuski, in honor of Viggo Mortensen's nomination for Eastern Promises. I happen to have a couple of Russian cookbooks, including one mentioned in an L.A. Times article about zakuski in Wednesday's paper. My first husband proposed to me at the famous Russian Tea Room in New York and that bit of information made it into an article that appeared in the Washington Post on the publication of the Russian Tea Room Cookbook back in the days when I did a lot of photography for the post (and as much as I could do for the Food Section headed by Phyllis C. Richman.) (I'm not sure I could have made that sentence any longer.) My roses aren't in bloom, making it difficult to reproduce the rose petal cake from that film.

Of course, being a huge fan of eggplant, Ratatouille's ratatouille (sans Reme) would be the perfect dish, even though my husband wouldn't eat it on a bet. My vegetarian friends would certainly appreciate it. Perhaps the simple roasted chicken instead, though Len won't eat food that looks like itself.

Candied apples a la Enchanted (sans poison) are another possibility, but Len won't eat most fruit.

I'm really looking for some input here.

It would help if I'd seen more of this year's nominees. Despite the number of screeners that arrived in the mail, the only best picture nominee I've seen is Juno. I'm going to try and watch Michael Clayton before Sunday night, but Len keeps booking up our free evenings. If there was an Oscars pool that wanted my participation, I'd really have to punt this time out.

2 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

Ham is a very funny idea, they are all hams. A buffet is always easy, one thing we sometimes do is an oil fondue with cubed steak surrounded by assorted dips, for example, caper mayonnaise,blue cheese etc. Cheddar cheese fondue is always a favorite. I like things that can be set up ahead of time and serve yourself. Chili, chicken croquettes in sauce,swedish meatballs. I like to think one dish meals, with a salad on the side. Hope this helped a little.
All of this may not do if you are having a more formal dinner, for that I have no ideas.

M. C. Valada said...

No, it is definitely a buffet, not a sit-down. I want to watch the show.

I've already got turkey chili and vegetarian chili in the freezer--it is a great stand-by. Fondue is a problem when people really want to be watching the tv, as I discovered when I made it for the Super Bowl a few years ago. Of course, the Oscars are over at a reasonable hour in L.A., so it is always possible to save some of the food for afterwards. Maybe a chocolate fondue for dessert.

Around here, folks get to the house about 2:00 so as to miss not one minute of the extended Red Carpet coverage. Little bites are what work best. So far, we've got 15 people who've RSVPed in the positive and a few others who may just show.

Thanks for the suggestions.