Pages, Pucks and Pantry

The Oscars and Food

I'll be honest with you Marge...there hasn't been a lot of cooking going on in our house. Well...I take that back, meals are being cooked, food is being eaten, but there hasn't been much of trying of new recipes. It's been roasted chicken, shrimp (and crab and tuna and salmon) salads. Crock pots full of mystery meats found in the bowels of the freezer covered with jars of sauce found in the pantry. Leftover roasted veggies tossed together to make a soup. Mortadella (and salami and chicken) sandwiches. It's also been eating out. Food trucks. Restaurants. Grabbing pre-cooked meals from the deli section of our grocery store.

And while work has been kicking my butt for weeks I can't blame that on the lack of culinary experimentation in our house. No, the culprit can be described in two words.

The Oscars.

You see, last year was a bit of a trying year and nights out to go watch a movie (or nights in renting one) were few and far between. Mr. L and I suddenly realized come the end of January that we hadn't seen even one movie of the nine Oscar nominated best pictures. I knew this wouldn't do. So we set out to rectify the situation.

One of the first things we realized in our Oscar movie viewing adventure was that only one of the movies nominated was on DVD or available for download on AppleTV/Direct TV. Which meant going out to the movie theaters* and lots of figuring out movie times that fit into our already busy schedule. This also meant quick meals before movie show times (and with lots of these movies being 2 1/2 hours long meant we really did need to eat dinner first. I admit, I think there was one night where a large buttered popcorn was dinner. I also think quite a few movie hot dogs were consumed. But we managed to get a few good sushi dinners in beforehand too). 

We also, along with the best picture movies, tried to see as many other nominated movies that we could. We spent nights watching Looper and Skyfall. The Pirates! Band of Misfits (we were able to catch  Brave in the theater when it originally came out). We even were able to watch all of the Live Action Shorts (our favorite was Death of a Shadow) and three of the animated shorts (Head Over Heals stole our hearts). And just to add to what we ended up calling "The Oscar Movie Death March" we also watched The Kings Speech since we had failed to see that a few years ago (we still need to see The Artist).

It was the morning of the Oscars that I suddenly realized that though I had seen every single nominated best picture and quite a few other movies, I hadn't really thought about what to make or bring to the annual Oscar party. I had a ton of ideas, I'd even started a list of possible contributions months ago, but time just sort of got away from me. So it was a quick trip to the grocery store before heading to the party to pick up the two items you see in the photo above (we even splurged and bought some European butter to go with the French bread). I think the signs helped.

It was interesting to see all the nominated movies in such a short time frame. I think it made it much easier to compare between all of them (though we hopefully will not be doing this compacted watching schedule ever again). My favorite movie? Life of Pi, but I was not disappointed that Argo won. Least favorite? Beasts of the Southern Wild. Most surprising? Django Unchained (which I thought I would hate but really liked). Amour was extremely difficult for me since I had just watched my mom deteriorate like that. Though we liked Les Miserables, the theater we saw it in had the most horrible sound system, the film was full of scratches and I swear there was only a quarter of an inch of padding in the seat. Not the best viewing experience and I'm sure that affected our thoughts on the movie. The one movie I didn't see that I wanted before the Oscars was The Impossible since my Aunt** said Watts performance was wonderful. 

So, honestly, there just hasn't been much time to fulfill one of my favorite hobbies...perusing my cookbooks and picking out recipes to try. Of course two other factors have put a bit of a damper on my cooking...the fact that every Wednesday a food truck shows up down the street from where we live. Hard to resist just being able to walk to the truck once we are both home from work. And I also have to give big props to Mr. L, who, for the past month or so, has taken up the "food" responsibility every other week (that means he plans, shops and cooks breakfast, lunch and dinners for that week). It's giving me a bit of a breather with my current crazy work life.

Which doesn't mean I haven't still been collecting recipes to try. Cookbooks have been bought, dishes have been pinned, recipes have been torn out of magazines and blog foods have been bookmarked. I've had this insane desire for days to hole myself up and do some baking. It's my week to cook so I think it's time to do some cooking! And maybe watch a movie or two....

*Seriously expensive going out to movies these days. Especially if you add on popcorn, soda and a hot dog. Cost of two tickets was from twenty to twenty five bucks. A large popcorn and soda was another twelve to fifteen dollars. Maybe eight bucks for a hot dog. Yikes.

**My Aunt is a movie watching pro. She goes at least once or twice a week to the theater. When she's home she probably watches at least a movie a night on the TV (between Netflix and the movie channels she says there is always something interesting to see).

Balloon Cake Pops

These are Balloon Cake Pops or Mrs. L's Homage to The Movie 'UP'.

Every year the Godson's parents hold an Oscar party. For several years we have been asked to bring food related too, or made in, a movie. A few years ago, Mr. L and I had a Double Cheese and Sausage pizza delivered (think Fast Times at Ridgemont High). Last year we brought some Nite Owl coffee (from Watchman). This year, I figured I needed to get my butt in gear and actually cook something.

Thanks goes to Chef Barbie for brainstorming with me on what to bring. Our original idea was to get some donut holes, dunk them in white chocolate and then sprinkle the nonpareils on them. I decided that maybe making the balloons out of cake would be tastier, even if it required a bit more work. I found several recipes online that required baking a cake from scratch and making your own frosting (The Kitchen has a great recipe here). And then I saw that The Pioneer Woman made hers using cake mix and tub frosting. If it's good enough for Ree, it's good enough for me.

These were awesome. They made a great presentation, they were fun to eat for both kids and adults and they had a great flavor. What I liked most though, was the play on textures.  You bite into the hard white chocolate coating with those little nonpareils that bounce around in your mouth and then you hit the soft cake interior. Really liked the way it all blended together.

Though I used chocolate fudge cake mix, any flavor will do (if I could have found red velvet, I thought it would have been perfect to go with the Oscars red carpet). Same I think, with using whatever flavor frosting you like/have on hand. Though I used nonpareils to mimic balloons, any kind of sprinkles, mini M&M's, along with leaving them just with the chocolate coating will work. I did try using one of those food color "spray cans" and though that worked fine, the cans were expensive and didn't give me the look and coverage I wanted for my "balloons". The directions might seem long, but it's more tips on how to put stuff together than actual instructions.

I thought these were prefect to represent "UP" at the Oscar party. I even won a little Oscar statue for Most Creative Dish! (which if you ever come to visit, is now proudly displayed in my bathroom). Other great dishes at the party were a wonderful batch of Jambalaya (representing The Princess and The Frog) and, what I thought was brilliant, a crock pot full of meatballs with little clouds of cotton balls stuck to the lid (representing Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs).

BALLOON CAKE BALLS

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 tub frosting
White Melting Chocolate or White Chocolate Dipping Chips
Lollipop sticks
Nonpareils in Various Colors
Block of Styrofoam

Prepare the cake according to the directions on the box using the 9x13 pan instructions. Allow the cake to cool completely. When the cake has cooled, gently crumble the cake into a large bowl (you should have fine crumbs). I just used my hands taking small chunks of the cake and just gently working at it over the bowl to get the crumbs.

Take about half the tub of frosting and mix it into the cake (see notes). You want to work the icing into the cake until it all holds together and can form a ball (add more icing if needed). Cover and refrigerate to firm up the cake mixture (at least an hour).

Once the cake mixture is firm (the refrigeration makes it easier to handle) take bits of the cake mixture and roll into a smooth ball (I made mine about the size of a golf ball). Arrange on a wax paper lined pan and freeze uncovered for at least an hour (again, this helps harden them up and makes it easier to coat with the chocolate). Take the cake balls out of the freezer and insert a lollipop stick into the top of each one (be careful when doing this so you don't smush the top of the ball).

Melt the white chocolate (whichever way is easier for you, in the microwave or use a double boiler) until smooth. Cover the cake balls by either dipping them into the chocolate or spooning the chocolate over (see my notes).  Sprinkle nonpareils over the chocolate before it hardens. Stick the balloon cake balls cake up into the styrofoam. Eat. Enjoy.

Note: CAKE -  A lot of directions say to take two forks to gently turn the cake into crumbs. Tried this. Took to much time and wasn't working so I just used my hands.

Note: FROSTING -  In the directions The Pioneer Woman gave, she said to use 3/4 of a 12 oz tub of frosting. Most directions call for a full can. I used 3/4 of the 16 oz. tub so it was about a full tub if you use a 12 oz container. Using the full amount made the cake balls moister and what I would call "fudgier" than cakelike, but they tasted great so I think it's just a personal preference.

Note: MIXING - Directions also suggested using two forks to mix the frosting into the cake. I used a spoon and then gently did the last mixing by hand. I think the main point of using the forks is to not over mix the cake into the frosting. And as an FYI, even if you use white frosting (which I did), the frosting will mix well into the cake and you won't be able to see it. 

Note: FORMING INTO CAKE BALLS - I found it was easier to form the balls by putting the cake with frosting mixture into the fridge for a bit to firm up. I also found that if they were firmer, there was less of a chance of a flat edge from putting them on the waxed paper. I used a cookie dough scoop which made it really easy to form uniform sized balls.

Note: LOLLIPOP STICKS - I got mine at Michaels so I assume you can find them at any hobby store. I got the shorter size, but the long ones would work too. I stuck them about halfway through the balls being careful not to go all the way through. Even though the cake balls had been frozen, it was easy to put the sticks in them.

NOTE: WHITE CHOCOLATE DIPPING CHIPS - I used Wilton's White Chocolate Melting Chips that I got at Michaels. I thought they didn't work as well as the Ghirardelli Melting Chips I had used at Christmas time. They just didn't seem to be as smooth consistency as I would have liked. Other recipes talked about using regular white chocolate and then adding wax. That just didn't appeal to me.

NOTE: MELTING THE CHOCOLATE: I was lazy and just melted the chocolate disks in the microwave. Most folks did use a double boiler as it keeps the chocolate melted while you work. The Wiltons chocolate melting disks never really thinned up as much as I would like so I tried adding a bit of vegetable oil (per instructions on the bag). Still was a pretty thick consistency.

NOTE: COATING THE CAKE BALLS:  I tried dipping the cake ball into the melted chocolate but either the lollipop stick would come out or I just got a glob of white chocolate on the cake ball and it didn't look like a balloon shape at all. What I ended up doing was taking a spoon and getting a glob of the chocolate, spreading it on the cake ball, and then rolling the cake ball around the spoon in order to get an even coating. This helped make the chocolate smoother going around the cake ball.

NOTE: NONPAREILS - Okay this was the fun part. I first tried putting a single color of nonpareil in a bowl and dipping the white chocolate coated cake ball into the nonpareils. Smushed the white chocolate. And unless I had a HUGE bowl with about a ton of nonpareils to stick the cake balls deep in to, I don't think this was going to have worked. So then I tried taking handfuls of the nonpareils and pouring/sprinkling them onto the cake balls. Well..these little suckers BOUNCE. So unless you have a wide deep bowl, once you try to pour the stuff on the cake balls, little nonpareils will be bouncing all over the counter, onto the floor, or bouncing onto an unsuspecting cat. And while that can be entertaining, it doesn't get the cake ball covered. What I ended up doing was taking a big measuring cup, taking the lollipop stick and putting the cake ball deep into the cup. I then sprinkled the nonpareils over the bottom and sides of the cake ball. Once that was done I took a spoon and scooped up the nonpareils at the bottom of the measuring cup and used that to cover the top of the cake balls.

NOTE: STYROFOAM - I didn't put these back on the waxed paper to harden as most folks do. I stuck the lollipop sticks into a block of styrofoam which keep the round shape of the balloons. For presentation, I took a bell shaped styrofoam, cut off the little knob on the top and stuck the cake pops around the bell shape.

NOTE: The chocolate hardened pretty quickly on the cake ball since it wasn't a real thick coat. I had to work quickly to get the nonpareils on before the chocolate dried. I know there is something I can put in the chocolate to make it not harden so quick and I would probably use that next time. You can see in the photo, some of the cake balls have "missing" nonpareils...these were my first tries until I figured the process out.

NOTE: I did this in batches as I found that after a bit of time out of the freezer the cake balls became too soft to coat and would fall off the lollipop stick. I just did half the pan and then stuck the rest back into the freezer for an hour.

These really were pretty quick and simple to do. Now that I know some of the little tips that make it easier I could probably do variations of these in a flash. Covering these with nuts, colored sugar, or using little candy shapes would also be a great variation.

Twilight, Team Jacob and David Lebovitz's Berry Cobbler

First, I need to tell you that I never did get on the Twilight bandwagon. I bought the book back in 2006, read a few pages and put it back on the shelf. I just couldn't seem to get into it. Though I never went to see the movie either, I do know about Team this and Team that because, to be honest, yes I read People magazine.

I admit everything changed a few weeks ago when I was invited by the Godson's Mom to a "Twilight Viewing Party". A group of women were getting together to re-watch Twilight before going to see New Moon the Friday it opened. The theme, of course, was the movie/book Twilight. Each of us was asked to bring a Twilight themed dish for dinner. Having no clue what food might be appropriate, upon asking I was told "Berry Cobbler".

I was gone the morning of the party and, having completely forgotten about making the cobbler, I quickly got out my iPhone and Googled "berry cobbler". I needed something with easy ingredients I could grab on the way home and something quick since I only had a few hours before the party. Which let me to this post by David Lebovitz. David, you were a life saver. Well, undead saver? Anyway...

I added about six cups of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries to the cobbler. They cooked down quite a bit (maybe strawberries would hold up better)? I added about a tablespoon of brown sugar to the berries along with what David asked for and I also sprinkled a vanilla sugar mixture on the dough part. Loved the taste and texture of the dough though I might add a bit more sugar next time to make it sweeter. You can check out Davids post about the recipe here. He also gives wonderful variations on the dish using different fruits. If you haven't checked out Davids blog yet you should.

DAVID LEBOVITZ BERRY COBBLER

You can find the recipe here.

Serves 6 (though I got at least 8 servings)

Note: I used a pint of blueberries, a couple pints of blackberries and the rest were raspberries.

Note: I used lemon juice in the fruit and added an additional tablespoon of brown sugar.

Note: I added about two tablespoons of some vanilla sugar I had on top of the dough before cooking. I did not do the egg wash.

Note: I tasted the berries before adding the dough but did not have to add more sugar.

As for the Twilight Viewing party? I had a wonderful time, though I'm not sure it was all because of the movie. We had great food (Italian natch), some blood martini's (using special glass charms to mark our drinks) and even played some party games. I won the "golden onion" award for not knowing a single answer to the "Twilight Trivia Game" (and had no idea what a golden onion award was until after the movie). I did not win the "Kiss Edward on the Lips" award (we all put on some nice red lipstick, then we were blindfolded and had to see who could get closest to Edwards lips to win). I did enjoy the movie, though, and went home and started the book that night. No I have not seen New Moon, but I have seen the commercials...which means at this point I'm Team Jacob. Which could change when I get around to reading book three....