Last night I hosted my 9th annual Oscars party. This is basically the only time during the year that I actually host anything, so I get pretty excited about it. One of my favorite parts of hosting is trying to come up with horrible puns that will link the party food to the nominated films, but I actually just make the same food every year, so sometimes trying to shoehorn it into a cute name is tricky. Last night I actually tried some new recipes, but the old standbys were there as well.
Even though I have mostly given up Coke, I have to have drinks at my party, and since I don’t drink alcohol, we have a variety of Coke products every year. This has not changed in nine years, and I don’t expect it to change in the future, although anyone is always welcome to the B their own B. Or W, or whatever.
Half of the reason I have this party in the first place is because I need an excuse to make nachos. I love nachos. I want to make them every day. But I can’t make them every day. I can make them every party, however. It is sometimes hard to get nachos into the title of a nominated film though. If only Nacho Libre could be nominated every year.
Whenever my mother has a gathering, her husband makes meatballs. Birthday parties, holidays, or any large gathering of people, it is very easy (and yummy) to throw some meatballs and sauce into a crock pot. I gave it a try this year, and it seemed to work well. Perhaps the meatballs will make a reappearance at a future party…
My big experiment this year was my pecan pie baked brie. As I hate both pecan pie and brie, this normally would not have occurred to me, but actually I think it is a good idea to make some party food that you will not eat. Otherwise I would have eaten everything and been fat and sick. The brie I baked in the oven and then covered with toasted pecans and some caramelized brown sugar and maple syrup. It was gone fairly early in the evening.
My mother-in-law brought over some veggies and dip, so I cannot claim credit for this party food, but I will claim credit for the horrible pun name that I came up with at the last second.
Finally, we needed something sweet, and this last dish was all my wife’s doing. She had been wanting to make this cake that she had a recipe for, so she did and it was a big hit. Even people who hated chocolate cake loved it, plus it was covered in cool whip and crumbled up heath bars. The only problem was coming up with a name for it, but we finally decided to form the crumbled up candy into the shape of a dragon and just call it “The Cake With the Dragon Tattoo.”
The food was good, the show was eh, and the party was fun. Another great entry into the list of Oscar parties. Now I just have to see Hugo when it comes out on DVD tomorrow…