Oscar! Oscar!

I love throwing my annual Oscar party. Over the years it has evolved from just eating chips and making snarky red carpet commentary, to a fairly elaborate affair. Since I love to be “pun-ny”, my Oscar menu is inspired by the top 10 nominated Best Picture films. Alas, this year we had to cancel the party, but here’s what the menu would have been:

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THeArtist Salad

Hearts of palm, artichokes, and romaine in a red wine vinaigrette

HuGoat Cheese & Lentil Salad

Chevre and French lentils de Puy

The Brie of Life

Baked brie en croute with fried sage leaves

War Hors d’ouevres

Seared beef tenderloin with horseradish cream on crostini

Eggs-tremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Brooklyn: Smoked salmon and cream cheese deviled eggs

Queens: Kimchi deviled eggs

The Crescendants

Crescent-wrapped mini dogs with Hawaiian pineapple sriracha dipping sauce

Moneyballs

Turkey meatballs with marinara sauce

The (Hamburger) Help(er)

Homemade macaroni and beef “hamburger helper”

Midnight in Pear-is Tarte

French pear and almond tart

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This year I also designed a cocktail menu for each of the Best Actor and Actress nominations. Some of them were stretching it a little, but they do sound tasty to drink!

Best Actor

A Bitter Life

Demian Bichir - A Better Life

Blanco tequila, dry vermouth, Angostura bitters

Cloon Hawaiian
George Clooney - The Descendants

Rum, pineapple juice, blue curacao, crème de coconut

L’Eau du Jardin

Jean Dujardin – The Artist

Gin, St. Germaine, Chartreuse, lime juice

Gary Old-fashionedman
Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Rye, Peychaud bitters

Brad Pitted Olive Martini

Brad Pitt - Moneyball

Vodka or gin martini with blue cheese-stuffed martinis

Best Actress

Albert Knob Creek

Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs

Knob Creek neat or on the rocks

Violet Davis

Viola Davis - The Help

Vodka, cranberry juice, blue curacao, lime

Rooney Mara-tini

Rooney Mara - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Vodka, lime juice, triple sec, cranberry, Swedish fish

The Iron Lady

Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady

Gin, lime juice, soda water

The Marilyn
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn

Apple brandy, grenadine, prosecco

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I did end up making a few of the dishes and watching at home. The kimchi deviled eggs were tasty, tart, and creamy. I wonder how many more dishes I can think of to add kimchi too? Of course, I did not take pictures. But here's a summary of my somewhat improvised recipe:

Kimchi Bacon Deviled Eggs

6 hard boiled eggs, separate

about 4 tbsp of kimchi, minced

2 slice bacon, chopped

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tbsp mayo

1 tbsp dill, minced

salt and pepper

Mash up the cooked egg yolks, sour cream, mayo, kimchi and bacon. Salt and pepper to taste. Put the mixture in a Ziploc storage bag. Snip off the bottom corner and squeeze the yolk mixture into the egg white halves.Garnish with a little bacon and a snippet of kimchi on top.

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And the real winner of the Academy Awards last night?  

My Midnight in Pear-is tarte!

Recipe courtesy of Dorie Greenspan

This was not an easy recipe. Especially since I am a baking loser. But I'm so glad I took the time and effort to make this. I didn't read the recipe very carefully beforehand, so I didn't realize that most of the key steps required freezing or cooling the different items. Luckily, I had nothing else to do that day so I took my time. 

The recipe is in 3 parts: the Sweet Tart Dough for the crust, an amazing almond cream, and poached pears on top. You can substitute the crust for store-bought and use canned pears, but what's the fun in that?

Here's the crust just out of the oven. I didn't think it was going to come out right, because it was all crumbly and dry. I don't have a food processor, so after some extensive web research, I improvised with a pastry cutter and froze the butter beforehand. Apparently, if the butter is too warm, the flour will absorb too much of the fat and come out tough. I ended up with small and large chunks of frozen butter, and a lot of dry flour. So I also added a few tablespoons of water to hold it all together. I have no idea if this is an approved method of making crust, but it was delicious, so there.

Here's the tart fully assembled, but not baked. The pears were pretty easy to poach. Then I slid them onto a spatula and then onto the cream. You have to be very careful though, because once those slices touch the cream, it's hard to move them around! I actually lost one half of a pear that way :(  but look how PRETTY!

I threw some whole blanched almonds in the middle because visually, it needed a little something extra.


The almond cream was by far the best part of the dish in the end product. It looked a little weird going in, but once it was baked, it puffed up around the pears beautifully. HINT: You can buy pre-ground almond meal from Trader Joe's in the nuts and dried fruit section.

Et voila! Ma premiere tarte aux poires! Isn't it beautiful? I almost didn't want to eat it, it's so pretty. But I am so glad I did because c'est delicieux. Formidable!