I’m still recovering from last night’s Gourmet Dinner Club. Another epic night of awesome food.
As the host, I picked a theme that is not only timely, but one of my favorite events. The Oscars. All dishes had to be inspired by an Oscar-nominated film from any year. I’m so glad we did this the week before the actual night of the Oscars (2/26), because now you can have your own Oscar dinner party during the Oscars!
This was such a fun theme that everyone interpreted a bit differently. All of the food was excellent. So excellent, I was still in a comatose state this morning. The food was good enough that I’ll be sharing a few different recipes over the next couple of weeks.
To start, I had gourmet popcorn out for noshing as folks arrived. Although, not inspired by a specific movie, one must have popcorn at the movies! I went the route of chili-lime and man was it tasty. Buttery spicy goodness. Recipe coming your way soon. In addition, there were drinks of proseco, red wine and an Old Fashioned for Liza.
Liza brought our main appetizer which were southern Deviled Eggs. These eggs were inspired by the movie The Help. Liza told us about her experience seeing The Help in the theatre while in labor. Granted, it was early labor, but still! Rock star woman that Liza. And the eggs were great! They were distinctly southern with pickle relish mixed into the filling. This is not a typical ingredient in the mid-western deviled eggs I’ve grown up with.
Next up was Lee’s French Onion Soup inspired by Midnight in Paris. Lee loosely followed this recipe, but went the extra step of making her own beef stock. I’ve always wanted to make this soup but I find it intimidating. I think going forward, I’ll just have Lee come over and make it for me. I found it to be perfectly oniony, beefy and cheesy.
Along side the soup were the meatballs. Amanda took an Indian twist and created a spicy lamb meatball in a spicy tomato sauce which was inspired by Slumdog Millionaire. Seasoned with serrano peppers, fennel, and cumin, these were flavorful and spicy balls! I found it necessary to have a bit of baguette to tame the heat.
I tackled the main course. I researched a ton of Oscar-nominated films for inspiration and I kept coming back to those that took place in France; Midnight in Paris, Moulin Rouge and of course Julie and Julia. Spending time in Paris this summer was also leading me to create something that screams “France!”. I opted to make a classic French dish that I haven’t made before. I went with the beef bourguignon. It was not the vegan version either. It turned out better than I could have imagined! Beef, bacon, brandy, wine and fire make for a delicious dish. I combined a few different versions (Julia’s and Ina’s) and put my own twist into it. I will do a separate post with the recipe. Even this “mostly vegan” gal really loved the dish.
You can tell this is Brette’s bowl since the carrots have been picked out.
At this point, I was wishing I had worn elastic waist pants. We all put our rally hats on and plunged into dessert.
Kari put together a chocolate orange fondue inspired by the movie, Chocolat, and made popovers as one of the dipables which was inspired by Mary Poppins. How fun is that? I personally find anything dipped in chocolate to be exceptional and this evening confirmed my belief.
Added to the dessert course was Mike’s lemon-yogurt cake. It was a very loose interpretation of this recipe. He made it in the style of the Bundt cake as he was inspired by My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I personally loved his reenactment of the scene in the movie where the Greek woman is trying to explain the Bundt cake and can’t say the word Bundt. Anyone else remember that? If not, call Mike and he can act it out. 
I really liked the cake and found that dipping it in chocolate really made the flavors pop….or something like that.
I loved this theme. We spent time talking about our favorite movies throughout our lives. I also put together a playlist of music from the soundtracks of movies. This would have been an even better idea if I started more than 5 minutes before guests arrived. Because of that, we listened to quite a few songs from the Forrest Gump soundtrack.
It’s not to late to start planning for your Oscar Party next weekend. I highly recommend this theme.
Do you have a favorite Oscar flick? What would you bring to this dinner party?
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These dishes all sound awesome. So sad I couldn’t be there. I did have awesome sushi in DC to try to make up for it and thought about you guys. When is the next one?
3/16 at Kari’s. Theme: Gluten-Free
Love it. I’ll be there.
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