The 7 Nachos You'll Eat in Heaven

Nachos is one of my all-time favorite foods. It makes me think of happy memories at Ice Palace (the only ice skating rink in Hawaii), sporting events and college bars. I decided to have a nachos themed dinner party where everyone could make whatever nachos they liked. There were no rules except one: you have to be able to eat it with your hands. 

Some stayed true to the classics and some ventured into foreign territory. If I died and went to heaven, I'd be super content eating all of these:

The 2nd Annual EPIC Oscars Dinner Party [PHOTOS]

Last year's Oscars Dinner Party was such a huge success that my friends and I had to do it again this year. The brief is simple, everyone has to bring a dish, dessert or drink inspired by a Best Picture nominee, which were: 

• American Hustle
• Captain Phillips
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Gravity
• Her
• Nebraska
• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Wolf of Wall Street

This time, most of us actually watched the movies AND we had two weeks to plan (instead of a few days), so I had somewhat high expectations for the food. I wasn't disappointed. I was so impressed by my friends' creativity and cleverness--and if not that, their effort--that I'm going to give out awards for the Best Picture award-inspired dishes (see what I did there? INCEPTION.). Here are the winners:

Best Cinematography aka "Use of Instagram Filters" - Peter

Budweiser Tall Boys for Nebraska

Best Last-Minute-Inspired-by-the-Trailer Dish - Ben

Fugazi Fugasi Frisee Salad for The Wolf of Wall Street

Best "I work in Film" Inside Joke - Jason

Angel HAIR ACTING for American Hustle

Best Foreign Surprise - Fiorella and Diego

South American Hustle Empanadas for American Hustle

Best Drunken Munchies - Jared and Kristen

Somali Samosas for Captain Phillips

Best Movie Title Spin-Off - Rachel and Tim

Club House Sandwiches with Mustard & Mayo Syringes for Dallas Buyers Club

Best "I didn't watch the movie but want British Food" Dish - Sean and Zeny

Steak, Ale and Mushroom Pie for Philomena

Best Sugar High - Juno and Stephanie
Momofuku Milk Bar Crack Pies and Baggies of...

Confectioners Sugar! for The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Food for Movie Without Food (and Non-Astronaut Ice Cream Cop Out) - Alex

Moon Pies for Gravity

Most Ambitious Attempt - Hannah

Scarlet Velvet OS cakes for Her

Actual Best Picture Winner-Inspired Dessert - Jared

Warm Blackberry Crumble for 12 Years of Slave

Thank you to everyone who came and contributed. An Oscars dinner party is a great idea for any host who wants their guests to pass out before the Best Picture award is announced, if they haven't passed out already. My only complaint is I have to wait a full year for the next Oscars--what event could I do the next themed dinner party for?

The Most Epic Oscar Dinner Party, Two Months Later

I have been slacking on the blogging front and thought I'd make it up with overdue photos from probably the best themed dinner party my friends and I have thrown (and you know it's tough to beat the homemade pizza or meatball party)--the OSCAR BEST PICTURE THEMED DINNER POTLUCK!

The dinner brief: Come with a dish inspired by any of the following 2013 Oscar best picture nominees
Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

But what this actually means is: bring something you want to eat and we'll figure out the correlation to one of the Best Picture nominees. We ended up with a diverse 10-course meal that would have made Wolfgang Puck jealous. Everything was delicious and surprisingly we made every dish work with a movie. Enough talking, here's the pics:

Silver Linings Playbook "Raisin Bran" 

Smitten Kitchen's Balsamic and Beer-braised Short Ribs with Parsnip Puree

Django Unchained 

Fried Chicken & (Eggo) Waffles

Argo

Tony Mendez's Secret Guac

Lincoln Logs

Homemade Hummus, Baba Ghanoush and Veggies

Zero Dark Thirty 

30 White Stuffed Mushrooms

 

Life of Pi

Vegetation Island Brussel Salad

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Hush Puppies

Django Unchained

Violently Delicious Mac and Cheese

Amour Red Velvet Cupcakes and, of course, Life of Pies

Result? Food coma lasting as long as the awards show itself.

My film expert friend Jason deserves all the credit for coming up with this theme two years ago and I'm glad we finally executed. Can't wait for next year!

Balls Everywhere: The Meatball Competition Dinner Party [PHOTOS]

Yes, I have the maturity of a 9 year-old and still find "balls" funny. I also have a serious issue of turning every dinner party into some form of competition. Is it to much to ask my guests to judge their dinner based on taste, presentation and originality? I need to layoff the Food Network for a bit.

Last night, I held the first annual Meatball Competition Dinner Party! Attendees were required make some form of meatball--or bring beer. We ended up with 5 different meatballs, all delicious, and a lot of beer. The whole idea for "battle of the balls"came about this past Thursday after the LMFAO concert when we ordered a "pot of meatballs" from Spitzer's Corner in the LES and was slightly underwhelmed by the small quantity. Also, I recently couldn't get a seat at The Meatball Shop on Bedford Ave. so all of this ball-related frustration led to probably the best dinner party I've had in a while.

I'm already brainstorming my next food-themed competition... Dumplings? Pot pies? Sushi?

Below are photos of the preparation and meatballs. Ball appétit!

Ben's Turkey Meatballs with Leek Sauce

 My Curried Meatballs with Potatoes
Here's the recipe I used: http://soupbelly.com/2010/10/27/curried-meatballs-and-potatoes/

 Sean's Traditional Italian Meatballs sans Sauce

 And, Jason's large Buffalo Balls with Bourbon Reduction

Sadly I forgot to take a picture of Sean's Teriyaki Balls before everyone ate them. Yes, they were THAT good.

The Ultimate Chicken Shnitzel Plating Battle

Last night, my friend Hannah, boyfriend Sean and I cooked Chicken Shnitzel with Anchovy-Chive Butter sauce with sauteed kale and baby red potatoes for dinner.  I found the simple shnitzel recipe in my new bon appetit fast easy fresh cookbook that I received this week at a bon appetit/epicurious event.  We split up the cooking duties: Sean potatoes, Hannah kale, Zeny chicken--and banged dinner out in an hour.

The real challenge came at the end--PLATING COMPETITION (because everything has to be a competition).  Some of us took a more traditional route, some took creative risks playing with the shapes and forms of the food.  We don't mess around when it comes to plating--Hannah and Sean both wiped their plates (I'm totally giving away which one is mine) and paired it with their favorite beer.

I will let you decide, WHO WON THE CHICKEN SHNITZEL PLATING COMPETITION?  

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