Oscar Food 2020

February 11, 2020 By Carole

I didn’t plan on writing a separate post about what we ate while we enjoyed The Oscars but since a few of you asked . . . and since I’m always down to talk about food . . . here goes.

Generally, I try to find something to eat to represent each of the Best Picture nominees. So here’s the list of nominees, followed by what we came up with to eat.

Ford v. Ferrari: Hannah brought tacos. She said there was a scene in a restaurant where they were eating them. I don’t recall it but I’m always up for eating tacos.

The Irishman: I marinated and cooked a sirloin steak (this one did double duty, as you’ll see below) and we also had ice cream. The tie in is that Frank Sheeran (the main character) delivers (errr, illegally sells) beef in the beginning of the movie and Jimmy Hoffa is an ice cream fiend.

JoJo Rabbit: red wine. Listen. We were going to be drinking wine anyway but there’s a scene where Scarlet Johansson drinks red wine to celebrate that the allies are getting closer.

Joker: Homemade soft pretzels. This one is a stretch but when I googled to try and come up with something for this movie I read that while Joaquin Phoenix was dieting to lose the weight for this role he craved pretzels.

Little Women: Apples, bread (made by Sean and it was fab), and cheese, pictured above. A staple during that time and Louisa May Alcott reportedly loved apples.

Marriage Story: Kale salad because Laura Dern’s character orders a kale salad when they go to their lunch meeting with the attorneys. I didn’t end up serving this because we were full but I was prepared nevertheless.

1917: I made a Wacky Cake, which is a war time recipe for cake that doesn’t use milk or eggs. This one is also a stretch since Wacky Cake’s roots are in WWII not WWI. Still. It’s wartime and we needed dessert.

Once Upon A Time . . . In Hollywood: Onion dip and potato chips. What’s a more quintessential snack from the late 1960s than that?

Parasite: I said the sirloin steak did double duty and I meant it because it, along with ramen noodles from our local sushi place, counted for Parasite for the Jjapaguri Ram-don that plays such an important role in a very tense scene. And yes, I know that ramen from a Japanese restaurant is not the same as the Korean noodle dish that is featured but it’s what we had available. And it was delicious!

I completely spaced out on taking photos and only captured the onion dip from yesterday and the cheese board from today’s post. Believe me when I say that everything was delicious even if it wasn’t photographed. Planning this menu is always a fun part of the experience for Hannah and I and this year was no exception. You know us . . . we always eat well!

(Please check in with Bonny today as she is hosting our 2nd discussion on the book Fever. Remember that every comment earns you an entry in our prize offering.)

Pie Day!

November 27, 2019 By Carole

I uploaded this photo to Instagram and Facebook yesterday.

It’s my Pie Plan for 2019 and I’m happy to say it’s on track. Of course, that only means I made 4 batches of pie crusts yesterday but still . . . I’m feeling organized and ready to go when I get home from work later today.

Four batches of pie crust at once might sound intimidating but it really only took about 45 minutes from start to finish . . . start being getting out my ingredients and finish being all cleaned up and ready to move on. Here’s my pie crust recipe if you need a refresher. It’s easy and pretty fool proof and I encourage you to just give it a try.

Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll have a counter that looks similar to this once again:

P.S. If you haven’t already, please follow this link to take our quick Read With Us survey. We’d love your input — whether you read Just Mercy with us or not. Thanks for helping us make Read With Us even better!

Pie Is Love

May 13, 2019 By Carole

Yesterday was Mother’s Day and I saw a lot of stuff on social media about it. I saw pictures of moms with their kids. I saw gifts that moms received. I saw brunch celebrations and bouquets of flowers. I read some beautiful words about celebrating moms, remembering moms, honoring the women in our lives who aren’t our moms but who inspire us and raise us up. It was all pretty wonderful and made what can be a bittersweet day for me quite tolerable.

You know what else made it a bomb Mother’s Day?

Teaching my girlie Hannah to bake an apple pie.

To be perfectly honest, I was not excited about baking a pie on Mother’s Day. It’s . . . work. There’s the crust and the peeling and slicing of the apples. There’s the mess and clean up and timing of it all. But I did it gladly. I did it because Hannah asked me if I would. Because Hannah thought this would be a great way of spending time together on Mother’s Day. Because it was a way of remembering and honoring my mom, teaching her granddaughter how to do this thing that she taught me to do when I was about Hannah’s age. Because Hannah sees me as an expert when it comes to baking pie and because she knows I learned from my mom and she wants to be the third generation of women in our family who make really great pie for the people they love.

Because, despite my reluctance to do anything even remotely like work on Mother’s Day, I love my daughter. And it’s the love that makes all the work and mess and time worth the effort.

And maybe also because we got to have a really great pie for dessert. My daughter’s first pie. I’m a proud mommy.

I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating the moms in your life. And I hope it included pie.

Swedish Almond Cake

December 17, 2018 By Carole

I shared this photo on Instagram and Facebook on Friday:

Two Swedish Almond Cakes for the retirement party of a friend. They were a big hit at the part and on social media, too, with several people asking for the recipe. And so, here it is.

Swedish Almond Cake

1 1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp high quality almond extract
2/3 cup milk
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 stick melted butter, slightly cooled.

Preheat oven to 350°

Grease a half loaf pan. I use Pam with flour and it rarely sticks. You could also do the traditional grease and flour method.

Beat the sugar, egg, almond extract and milk until well combined. Add in flour and baking powder and beat until smooth. Slowly stir in the melted butter.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes. The edges will be brown and the center will be slightly puffed. Cool completely in the pan before inverting. Dust with powdered sugar.

And that’s it! It’s a very simple cake to make, it literally comes together in less time than it takes to preheat the oven. Despite that simplicity, or perhaps because of it, it’s very delicious and a Christmas tradition around here.

Enjoy!

Sometimes Mondays

September 10, 2018 By Carole

Are the first Monday you’ve worked in 3 weeks. And that makes them a little . . . rough. You know what makes facing Monday easier, though? Planning ahead and that’s why I made this yesterday:

A big old ramen noodle stir fry full of chicken and vegetables. I sort of followed this recipe but I used the vegetables I had on hand (onion, carrots, summer squash and spinach) and I also added sesame oil, chili sauce, and soy sauce with the chicken broth. I packed it up into 4 containers and now I’m set for the week.

I can’t wait for lunch time!