Chicago Roxie Hearts
"The snack on everybody's plates is gonna be ... Roxie"
For trimming and cooking artichokes
1 lemon halved, plus 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
12 baby artichokes (about a 1lb)
a tbsp flour (or cornstarch)
1 tbsp olive oil
a tbsp salt
For stuffing and frying artichokes
shortening for deep frying
Grated pepper jack cheese
2 large eggs lightly beaten
1 C fine fresh bread crumbs (regular or gluten free)
Salt and pepper
Trim and cook artichokes. Squeeze juice from 1 lemon half into a large bowl of water, then drop that half into the water.
Cut off artichoke stems and discard. Cut off top 1/2 inch of the artichoke with a serrated knife. Bend back the outer leaves until they snap off close to the base, then discard several more later of leaves in the same manner until you reach pale yellow leaves with pale green tips.
Trim the dark green fibrous parts from the base and side with a sharp paring knife, then rubs cut surfaces with the other lemon half. Drop artichoke into lemon water. Repeat process until you've trimmed all your chokes.
Put in 2 quarts of water into a 4 quart saucepan and whisk in flour (or cornstarch). Then add oil, salt and pepper and remaining tbsp of lemon juice - bring to a simmer. Add your trimmed chokes and simmer, partially covered until just tender when pierced with a knife-8-12 min. Drain in a colander and place chokes onto a paper towel and pat dry.
When they are cool, pull out all pointed inner leaves and scoop out fuzzy choke with a melon baller.
To stuff and fry:
Heat oil in a saucepan or deep fryer. Heat until thermometer registers 350 degrees. While oil is heating, stuff each choke with pepper jack cheese.
Put eggs and bread crumbs into 2 separate shallow bowls. Dip the stuffed artichoke in the eggs and then roll in crumbs. Transfer to a tray and let dry a few minutes. Fry artichokes in batches until golden brown. Drain on paper towels, cut in half and serve.
Note: To save time, you can prepared and stuff the artichokes a day ahead of time. After you have stuffed them with cheese you can put them on a tray and keep them chilled. The next day you can coat them with the egg and bread crumb mixture and fry them.
Far From Heaven Black & White Sweethearts
Melt chunks of milk & white chocolate until thoroughly heated. Wait until the temperature reduces to 88 degrees.
Pour into candy molds and refrigerate, 10- 30 minutes, until completely cooled. Invert the mold onto a wax or parchment lined
baking sheet, tapping the back lightly to release the chocolates.
Frida Cracked Ribs
Buy a package of precooked pork ribs, with a cleaver or sharp knife, separate the ribs and then cut each rib in half. Bake until heated through serve with
extra Jack Daniels Barbeque sauce.
Gangs of New York Meringues of New York
2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/2 cup sugar
Heat oven to 200 degrees. Cover cookie sheets with parchment or heavy brown paper (Paper bags work well)
Beat eggs and cream of tarter until foamy. (Eggs work better if room temperature) Beat in sugar 1 tablespoon at a time;
continue beating until stiff and glossy, about 5 minutes. Do not under beat.
Pipe out bunnies on the paper. Bake until firm, about 4-5 minutes. Cool partially then remove from paper. X out eyes with chocolate syrup!
The Hours 'Drown Your Sorrows' Punch
1 1/2 parts vodka
1/2 part blue Curacao
4 parts lemonade
Combine in large punch bowl. Stir well (preferably with replica of Virginia Woolf, if handy). Garnish with cherries and orange slices.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Jami's "Tolkein" Nacho Dip
(with a side of Serkis Peanuts) *4th appearance as an Oscar Snack in 7 years!*
As usual, layer from the bottom up in a 9x9 glass dish: 2 packages Cream Cheese,
1 can of Hormel Chili (without beans), taco sauce or salsa, Shredded Monterey
Jack Cheese, Shredded Cheddar Cheese, Jalapenos, & black olives (if desired).
Heat until warm and gooey. So good, you'll want to make it every year!
The Pianist Warsaw Platter * Winner Best Appetizer*
Hollow out a Pumpernickel round. Cube the remainder of bread and lay out along side the shell.
For the dip, mix: 1 cup sour cream, 1 1/2 cups Mayonnaise. 1/2 cup softened cream cheese, 1 tsp Celery Salt, 2 tsp onion powder, 4 TBS dill. Pour into
hollowed out bread shell.
Road to Perdition Mobster Rolls
2 packages puff pastry
1/2 package Langostinos or 3 oz. Lobster meat
4 oz. cream cheese-about 1/2 package
2 1/2 oz. Havarti cheese
1/2 head of Roasted Garlic
Parsley, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder
1 Chipolte Pepper-chopped
1 tsp or so of adobo sauce-from chipolte peppers
1 egg beaten
Combine cream cheese, havarti, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder and chile in one bowl. In a food processor combine lobster, garlic, and adobo sauce
process until mixed and then add to cheese mixture. Cut pastry in half, creating 4 1/2 x 9 inch strips. Spread mix on to sheet lengthwise leaving a 1/4 inch
untouched for sealing. Roll up jelly-roll style and seal with beaten egg. Slice in 1/4 bits, place on a foil-lined greased cookie sheet. Bake in a 400 degree
oven for about 15 minutes until puffed..
Notables:
Minor Miracles: After many failed attempts in years prior, on-line voting is finally
enabled - and everybody gets there picks in before the deadline! Coincidence? You
Decide.
Another Myth Shot to Pieces: After years of hearing people whine about how they can't
play because they haven't seen any of the movies, the underdogs take over the pool! And
the supposed "inner circle," with the exception of Gianna, score miserably! So would
y'all just shut up now?
A Baker's Dozen: Jack Nicholson earns a 12th nomination and breaks his own record for
most nominated male actor ever. However, he still trails Meryl Streep, who - in earning
her 13th nomination, breaks Katharine Hepburn's record for most nominations ever.
Best Acceptance Speech: Adrien Brody, a big surprise winner, gets this - if for
nothing else, grabbing Halle Berry and planting a full on, back bending, kiss smack
on her mouth. Also, his speech proved touching, funny, and sweet in his dedication to
his parents and his thoughtful remarks on the war.
Acceptance Speech most likely to still be played 20 years from now: Michael Moore's.
And in case you couldn't make it all out due to the preponderance of gasps and boos:
"On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glen and Michael Donovan, from Canada, I'd like to
thank the Academy for this. I've invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with
us and we would like to ... they are here in solidarity with me because we like
non-fiction. We like non-fiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where
we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time
where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons - whether it's the fiction of
duct tape, the fiction of orange alerts ... We Are Against This War, Mr. Bush! Shame on
you, Mr. Bush! Shame on you ! And any time you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks
against you, your time is up!"
But don't worry, you see it for years to come next to Vanessa Redgrave, Sacheen
Littlefeather and the streaking dude.
Best Moment: Wow, there were a LOT to choose from this year, but my personal
favorite was watching Barbara Streisand having to read Eminem's name as winner of
Best Song, followed by the tacky Academy orchestra fighting out a Lawrence Welk
rendition of his, "Lose Yourself."
Worst Moment: Eminem ... Oscar winner.
Running Gag: "OH MY GOD!" Every year, it seems we say, "Anything can happen this
year," and then nothing does. Not this year! "Holy Crap" was heard more in this room
last night than on any given episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond!" Between Brody,
Polanski, The screenplay awards, and - mostly - Eminem, you would have had more luck
having a drunken monkey throw darts at your Oscar ballot to predict winners this year!
Since When? (Since 2000, actually!): Oscar is clearly not putting its money where its
mouth is! Repeating the somewhat inexplicable feat of Gladiator two years ago, Chicago
captures the Best Pictures without winning Director or Screenplay! The Pianist, which
won both, as well as Best Actor, goes home empty handed!
The Pool:
And the Oscar Cup goes to ....
Aashi with 12 out of 24!
The rest of us looked like this:
Gianna & Virginia: 11
Mary, Sam, Liz & Ed: 10
Jason, Carol, Nick , Andy & Sean: 9
John, Tracy, Dave, Kristen, Ellie, Jimmy, Jolie & Jami: 8
Schelle'y, Stacey, & Joe: 7
Anne, Susan, Gabe, Bob, and Vicki & Christian: 6
Tom, Wendy , and Johnny: 5
