Oscar Party Plan Menu Plus Quiz

Sent in by reader Daniel (Unlikelihood). What are your Oscar party plans? Or what recipes can you come up with for this year’s slate of films?¬† Daniel’s quiz is at the bottom of the post.

AD was right to call our attention to the unprecedented inclusion of two science-fiction films in the Best Picture nominee list. However, when I first heard the list, my thoughts ran less to the astronomic and more to the gastronomic. As an Oscar party host whose menu is based on the Best Picture nominees, this year’s expanded list brings an unprecedented challenge – which I’ve happily met. What follows is the current menu plan for my party, to be adjusted based on your input. (Unless you suggest I imitate Julia Child…)

First, the menu as it will read on the evite:
Avatar-zers
Up in the Airlines Snak Paks
District 9 Prawns
A Serious Man-ischevitz Deli Platter
Inglourious Pasta
The Blind Side Salad
An Education-al Piece of Fruit
UP with Fenton’s Ice Cream
The Hurt Locker Surprise
and
Precious Drinks Based on the Bombay “Gin” by Sapphire

Second, for AD readers only, the explanations, after the cut:

For you lushes, let’s start with the beverages –

Precious Drinks Based on the Bombay “Gin” by Sapphire Meaning gin and tonic, gin and juice (or blue powerade), and the inevitable blue martini (gin + blue curacao liqueur + olive + lemon twist), which brings us to:

Avatar-zers Blueberry pie/muffins were considered, but the key is to serve something that ordinarily looks white turned blue. (As you know, that describes all the film’s avatars.) Thus the cook (yours truly) will use a lot of blue food coloring and sea salt, which gives things a sparkly look. After much consideration, the three foods will be: blue popcorn, blue deviled (Na’viled?) eggs, and blue rice krispie treats. (I just saw Avatar-blue Peeps at Safeway; I hate Peeps, but what the hell, I bought some.) The Avatar-zers will take the most prep time but will also likely be the hit of the party.

Up in the Airlines Snak Paks Got the keg-size jar of mini-pretzels from Costco, got 100 4″-by-4″ Ziploc bags (from the local head shop), planning to put about 7 pretzels in each bag, print labels with an airliney font saying ‚ÄúUp In The Airlines Snak Pak‚Äù next to a photo of George Clooney. A stingy offering but good conversation-starter and souvenir.

District 9 Prawns Cat food, okay something resembling it, was considered but finally rejected in favor of straightforward party prawns with sauce, mostly because I like to consume these things the same way that District 9 residents do 9-Lives.

A Serious Man-ischevitz Deli Platter Manischevitz matzoh crackers, apricot preserves, a dozen bagels (sliced into halves), cream cheese, lox, lettuce, capers, mustard, olives, small pickles, and sliced: turkey, pastrami, smoked salmon, onions, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Man-zel tov!

Inglourious Pasta Likely to be least popular with AD regulars. A West Coast party like mine is at dinner time, and I need a real entrée, pasta being among the cheapest, easiest options (other suggestions?). Last year the entrées were Indian (Slumdog) and half the guests found the curries too spicy or just not to their liking – those guests left hungry. This year, I’ve bought farfalle and rigatoni (bow ties and bullet shells) and plan to serve next to photos of Aldo and Donny and Omar in their tuxedos. As for you IB fans (and I am one of you), I know you’re thinking milk – we served it last year and couldn’t give it away – bought three different kinds, put Kahlua and/or coffee in there, told them Sean Penn was in it – niete. Go ahead and suggest something, but not milk.

The Blind Side Salad If I do say so myself, this is particularly clever because it’s both a pun and a reference to the ladies in the film talking about overpriced salads. But there’ll be nothing overpriced here, just your standard greens.

An Education-al Piece of Fruit Frozen bananas dipped in white chocolate. The ideal time to serve these would be when (if) the Academy plays a clip of Carey Mulligan saying “I don’t want to lose my virginity to a piece of fruit.”

UP with Fenton’s Ice Cream Too easy, because our party is a few scant miles from the legendary local creamery featured at the end of the film. Don’t know what to advise other party hosts on this one.

The Hurt Locker Surprise Read the email from my cake person:
Cake to serve 20 guests
Chocolate cake with butter cream and fresh strawberries filling
“Hurt Locker” themed cake in rectangle shape to look like a lock box, dirty & dusty looking:
– military MASH font “The Hurt Locker”
– arabic looking letters on one side saying “flammable” other side saying “inflammable”
– skull & crossbones noting danger!
– bomb ticker mechanism attached with frayed wires (showing that its been disarmed)
– bullet shells lying around on cake board (edible – of course!)

Note last year’s Frosted/Nixon cake:

OSCAR QUIZ 2010 – Only ten questions for 2010! Just circle the right answers.

1. George Clooney, up for Up in the Air tonight, won an Oscar for his performance in:
a) Out of Sight (1998)
b) O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000)
c) Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
d) Syriana (2005)
e) Michael Clayton (2007)

2. Contrary to popular belief, Meryl Streep does not get nominated every time she appears in a film. For which of the following films was she NOT nominated?
a) One True Thing (1998)
b) Music of the Heart (1999)
c) The Hours (2002)
d) The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
e) Doubt (2008)

3. Prior to this year, Jeff Bridges had only been nominated for Best Actor once – one time. That performance was in:
a) Starman (1984)
b) Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
c) The Fisher King (1991)
d) Fearless (1993)
e) The Big Lebowski (1998)

4. Lee Daniels, nominated for Best Director tonight for Precious, is only the second African-American to be nominated in this category. The first one was:
a) Sidney Poitier for Stir Crazy (1980)
b) Spike Lee for Do the Right Thing (1989)
c) John Singleton for Boyz N Tha Hood (1991)
d) Antoine Fuqua for Training Day (2001)
e) Denzel Washington for The Great Debaters (2007)

5. Four women have ever been nominated for Best Director (before tonight, none won). Which of the following women was NOT nominated?
a) Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties (1976)
b) Barbra Streisand for The Prince of Tides (1991)
c) Jane Campion for The Piano (1993)
d) Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003)
e) Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2009)

6. If The Hurt Locker, which made $12 million in theaters, wins Best Picture, it will be the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner (not adjusted for inflation) since:
a) Marty (1955)
b) In the Heat of the Night (1967)
c) Chariots of Fire (1981)
d) The Last Emperor (1987)
e) Crash (2005)

7. At $2.6 billion and counting, Avatar is the #1-earning film worldwide, ever (not adjusted for inflation). 4 of these films are still with it in the Top 5. Which one isn’t?
a) Titanic (1997)
b) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone (2001)
c) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
d) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
e) The Dark Knight (2008)

8. Prior to this year, and Avatar, only one – one – Best Picture nominee was ever set in the future. (It didn’t win.) That film was:
a) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
b) A Clockwork Orange (1971)
c) Blade Runner (1982)
d) Brazil (1985)
e) The Matrix (1999)

9. As a director of animated shorts and features, Nick Park, up for Best Animated Short tonight, has done quite well at the Oscars. Of his last five major projects, the only one NOT to win an Oscar was:
a) Creature Comforts (1989)
b) Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers (1993)
c) Wallace & Gromit in A Close Shave (1995)
d) Chicken Run (2000)
e) Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

10. Quentin Tarantino said 4 of the following 5 things. Which one did he NOT say?
a) Sure, Kill Bill’s a violent movie. But it’s a Tarantino movie. You don’t go to see Metallica and ask the fuckers to turn the music down.
b) [It‚Äôs] actually equating the Jews in this situation, in World War II, with the Indians. It’s not nothing that they’re doing Apache resistance.
c) I’m not James Cameron and I could never think like that – I don’t think he could think like me either – but if I could go into a time machine and think like that and be able to do what he could do, that would be great.
d) ‚ÄúYour mission – some would call it a terrorist plot – is kaput.‚Äù… It was funny…I wasn’t trying to necessarily make a political point in there. It literally was just the next step in the story‚ĶHowever once I did it the irony was not lost on me at all.
e) I’ve actually had people come up to me and ask me to autograph their guns.

Unlikelyhood (Daniel)