Sunday Night’s Alright For Fighting

Yo. I was so totally prepared to not like Rocky, 1976’s best winner. I was so prepared to be mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. After all, stupid steroidy Sylvester Stalonne and, ugh, Rocky, beat out one of my all time favorites–Network for best picture. But, surprise, surprise I did like Rocky. Blame it on excessive sequel prejudiceness but, Rocky wasn’t the manipulative crapfest I expected it to be. In fact. it somewhat reminded me, ironically– of Paddy Chayefsky’s (who wrote the screenplay for Network) 1955’s winner, Marty.

Yo. Network pretty much won every major award that year except for editing and best picture. And it was pretty much the blueprint of the first 10 years of the Fox Network. 1976 was a good year for nominations: All the President’s Men, Taxi Driver, Bound For Glory round out the rest of the nominations.

Yo, I can’t believe how much Rocky is character driven. I so prefer character driven to plot driven. Although I did find it hysterical that true love seemed to cure Adrian of her need for glasses. I wish *I* could find that kind of love.

Yo. The Angry Alien bunnies do a good job with Rocky:

Yo, our very own Rocky, Roxane, was very excited to see Carl Weathers in this movie. She’s a big Arrested Development fan. Carl was in a couple of episodes.

Had I known about this, I might had made a stew but instead for dinner we went Philly and had some really terrific cheesesteak sandwiches. So easy to make:

The meat for the sandwich is usually rib eye steak. Buy about a pound, and if you have a butcher have him slice that steak into razor thin strips.

Thinly slice and saute a vidalia on a low heat until the onion becomes carmelized. Set aside onion and add sliced small italian peppers and saute until they are softened (about 10 minutes). Remove the pepper and add steak. Saute meat until browned.

To assemble the sandwich: cut a loaf of french bread into sandwich rolls. Pull some of the doughy parts of the bread out. Drizzle bread with oil a a little splash of balsamic vinegar. Put the meat, then the peppers and onions on the bread. Put a slice of provolne cheese over the sandwich and melt in the oven for a couple of minutes. Yum.

For dessert we had home made Rocky Road Ice Cream. I love making ice cream. I sed a basic base for chocolate ice cream

1 1/2 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder, approximately 1/2 cup
3 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
9 ounces sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Place the cocoa powder along with 1 cup of the half-and-half into a medium saucepan over medium heat and whisk to combine. Add the remaining half-and-half and the heavy cream. Bring the mixture just to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and remove from the heat.In a medium mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the sugar and whisk to combine. Temper the cream mixture into the eggs and sugar by gradually adding small amounts, until about 1/3 of the cream mixture has been added. Pour in the remainder and return the entire mixture to the saucepan and place over low heat. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon and reaches 170 to 175 degrees F. Pour the mixture into a container and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract. Place the mixture into the refrigerator and once it is cool enough not to form condensation on the lid, cover and store for 4 to 8 hours or until the temperature reaches 40 degrees F or below.

Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer’s directions. This should take approximately 25 to 35 minutes. Add the mix-ins (I used 1/3 cup chocolate chips, 1/3 cup mini marshmellos and 1/3 cup toasted almond slivers). Put into a container and freeze for a few hours more.

Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,

Apple seed and apple thorn;
Wire, briar, limber lock,
Three geese in a flock.
One flew east,
And one flew west,
And one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

1975’s best, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was the first Academy Award winning movie to take all the major awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress) since 1934 and It Happened One Night. But, is Cuckoo’s Nest as good a movie as It Happened One Night? Don’t be crazy. It’s not even as good as some of the other nominees: Nashville–just a complete a flat-out masterpiece (and Louise Fletcher was the inspiration behind the Lily Tomlin character), but Robert Altman was pretty much always overlooked by the Academy. Jaws, ehh too popcorny. Barry Lyndon, ok, secret confession time–I don’t really like the over-rated Stanley Kubrick (except for Lolita), Dog Day Afternoon–a personal favorite but I (married to a banker) like bank robber movies. Also, a great one, Shampoo, not even nominated. Hmmm

Cuckoo’s Nest does, however, pack some powerhouse performances. Jack Nicholson is in his prime here. The 1970’s era Nicholson (Chinatown, Last Detail) is the best Nicholson, before he got too cartoony. The American Film Institute ranked Louise Fletcher’s portrayal of Nurse Ratched as one of the top 10 villains of all time (she’s between the Wicked Witch of the West and It’s a Wonderful Life’s Mr. Potter). She’s so great and so cold and so manipulative. She totally deserved her Oscar. And her acceptance speech was one of the most poignant speeches, ever:

There are also a couple of castmates from the 70’s sitcom Taxi–Danny Devito & Christopher Lloyd (making his film debut).

One personal memory from watching the Oscars that year. No one, no one thanked Cuckoo’s author, Merry Prankster, Ken Kesey. Shame on them: always thank the writer. Writing’s hard.

For the dinner I went a little crazy and a little nutty and a bit looney:

From Rachael Ray: Red Snapper in Crazy Water (Acqua Pazza)

2 1/2 pounds red snapper fillet with skin, cut into 3-inch chunks
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon seafood seasoning blend (recommended: Old Bay)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 3 turns of the pan
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 jar flat anchovy fillets
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, 5 or 6 pieces (not in oil, available in produce department, packaged in pouches), coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons capers
3 scallions, chopped
1 quart chicken stock, available in paper containers on soup aisle
A handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Crusty bread, for serving
Season fish pieces with salt, pepper and seafood seasoning. Heat a large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic and anchovies. Melt anchovies into oil. Add snapper, skin side down and crisp the skin. Turn and brown the fish in oil 3 mintutes. Add wine and deglaze the pan (lift up drippings) then add sun-dried tomato pieces, capers and scallions and stir in chicken stock. Stir the stew/soup or “stoup” gently so you do not break up the fish. Bring the broth to a simmer and cook another 3 to 5 minutes to combine flavors.Serve fish in shallow bowls with plenty of crazy broth. Garnish with parsley

This was served with some Smoking Loon Pinot Grigio. Crazy, nutty looney stuff
For dessert I went with a cookie (almost typed cuckoo) recipe that featured Nutella, made from hazelnuts. Hazel nuts mostly come from Oregon. Oregon is where they filmed Cuckoo’s nest. I’m working this! I was hoping that the Hershey’s kiss wouldn’t melt as much as it did, making the cookie look like a witches’ hat–since Nurse Ratched was so witchy, but alas it melted into a delicious chocolate center

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella)
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup orange sprinkles, or orange sugar
1 (9-ounce) package of chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped (recommended: Hershey’s)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In another medium bowl, place the chocolate hazelnut spread, butter, and both sugars. Using a hand mixer, cream the ingredients together, about 3 minutes. Add the
egg and vanilla and blend until incorporated. Stir in the dry ingredients, just until incorporated.

Shape the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls. Rolls the balls in the orange sprinkles or orange sugar, pressing to adhere. Place the cookies on a heavy cookie sheet about 4 inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven. Quickly place a chocolate kiss in the middle of each cookie. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for another 3 minutes. Cool the cookies on a wire rack. Yum

You Broke My Heart.

The difficulty to find words to describe Godfather II is overwhelming, so bear with me. The Godfather Part II is a wonderful, amazing film. It’s up there with Casablanca and It Happened One Night and All About Eve and Midnight Cowboy as the best of the best, Godfather II is so great, it’s better than the original. And The Godfather is one of the best..And Godfather II, Roman numeral be damned, never feels like it’s a sequel. It’s an expansion and a continuation. And a miracle. Great writing-great cinematography- total masterful actors’ showcase–Al Pacino in his absolute prime; Robert DeNiro so young, so beautiful, so perfect, speaking Italian throughout (and, hey he beat our sentimental fave Towering Inferno’s –nuff said-- Fred Astaire for best supporting actor) . And John Cazale, astounding. He breaks your heart. Amazing, too, that just the next year Al and John were holding up that New York bank together in Dog Day Afternoon.

I remember being really surprised when Godfather Part II won the Oscar for best picture. Sequels never win best pictures. That’s crazy talk. But thank heaven it did. And thank heaven it’s the only one. I don’t think that the third Lord of the Rings counts as a sequel.,..or does it?

When I was out shopping at a mall I saw a middle aged man with a fancy leather jacket that had a Godfather logo embossed on the back. The Godfather has remarkably entrenched it’s way into American pop culture. You cannot escape from it. Okay, these are great movies–well 2 outta 3–but so was Casablanca and so was Sound of Music but I don’t see the latters’ logos on the back of leather jackets.

Oscar winners that spawned sequels: Before Godfather

Broadway Melody — Broadway Melody of 1936, 38 & 40 (all better than the original, because the orignal was really, really, bad)

Great Ziegfeld — Ziegfeld Follies –on the same par as original, par being mediocre)

Going My Way — Bells of St. Mary –great addition of Ingrid Bergman as a love interest nun for Bing Crosby’s Father O’Malley.

In The Heat of the Night –They Call Me. MISTER Tibbs - –shouty title and lack of Rod Steiger make this not as good as the original.

After Godfather II

French Connection — French Connection II (well it’s hard to come up with something new to match the original)

Rocky –They’ve made so many Rocky movies I’ve lost count.  And I’ve never seen a single one of them. But 1976 is looming. Crap.

Terms of Endearment - The Evening Star–so not up to the original

Silence of the Lambs — Hannibal –needs Jodie Foster, badly.

To sum it all up:  sequels to best picture winners before Godfather II = good after = pukey

Since The Godfather part II was a 2 disc DVD we watched the movie in two nights. And had two simple meals.  The second night we hade simple Italian–baked mostaciolli.  But, the first night we went with Michael and Hyman Roth (played by Al Pacino’s acting teacher, Lee Strasberg) to Cuba and had some lovely Cuban Sandwiches with fried plaintains.

from Rachael Ray:

Pork tenderloins, Cuban style:
1 2/3 to 2 pounds pork tenderloin, 2 pieces, the average weight of 1 package, trimmed
Extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil, for drizzling
1 small onion, minced
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 limes, zested
1 large orange, zested
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oreganoCuban sweet rolls:
8 crusty rolls, such as Portuguese rolls, torpedo loaves or muffuletta style round rolls
4 teaspoons sugar

Plantains:
1/4 cup corn oil, 4 turns of the pan
4 black (ripe) plantains
1 teaspoon fine salt

Relish for sandwiches:
6 dill pickles, chopped
1/2 cup sweet red pepper relish
2 scallions, chopped

Sandwich fixins:
1 pound shaved ham, from the deli counter
1 pound shaved Swiss cheese, from the deli counter
4 tablespoons butter, for toasting sandwiches

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.Coat tenderloins with oil. Combine onion, garlic, citrus zest, salt, pepper and dried oregano in a pile on your cutting board. Pack this coating equally and evenly onto the tenderloins. Heat a large skillet. Add a drizzle of oil and sear tenderloin on all sides. Then place in hot oven to roast 20 to 25 minutes. Wash hands.

Brush rolls with a little warm water and sprinkle the tops of the rolls with 1/2 teaspoon sugar each. Pile rolls on a baking sheet and place in oven with meat for 5 minutes to crust rolls and set sugar. Authentic Cuban rolls used for this sandwich are sweet. This sugar wash process gives a similar effect to store bought rolls. When rolls come out of oven, split and pile on serving plate.

Preheat a stovetop griddle over medium high heat.

Heat 1/4 cup corn oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Peel plantains and cut in 1/2 lengthwise, then slice each 1/2 into thirds on an angle. Arrange plantains in pan in a single layer and cook until crisp, continuously flipping for even browning. Remove from skillet to paper towel lined plate and season with fine salt.

To assemble sandwiches: Thinly slice meat on an angle. Place ham and Swiss cheese on a serving plate, separating and fluffing up the shaved meat and cheese. Assemble sandwiches with desired fillings and place on a hot, buttered griddle. Use a heavy pan to press the sandwiches together. Toast until golden brown, then flip and toast the other side.

Combine chopped pickles, sweet red pepper relish and scallions in a small bowl.

Spread the relish on the tops of the rolls and pork slices, ham, and swiss cheese on the bottoms. Press the sandwiches together. Put about 1 tablespoon of butter on the hot griddle and spread to coat. Put 2 sandwiches at a time on the griddle, and top with a heavy cast-iron skillet. Toast sandwiches on the griddle, turning once, until golden, hot, and cheese is melted, 2 or 3 minutes per side.

For dessert, in honor of the three Godfather movies we had a little something called Jello 1-2-3.  Jello used to have this product as a mix back in the 70’s (and then again in the 90’s, briefly) but I found a recipe from a great blog called The Food Maven and made it myself.  As yummy as a young Robert DeNiro.

Sweet Home Chicago

The Sting is a fun fun fun movie. Very light, kind of sweet: It’s the Oscars equivalent of a bon-bon. Robert Redford is at the pinnacle of his dreamboat stage (he was also in The Way We Were in 1973. Hiya, Hubble.) and a pre-salad dressing Paul Newman’s not too shabby either. And everyone is dressed up in their pinstripiest finest courtesy of the great Edith Head. Man those were some big lapels, though.

I remember this movie from my youth and how BIG it was. That rearranged Scott Joplin music was everywhere. My husband can still play The Entertainer on the piano (Jim, you need to learn some new songs) Norman Rockwell was popular, again. In retrospect its somewhat alarming that in both The Sting and Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid Redford and Newman play criminal types (con artists, bank robbers) and yet they’re so charming you don’t think of them as the bad guys at all? In fact, you kinda root for them to succeed. I wonder what No Country For Old Men would have been like if Javier Bardem’s character hadn’t been so psychopathic and had a likeable personality? We’d probably be watching There Will Be Blood when it came to 2007.

This is the first movie we’ve had that is set in our home town, Chicago. Which is kinda, I don’t know, fun and easy. Just like The Sting! I decided to go all touristy and make real Chicago Hot Dogs. No, not pizza, I’m not a big deep dish pizza fan. (I actually groaned at last night’s Top Chef Chicago debut which started off @ Pizzeria Uno. Blech. Trust me if you’re coming to Chicago that’s the last place you should get Chicago pizza. Father & Sons, that’s good pizza. Used to have them on speed dial when I lived in the city. But I digress).

A real Chicago Hot Dog is a thing of joy. And as the picture above indicates there will be no ketchup served on these dogs. This is pretty much what we ate:

We didn’t go for the neon green relish, because that’s gross. And I didn’t have any celery salt. But other than that, that’s a chicago hot dog. Now if you want a good Chicago hot dog there are tons of places to find a great dog. The following are some of our favorites:

Jimmy’s Red Hots–4000 W. Grand Ave. Great place. Super scaaaaaary neighborhood. Jim’s favorite.

Superdawg–6363 N. Milwaukee. My favorite. It’s a drive-in. Great burgers, too.

Byron’s Hotdogs-1017 W. Irving Park–I used to live behind this hotdog stand. When money was tight I would order one of their dogs because it came with so much stuff on the side it was like getting a free salad to go along with the dog.

For dessert we had homemade cheesecake made the Eli’s way– Eli’s is another Chicago institution. They make great cheesecakes, but since we were having hotdogs for dinner I stepped up to the plate and baked one using the following recipe:

Ingredients:

	2 8 oz boxes of cream cheese at room temp
	1 cup granulated sugar
	1/1/2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
	Zest of 1 lemon
	1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
	 3eggs
	1 additional egg yolk 	2 Tbls whipping cream
	small springform pan lined generously with butter and patted
	       with graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Prepare springform pan. With and electric beater,
mix the cheese, sugar, flour, orange and lemon zests and vanilla until
smooth. Add the eggs and yolk, beating in one at a time, and finally the
cream.

Pour the mixture into the prepared springform pan and bake for 10 minutes or
until the top of the cake turns golden brown. Reduce oven temperature to
200-225 and bake for one hour longer.

Remove cake from oven and cool on a rack until it reaches room temperature.
Then release the sides of the pan. Do not remove the bottom of the pan.
Place cake on a platter. Top with fruit or glaze, if desired, and serve.

Take the Cannoli, Please

Let’s face it The Godfather is a masterpiece, the gold standard. Just like it was hard to write about Casablanca, it’s hard to write about The Godfather. It’s a great must-see American classic. I could never do it justice. Especially since other people do it so much better. Take it, Pauline Kael– “The movie is a popular melodrama with its roots in the gangster films of the 30s, but it expresses a new tragic realism, and it’s altogether extraordinary.” Thanks, Pauline.

Amazingly enough though, for being Marlon Brando’s comeback movie, the one where he wins his second best actor Oscar ( the one where he had a young Native American woman accept for him) it seems like Marlon Brando is hardly in this movie (as compared to Al Pacino) at all. Although when he’s on screen Brando is just mesmerizing. The perfect Don. Another interesting note, The Godfather’s director, that little old winemaker, Francis Ford Coppola, did not win best director this year. Mr. Show-Business-is-life, the late Bob Fosse won for Cabaret.

The Godfather is one of the reasons we’re doing this Oscar winners watching-food theme extravaganza: When we were discussing this whole shebang, Jim brainstormed that we should use the recipe for spaghetti that Clemenza prepares. Now I’m far from The Godfather expert that my husband is because I did not remember this scene. But it’s a great little scene. Twenty four seconds of food prep and male bonding. This is the place where Michael, the outsider of the family is, slowly, brought into the fold. It’s a marvelous scene. It’s a great sauce, too. Coppola put this scene in as insurance. He was afraid the film would fail badly, so at least he would have a demonstration of what makes a good spaghetti sauce. Anyway here’s the recipe:

Heh, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn’t stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh…? And a little bit o’ wine. An’ a little bit o’ sugar, and that’s my trick.”

You know The Godfather is packed with great actors: Pacino, Brando, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, James Caan. My favorite–Richard Castellano, the gangster with the joie de vie, Peter Clemenza. In fact our whole menu was inspired by Clemenza. The spaghetti sauce listed above, and for dessert we had chocolate cannolis. We didn’t drink wine from a pitcher, though. We did drink some nice Coppola wine.

I’m lucky I live within a few miles of a terrific Italian Deli, Frankie’s Deli in Lombard, IL. They sell fresh cannoli shells for 85 cents a piece. Fantastic.

From Michael Chiarello

1 cup unsalted pistachios
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons golden raisins
1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate
1 cup ricotta
14 cannoli shells

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.Toast the unsalted pistachios in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until crisp. Pull from oven, cool and finely chop. Place chopped pistachios in a bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream with 1 tablespoon of sugar until it holds a soft peak. In a large bowl fold together the whipped cream, raisins, 1/3 of the chopped chocolate, 1/3 of the chopped pistachios and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Gently fold the whipped cream mixture into the ricotta. When ready to serve, spoon the filling into a pastry bag fitted with a fat round tip. Fill the cannoli shells from each end.

Blend the remaining chopped chocolate and pistachios on a plate.

To garnish: Dip each end of the cannoli into the chocolate pistachio mixture.

Cannoli can be filled and stored in the refrigerator no more than 1 hour ahead of time.

For Your Degustation, part II

We’re about 19 days away from the big festivities of 2008 and we still don’t know if it’s going to happen. What? How can the Oscars not happen? Those in the know say (not me, I don’t know anything) that the writers’ strike is almost settled. Fingers are being crossed here that the cognoscenti are correct. Right now I need the Oscars; life’s just a little too drab when it’s Chicago in February and it’s snowed for the 115th time in 116 days.

Anyway here is what I am planning to make for the, hopefully, big night.

Appetizer for Atonement - from BBC on this day website:

Re: the Dunkirk invasion–When those who survived the evacuation arrived exhausted in England they were welcomed as returning heroes and offered plenty of tea and sandwiches as they boarded special trains.…- I’m going with cucumber sandwiches and some nice English Breakfast tea. Perfect for the red carpet hoopla.
From wikidpedia.com:

the bread is sliced as thinly as possible. The peel of the cucumber is either removed or scored lengthwise with a fork before the cucumber is sliced, and the slices of cucumber are dried gently with a paper towel before use. The slices of bread are carefully buttered all the way to the edges and the slices of cucumber placed in the sandwich just before serving in order to prevent the sandwich from becoming damp and thus losing its freshness. A few drops of lemon juice may be dashed on the cucumber slices, if desired. The crusts of the bread are cut away cleanly and the sandwich sliced diagonally twice, creating four small triangular tea sandwiches.

From There Will Be Blood - Arugula salad with a blood orange vinaigrette. Arugula, how Hollywood.

from Emeril: Ingredients needed:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup fresh porcini, thinly sliced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 cups arugula leaves, washed
• 1 cup red dandelion greens, washed
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 1 blood orange, segmented
• Blood Orange Vinaigrette

Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Add porcini, season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper, and saute until tender. Remove from heat.

Combine arugula, red dandelion greens, red onion, and orange segments in a bowl. Toss with vinaigrette to coat. Divide salad among 2 plates and top with porcini mixture. Serve immediately.

Michael Clayton - NY Strip Steak

Yummy and appropriate: The movie is set(mostly) in NY and best supporting nominee Tom Wilkinson has a scene where he strips! Perfect.

I always like to do a Wolfgang Puck recipe for Oscar night because he is the primo Oscars chef. And this recipe includes flambeeing. I love to flambe!

New York Steak with Mushrooms

Serves: 4

Ingredients

12 scallions or new onions
4 New York Strip steaks (8 to 10 ounces each), cut 1 inch thick
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter
1 pound fresh shiitake (or oyster) mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/3 cup Cognac or brandy
2 cups beef stock, reduced to 1 cup (in a skillet)
1 package enoki mushrooms, stemmed (available at many supermarkets)

Directions

1. Heat a grill. When hot, grill the onions for about 2 minutes on each side, or until they are tender but crunchy. If you don’t have a grill, blanch the onions in boiling salted water. Drain and keep warm.
2. Season the steaks on both sides with salt and pepper. Reserve.
3. In a heavy skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of butter until bubbling slightly. Cook the shiitakes over high heat until they begin to brown slightly. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and keep warm.
4. Carefully pour the Cognac or brandy into the hot skillet and ignite. Let the flame die out naturally. Reduce the Cognac to 2 tablespoons, scraping any loose bits that cling to the bottom of the pan. Stir in the reduced beef stock. Reduce the sauce until slightly thickened, but still very light. Return the mushrooms and their juice to the sauce and reduce more if necessary. Correct the seasonings.
5. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter, a little at a time. Stir in the enoki mushrooms. Set the sauce aside and keep warm.
6. Grill the steaks on the preheated grill for 3 minutes on each side, or sauté them in a very hot skillet with a little oil for 3 minutes on each side, or until the meat is medium rare. Remove from the heat.
7. If necessary, reheat the sauce very gently.

No Country For Old Men - This was a hard one, but I decided to go with what was a fairly strong motif throughout the fim–coins. so, naturally, I’m going to make Zucchini coins, friend-o:

1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus for seasoning
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
Freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
Vegetable oil, for shallow frying
2 small zucchini, sliced into 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick coins

Line a dish with paper towels and set aside. Whisk the cornmeal, flour, basil, salt, cayenne, and pepper in a bowl.Beat the eggs in another bowl.

Heat 1/4-inch vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking.

Working in small batches, toss the zucchini coins in the eggs, then coat in the cornmeal mixture to cover completely. Carefully drop the zucchini into the oil, and fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side or until crisp. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on the prepared plate. Season with salt, cool slightly and serve.

Which leads us to dessert. And my favorite movie out of all the nominees: Juno. I don’t know how many years I made baked Alaskas for our Oscar night shenanigans, but it was a lot. Finally, about 2 years ago I gave up. Last year I made a very interesting Basil Ice Cream with chocolate shavings which wasn’t even tied into a movie. That’s kind of a shocker to me. This year, for Juno, because of a certain bit of dialogue (”Like the city in Alaska.” “No.”) I’m rolling out the old favorite, baked Alaskas. You’re welcome, Roxane. And Natalie.

Individual Chocolate Raspberry Baked Alaska: from Epicurious.com

4 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 whole large eggs
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Raspberry ice cream, slightly softened
8 large egg whites Special equipment: 6 (8-oz) shallow ceramic or glass gratin dishes

Preparation

Make cake:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan, then line bottom with wax paper and butter paper. Melt chocolate and butter in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring, until smooth. Remove bowl from pan and whisk 3/4 cup sugar into chocolate mixture. Whisk in whole eggs and salt, then sift cocoa over and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into baking pan, spreading evenly, and bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out with a few crumbs adhering, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then invert onto rack and cool completely.

Cut cake into 6 equal pieces, then arrange 1 piece in each gratin dish, trimming to fit. Top each piece of cake with a large scoop of ice cream (about 1/2 cup), then freeze, covered, just until ice cream is hard, about 25 minutes (do not let ice cream become rock hard unless making ahead — see cooks’ note, below).

Make meringue just before serving:
Preheat oven to 450°F.

Beat egg whites and a pinch of salt with an electric mixer until they just hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar a little at a time, beating at high speed, and continue beating until whites just hold stiff, glossy peaks, about 5 minutes in a standing mixer or about 12 minutes with a handheld.

Remove gratin dishes from freezer and mound meringue over ice cream and cake, spreading to edge of gratin dish. Bake on a baking sheet in middle of oven until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Serve immediately.

And again, yes, this is a lot of food and a bit of work. But it’s a four hour ceremony . You gotta do something during the bad songs and boring technical awards. This is my Oscar Night philosophy on food.

Cutting To the Chase

Gene Hackman is probably one of the most undersung actors of the past 40 years. OK, forget that he has 2 Academy Awards (For French Connection & Unforgiven). You never really hear his named bandied about when the talk turns to Great American Actors. Brando? Sure. Al Pacino? You bet. DeNiro? Of course. Gene Hackman? Gene Hackman, who. His Popeye Doyle is a masterful performance and one of the big reasons French Connection is so great. His name should be mentioned with those other names.

1971’s The French Connection was the first “R” rated picture to win the best picture academy award. But when a previous winner was rated “X” does “R” really matter? This rating system was a rather new thing for American motion pictures in 1971. Do you know what movie set off the modern day ratings system that is still pretty much intact today ? None other than 1966’s hostess humping fest, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1983’s violent Red Dawn led to the addition of the pg-13 & 1990’s racy Henry & June replaced dirty ol’ X with NC-17. I’m chock full of trivia bits today, aren’t I?

The French Connection is a good choice for best picture. I myself would have preferred The Last Picture Show. It’s certainly more girly, and, besides, Peter Bogdonovich and myself are birthday twins. Only he’s *much* older than me. The French Connection’s uber famous chase scene, where Popeye grabs a car and chases after the bad guy, who’s riding in an elevated car, is completely fantastic. And French Connection’s got that wonderful gritty New York feeling that the Academy seems to love. I never realized how many movies about or set in NY won best picture Oscars until I started watching all of these films: I’ve counted 14 from Broadway Melody to Kramer Vs. Kramer. It’s pretty remarkable.

The man who directed The French Connection, William Friedkin, is a Chicago TV legend. Back in the early 60’s he worked at WGN, home of my hometown classics

Ray Rayner & Friends–

Bozo’s Circus–

Garfield Goose & Friends –

& Family Classics

Hey, that’s the same guy!

Family Classics was a great Sunday matinee treat wherein an old movie, not necessarily a classic mind you—I can still sing the theme song from Sink the Bismarck–, would be shown and discussed by a guy in a wingback chair. And there would be close to a thousand commercials, mostly for Bert Weinman Ford, a local dealership. Great TV! Now I’m not really sure what Mr. Friedkin’s involvement was with all of these old childhood favorites, but his association with early WGN is enough for me to consider him a genius. In all seriousness he was considered a wunderkind back in the day. I love that word, wunderkind. I wish I had been one.

For dinner we built off the French – NY connection. I made French cuisine from the NY restaurant’s Balthazar cookbook. The next time I go to NY, I promise, I will go to Balthazar. It’s my dirty secret that I’ve never been. Don’t tell.

 

French Onion Soup

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 4 medium yellow onions, peeled, halved through the stem end, and sliced 1/4 inch thick

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

• 1 garlic clove, peeled and thinly sliced

• 4 sprigs of thyme

• 1 bay leaf

• 1 tablespoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

• 3/4 cup dry white wine

• 2 quarts chicken stock

• 1/2 cup port

• 6 slices of country bread, about 1 inch thick, toasted

• 2 cups Gruyere cheese, coarsely grated.

In a 5-quart Dutch oven or other large, heavy pot, heat the olive oil over a medium flame. Add the onions and, stirring frequently to prevent burning, sauté until they reach a golden color, approximately 30 minutes. Add the butter, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper and cook for 10 minutes. Raise the heat to high, add the white wine, bring to a boil, and reduce the wine by half, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and simmer for 45 minutes.Preheat the broiler.Remove the thyme springs and bay leaf, and swirl the port into the finished soup. Ladle the soup into the 6 ovenproof bowls. Fit the toasted bread into the bowls on top of the liquid, and sprinkle 1/3 cup of Gruyere onto each slice. Place under the broiler for 3 minutes, or until the cheese melts to a crispy golden brown. Allow the soup to cool slightly, about 3 minutes, before serving. Everyone here loves French onion soup. I was so excited about making this, I spontaneously went out and bought the proper bowls.a fine example of a proper French Onion Soup bowl

Sole En Papiottle w/ sautéed spinach  (for Popeye, natch).

Cooking En Papiottle is alot of fun and very impressive for a minimal amount of work. It’s also very healthy, as the food steams.

 

1/2 c olive oil

2 carrots cut into 3 inch matchsticks

2 leeks, (white part only) cut into 3 inch matchsticks

2 stalks of celery cut into 3 inch matchsticks

1 t salt ¼ t freshly ground pepper

½ lb quartered white mushrooms

6 Sole fillets

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Saute the carrots, leeks & celery 5 minutes. Remove to a bowl and add mushrooms to the pan & sauté for 7 minutes. Remove & set aside. Cut 6 pieces of parchment paper into 12 inch circles. Fold each circle in half. Place a few of the vegatables on the bottom and a sole filet on top of vegetables. Seal the paper up by crimping the ends (sort of like a paper calzone). Brush the packets w/ olive oil and place on a baking sheet and bake for 17-20 minutes. The packets will be brownish and puffed with air. Serve with a beurre blanc.

For the tart

Line a tart pan with a sheet of defrosted puff pastry (follow the directions on the box) peeled, core & cube 5 Granny Smith Apples. Saute the apples in some butter until soft. Add apples to the tart pan and bake in a 400 degree oven 18-20 minutes. Let cool for a bit and serve with French vanilla ice cream. Yum and sooooooooo easy.

 

 

Indecision ‘08

Just like all of these up-in-the-air presidential primaries, the predicitions for the nominations (announced tomorrow, January 22nd early in the morning) for the 2008 Academy Awards are all over the map. Cool! I hate predictibility, but I love playing the predicting game (and, hey, I picked the Giants over the Packers, even though I don’t know diddley about football. I just like saying “All hail the New York Giants.” Thanks , Madagascar.)

Anyway, here are some of my predictions /hopes for tomorrow’s nominations: I loved Atonement and hope everyone from it gets nominated esepcially the amazing young actress with the amazingly difficult name, Saorise Ronan. She’s 13 and she stole the movie right out from under Keira Knightly and James McAvoy.

I’d like to see some nominations head Hairspray’s way, too. John Travolta’s name is the one that being bandied about, but really, wouldn’t it be great if Christopher Walken got a nod? To answer my own rhetorical question, yes, it would be great.

One of the best movies, in my opinion, this year was Ratatouille. It’ll get it’s nomination in the best animated feature, It deserves a best picture nom too.

And, of course, come February 24th I hope that there’s an actual, traditional, long, boring Oscar ceremony. That’s up in the air, too. Just give the writer’s what they want, already! Jeez.

Traditionally while I watch the nominations, I like to have a little bit of a fancier breakfast than normal. For tomorrow I’m planning on some sparkling cranberry juice, some fruit and a muffin.

Old Blood and Guts Was a Wee Bit Nuts

We had an accidental mini Francis Ford Coppola film fest this past Sunday. My daughter and I sat down to watch 1974’s The Great Gatsby (she had read the novel for her English class; this is finals week) which (I didn’t know this beforehand) Mr. Coppola adapted the screenplay for. And which takes less time to read than watch. I’m not kidding.  But it was kinda fun. Mia Farrow was soooooo pregnant during this movie. But I’m digressing before I even begin.

Francis Ford Coppola also wrote the screenplay for 1970’s best, Patton. It’s a great writing job. Amazing, masterful acting job. And, yes, this this is the infamous role for which George C. Scott infamously refused to accept the Oscar. Rod Steiger turned down this role and later called it the biggest mistake of his career. Great movie, really. And I hate war movies. But this one I liked. Perhaps because Patton himself was such a kook.

It starts out with that famous monologue in front of the gigantic American Flag. It’s a kick ass way to start a movie:

Then it proceeds to show some military stuff, some war, some strategizing, some guy gets slapped and all hell breaks loose, some more war, and then the war is won and Patton doesn’t know what to do. Because this guy Patton was war crazy and regular crazy. I’d never want to be in a place where I’d stick my hands in some goo that was once my best friend’s face. AND I wouldn’t know what to do if I did. Execpt maybe scream, and I’m guessing that’s the wrong answer.

For dinner I found a great cookbook called Grandma’s Wartime Kitchen. It’s a fun collection of recipes made with stuff that was readily avalaible during the war. And how food was stretched because of rationing. I made a meatloaf roly poly. Yum.

1/2 lb each of ground beef, ground pork, ground veal

1 egg

salt & pepper

3 cups cubed bread(i used stuffing mix)

1/2 cup each of onion & red pepper

1/4 cup milk

1/cup parsley

1 teaspoon marjoram

mix meats and egg & salt & pepper together. Flatten out on a piece of wax paper in a 12″ square. Mix remaining ingrediants and flatten out on top of the meat square. Carefully roll up the meat loaf and place in a greased baking pan. Place a slice or two of bacon on top of the loaf. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes. Let rest for about 5 minutes after baking. Slice and enjoy. Serve with ketchup, it’s the condiment that helped us win the war.

I found an amazingly coincidental recipe on the food network website. These are great potatoes: Thanks, Nigella!

Blood and Guts Potatoes (really! isn’t that cool?)

Hey, I’m Eatin’ Here!

So we spent a fair portion of New Year’s Eve 2007 in squalor with Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight and an assortment of other depressing loons of New York. Midnight Cowboy was great. Once again, an amazing choice. This is one of those movies, if you haven’t seen, you should. Immediately. Just to think the academy could have picked the bloatiest of all bloated musicals, Hello, Barbra!, er Hello, Dolly! or that cutsie western cut-up Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, or another Henry VIII picture Anne of the Thousand Days. This year, 1969, they chose wisely. This movie is sooooo 1969. Times Square when it was depraved and un-Disnified. New York when it was dark and mean and scary and artsy and Warholian. The performance of Messrs Hoffman and Voight are spectacular, too. ( But apparently not that great, John Wayne won for Best Actor that year). What a great team Jon & Dustin were though, oodles of chemistry: I’m surprised they never made another film together. Yet, there’s still time.

For some stoopid reason the Academy failed to nominate, Midnight Cowboy’s theme, that great Harry Nilson song “Everybody’s Talkin’”Why, Academy? Why?

For our dinner, it was a hard choosing a theme. But I think we came up with a good one. In honor of the only X-rated academy award winning movie we ate foods that sounded kinda porny. We started with what I’d liked to call a oo-la-la ….

Naked Waldorf Salad

If you have a mandolin or a v-slicer slice one Granny smith Apple into matchstick sized pieces.

Blanche a handful of snow pea for about 1/2 minute, immerse them in cold water to stop them from cooking (they should be a very vibrant green) slice them into thin strips and add to the apple. add a little champagne vinaigrette ( 2teaspoons Dijon mustard,1/4 cup champagne vinegar, any fresh herbs you have around (thyme works nicely) about 1 teaspoon, ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pinch of freshly ground black pepper) you could add nuts to this too. This is a much lighter, stripped down version of that heavy mayonnaise based Waldorf salad that everyone’s mom used to make. Yum.

Next we had some hot and sizzlin’ New York Strip Steaks. Get it, strip? Sounds dirty, sorta.

Jim put some Char Crust on a big, beautiful NY strip and grilled it outside in the freezing cold and snowy night. Perfect. Thanks, Jim!

 

 

We always boil up some lobsters on NYE but I had to take my kids to the Art Institute that day and the store that we get them from (Supreme Lobster) ran out of whole live lobsters by 11. So, instead we broiled some seductively sexy lobster tails. With hot, dripping butter. Decadent.