I have to admit that this blog was for a college Persuasive Writing class and that class has come to an end. I have really enjoyed finding and making new recipes and giving tribute to some of my favorite flicks. Thank you for anyone who has visited my blog and I also thank all the people who wrote the recipes. Each of them was delicious! 

You're a mean one......

'Tis the Christmas season and let the Christmas movie marathons begin. From ABC Family's 25 Days 'Till Christmas to Hallmark's relentless barrage of Christmas-themed movies, the choices are endless. A favorite film in our family is the 1966 animated adaption of Dr. Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas. We loved singing along to the nonsensical genius of Thurl Ravenscroft's ballad "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" as kids and we watched and/or read the book every Christmas. I was pleased to the see the tradition being passed on to my nieces and that this little gem of film will be remembered by generations to come. 

Part of the magic and appeal of a Dr. Seuss story is how he effortlessly creates new words or terms that seem to make sense to us in context as we read the story. What exactly is a grinch, for example? One of Grinch's greatest crimes when attempting to steal Christmas was that he stole everything, even the last can of Who Hash. As we only see the can of the Who Hash in the film, it is open to interpretation on what the food consists of. My roommate's family perceived is at corn beef which they referred to as Who Hash. As I surfed the Internet, I found a tempting recipe that interpreted it as hash browns with ham and peppers. I found the recipe at http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/lumberjack-hash-recipe-mr1210. The recipe is titled "Lumberjack Hash" but I don't think any lumberjacks will be offended if we give the recipe credit to the Who's in Whoville. 

I first chopped up the onions and peppers and minced the garlic.

I then cooked them in a skillet over medium heat and poured on the hash browns. I used frozen hash browns and I was a little startled when I poured them in the pan. They had an uncanny resemblance to mozzarella cheese and I was really attempted to taste a couple. I refrained myself however and let them cook to a golden brown. 

I'm frying cheese, baby!

Alright,I'm just melting cheese on top of hash browns. 

The Grinch better lay off my who hash! Merry Christmas to all. 

Soylent Green is people!

I thought that no blog dedicated to great food from great movies would be complete to one of the most notorious cinematic delights of them all: Soylent Green. If you have not seen this movie, I apologize because the title of this post is a HUGE spoiler alert. Nonetheless, I would recommend to still watch the film. 

A 1973 sci-fi cult classic starring Hollywood legend Charlton Heston, Soylent Green is a film set in the dystopian future where much of the Earth's natural resources has been depleted. Grocery stores and the wide array of foods found in them is no longer available and the population survives on nondescript green cube rations of "soylent green" The ration is a much improved version of the previously sold "soylent yellow" and "soylent red". 

The film contains one the greatest and most disturbing twists and surprises which I believe makes the entire film worthwhile. If you can't guess what the twist is from the title of the post, all the better for when you actually watch the movie. The film inspired me to strike against any mysterious cafeteria food served to me in middle and high school yelling, "This meatloaf is people"! It also made me second guess eating spinach or anything green for weeks after. The film itself is an interesting concept on what length's man will do to survive or make a profit. I, unfortunately, did not want to attempt to recreate the soylent green recipe for reasons I hope most of my readers will understand. 

Scrumdiddlyumptious

When I was a kid, there was one thing that I feared even greater then the boogie man or having to clean my room. It was the ghastly tunnel scene from the 1971 cult classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. That scene and Willy Wonka's creepy ballad which is featured in it haunted my dreams for years well into my adult life. I, however, loved the rest of the film if I just fastforwarded through that blasted scene. I am not the only one, by the way, who was freaked out about the tunnel scene. It was voted as the #74th Scariest Movie Moment by Bravo.

A fear of tunnels is not the only phobia one might develop after watching the movie. One might also develop chiclephobia, or the fear of chewing gum. That is because one might be afraid of becoming a giant oversized blueberry if they do. In the film, the precocious Violet insists on trying a piece of experimental gum and, although she first enjoys the multitude of flavors, she soon discoveres that she has ballooned into a giant blueberry. The oompa loompas roll her away and she has proven herself unworthy as the heir to the chocolate factory.

To celebrate this odd scene, I made a blueberry pie as a tribute to the still reigning queen of blueberries. I found the recipe at http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/blueberry-cream-pie?click=recipe_sr. The recipe included making a custard of sorts to serve as the base beneath a blueberry sauce. It was basically like vanilla pudding.

 

 

I then made the blueberry topping. I would suggest on decreasing the amount of blueberries used. My apartment was overflowing in blueberries.

 

I tried to stuff all the blueberries on top of the custard which was on a graham cracker pie crust. The blueberries came gushing forth and all over the counter. Although at first dismayed, I was pleasantly surprised to find I made a homemade Rorschach inkblot test.

What do you see in this picture? Please, be honest.

 

 

I then had to refrigerate the pie for about 3 hours. I wanted to transport the pie to my grandparents' for Thanksgiving, but the blueberry sauce would not cooperate and refused not to leak. I found this out by setting the pie on my car to open the door and looking up to see blueberry sauce slowly crawl down my car's rooftop. It was a perfect moment for oompa loompas to jump up and sing me a song about not trying to transport blueberry pie.

Despite having worse bladder control than a toddler, the pie was pretty tasty.

 

 

 Here's hoping on finding a golden ticket inside! Hey, someone might have slipped one in............

Peeta Bread

While reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, one thought kept crossing my mind: how are they going to portray this in the movie? With a book franchise as wildly popular as The Hunger Games trilogy, it was only a matter of time before it joined the likes of the Twilight series and become a major movie event.

The movie did not disappoint. The film set opening-day and single-day box office records and continued to become the thirteenth highest grossing film in North America. When a series has such a strong fan base as The Hunger Games does, it is only expected that fans will be in an uproar if even the slightest detail is changed during the transition from book to film. I felt that the movie was faithful enough to the original while still appropriately adapting itself to suit the new medium. Additionally, when the author of the series herself helps write the film adaptation, there is no greater stamp of approval.

Just as millions of tween girls have engaged in war over supporting Team Jacob or Edward, those same girls duked it over cheering for Peeta or Gale. The inspiration for my next dish came from this torrid love triangle. Katniss and Peeta's first meeting was not necessarily one either wanted to remember. Katniess, starving and sitting exhausted in the rain, is noticed by Peeta as he is taking out the trash from his family's bakery. Feeling pity for the desperate girl, Peeta throws her some nut and raisin bread. This scene both foreshadowed the future romance between the two and Peeta's role in Katniss's life as the voice of kindness and charity.

I found a recipe for bread inspired by the movie at: http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/peetas-raisin-nut-bakery-bread-recipe/1/ It was quick and easy as it promised. It took about an hour to prepare and then bake. I first mixed together the wet and dry ingredients in seperate bowls. The recipe called for a lot of applesauce which helped created an interesting butter, egg, and applesauce mixture.

 

 

I then mixed the dry and wet mixtures together and baked it for 45 minutes.

 

 

After the infallible toothpick test in the bread's center, it was ready to cool down and be enjoyed.

 

 

The bread definitely does not have the sweetest flavor and it certainly is not for any raisin haters, but it was decent and had a nice, hearty flavor. Hey, when you live in District 12, you take what you can get.

 

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Lord of the Onion Rings

For all those who have been following my blog since post one, I mentioned in that post that my favorite movies are all three of the the Lord of the Rings triology. Naturally, I had to dedicate at least one of my posts to those splendiferous films. Everything in those movies is pitch-perfect: the directing, the soundtrack, the acting, the special effects, the hobbits, etc. Most of all, I think they are the movies that truly epitomize the perennial battle between good and evil and good's inexorable triumph.

For my tribute to Lord of the Rings, it may appear to be a little of a stretch. For even those who have stubbornly refused to see the movies, they at least know that the plot centers around a small, golden ring. So, I decided that the food equivalent of the ring to rule them all would be a nice crispy onion ring. I actually got this idea from TBS's Dinner and a Movie website at http://www.tbs.com/stories/story/0,,212685%7C1268%7C0,00.html. Both rings are forged in steaming hot liquids, right?

First, I needed some onions. I got both yellow and white to see which would taste or work better and there was no difference. I soaked the onions in some buttermilk for about an hour.

 

 

The batter consisted of all-purpose flour, rice flour, paprika, and cayenne powder. After mixing these up, I tossed the rings in and they were ready to be forged in the depths of Mordor.

The eye of Sauron!

 

 

As I have still procrastinated buying a candy thermometer, it took a little experimentation to get the temperature right. At first, it wasn't hot enough and the onions looked pretty pathetic. But after putting the oil on full heat, the onions fried up quite nicely. They did not look the prettiest, but they actually tasted quite good.

 

As there is only one ring to rule them all, I had to rummage through my onion rings to find which one would fit the description.

My precious........

 

 

I however highly doubt that this ring would give me unnatural long life. It sure was tasty though.

Who wants to be a Slumdog Millionaire?

One of my favorite theatrical experiences was watching Slumdog Millionaire through my university's International Cinema program. The auditorium was so packed that I was standing in the back against the wall for the first 15 minutes or so of the movie. I felt like a pre-teen sneaking in the theatre to watch a PG-13 or R-rated and the thrill of this never-before-experienced feeling was strangely intoxicating enough that I didn't even mind standing. Plus, the movie being phenomenol also didn't hurt.

Luckily, someone got claustrophobic and left the theatre and I pounced on that empty seat like a shameless shopper on Black Friday. The greatest part of the experience was the massive audience participation during the film. We all gasped, laughed, and stood at the edge of our seats together and everyone was cheering and dancing a la Bollywood for the film's finale. I finally understood how the home DVD experience will never completely replace the magic of watching a movie on the big screen.

In honor of this indie sleeper hit, I decided to make Tandoori chicken, a popular Indian dish made from chicken and yogurt. The name Tandoori comes from the tandoor, a clay oven where the dish is traditionally cooked. My apartment lacking a tandoor, I cooked the chicken in a conventional American oven in an aluminum foil pan. I found the recipe at http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/tandoori-chicken-10000000460924/.

As this is an Indian dish, the recipe calls for myriad of spices.

 

 

 

 

After mixing the spices and yogurt, it was time to marinate the chicken. Plan on making this the day before you want to eat it because it requires the marinated chicken to chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours.

 

 

The next day, all you have to do is place the chicken in an aluminum roasting pan and bake for 35 minutes.

As a warning, side effects of this recipe may include spontaneoulsy breaking out in Bollywood-esque dance moves. If this happens to you, relax and just go with it.