Oscar Night Dinner

For the past few days, I've been wondering what to cook for dinner on Oscar night. Some friends suggested I invoke nominated films with my meal. Unfortunately, I never saw Avatar, and even if I had, blue food just doesn't seem palatable. I adored Julie and Julia (both the book and the film), but I've already cooked Beef Bourguignon, and besides, I bet every other food blogger is invoking that movie tonight. Honoring Up in the Air would have involved serving dried breast of chicken with a heavily dressed pasta salad and crackers with processed cheese, all served in a bright blue bag for $16.00 (and if purchased with American Express, could earn me double the Skymiles!). Somehow I don't think my family would have gone for that. Nor would they have appreciated a dedication to The Blind Side, which would have necessitated a dinner from Taco Bell.

So I gave up on trying to develop a film-based meal. Instead, I created my own little Academy Award out of food. Say hello to Squash Oscar!

He served as a centerpiece during our dinner--all of him except his little pole thing that he holds onto. I removed that as I was cooking and threw it in the pan. I couldn't bring myself to waste one spear of asparagus.

With Squash Oscar looking on, my family and I dined on London broil, which I'm sure will be served somewhere tonight at an Oscar party.

I first had London broil in--of all places--London, when I was about thirteen years old. My mom and my siblings found ourselves somewhere in the city, tired and hungry, after a long day of sight seeing. Somehow we had ended up in a part of town that had few restaurants, but after some searching we found a small place. When we entered, we found it empty of customers, but the waiter assured us the place was open, so we sat down. And then he said, "Tonight we are serving London broil." We replied that the dish was fine. What else were we gong to say? This restaurant was our only option. I had no idea at the time what London broil was, but I soon found out it was a tasty cut of beef.

And that's what we had tonight. I seasoned my London broil with salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley and Worcesteshire sauce. Then I broiled it on high for 15 minutes on each side. That was too long. The meat wasn't burned, but it was well done. Next time, I'll go for ten minutes per side. Still, it was tasty, especially when basted in its juices. Julia Child wouldn't have been proud, but she wouldn't have gone hungry either.

After such a fine meal, I'm ready to camp out with my knitting in front of the idiot box to see who wins awards for performing in movies I haven't seen. But I'm not really watching for the actors' and films' sakes tonight. I'm watching because Steve Martin is co-hosting the show. I adore Steve Martin for several reasons:

1. Comedy is Not Pretty
2. "King Tut."
3. It's Complicated
4. Shop Girl (the novel)
5. Shop Girl (the film)
6. several columns published in The New Yorker
7. some kick butt banjo playing
8. The Pleasure of My Company
9. His Mark Twain award speech
10. a pretty admirable art collection

So to pay tribute to Steve Martin (who, I'm sure, would appreciate the concept of Squash Oscar), I invite you to watch this video: