With all due respect to the bar and restaurant parties that we mentioned yesterday, our favorite way to celebrate Oscar night has always been to have a party of our own. Oscar parties are more fun than dinner parties, since you can make up drinking games (we personally will be doing a shot every time someone gets cut off by the orchestra) and less stress than non-event-based parties, because everyone leaves by midnight. While you obviously want to prepare a feast for you guests, the Oscars are not a great time for a sit-down dinner. We prefer to lay out some bread, cheese, and cold cuts, a few finger food appetizers, and some desserts that can be eaten standing up. Below, a few suggestions:
Appetizers: The key to a successful Oscar party is to serve foods that can be prepared a day in advance so you can spend the day of the party making your home and yourself look gorgeous. We love these bagel chips with ricotta, chive puree, and prosciutto, although we actually prefer them with goat cheese taking the ricotta’s place. They take minutes to prepare and can easily be wrapped and stored in the fridge until its time to eat. A friend of ours recently brought pissaladiere to a party and we can’t get its savory taste out of our mind. We recommend making twice as much as you think you’ll need. Trust us when we tell you that it will all get eaten.
Desserts: There is little we love more in this word than a nice whoopie pie and while the name would have been more Oscar-clever a few years ago, the pies are still delicious. Keep with the handheld theme by making black and white ice cream sandwiches: ice cream! Between two cookies! DIPPED IN WHITE CHOCOLATE! Truly, the mind boggles.
Bagel Chips with Ricotta, Chive Puree, and Prosciutto [Food & Wine]
Pissaladiere [Epicurious]
Whoopie Pies [Epicurious]
Black and White Ice Cream Sandwiches [Epicurious]
