Cook The Baby: And the Oscar Goes To......

The first Cooking Club of 2012 was held on February 22nd at Michele's home. The theme was Oscars since the award show was the following day. Every dish had to be inspired by current Oscar nominess or past winners.

Of course Michele had a lovely table setting.

Fresh flowers from her yard.

Our lovely host preparing the hors devours.

Michele's first dish was inspired by Woody Allen's 'Midnight In Paris." Fried wonton wrappers with a generous dallop of veganaise topped with a slice of cucumber. Paired with some bubbly. A great starter for what was to come.

And here I am showing off the immersion blender I got for Christmas.

I prepared a soup based on 'My Week With Marilyn.' If you haven't seen the movie-rent and watch. Michelle Williams was nominated for best actress and was positively outstanding.

I made a cream of artichoke soup-lots of artichoke hearts, soy milk, and vegan cream. The connection? Marilyn Monroe was once crowned the Artichoke Queen in nearby Castroville.

Elizabeth prepared a tropical salad that she hacked from a fancy restaurant when she recently visited New York City. Her movie was the Descendents which takes place in Hawaii. Mixed greens, pomegranate seeds, fresh pineapple, and fancy burrata cheese-tasted as awesome as it sounds.

Here's Elizabeth showing off her serving skills in anticipation of the main course.

Michele prepared hot dogs with her own homemade apple leek slaw. She even grilled some Tofurkey dogs for the vegan! Her inspiration came from the movie, 'Moneyball," which is based on the Oakland A's baseball team.

For dessert I threw together a chocolate stout cupcake with a crumble topping. Yep-this was inspired by the excellent book and movie, "The Help." Inappropriate to go into a detailed description about this but there was an issue with a chocolate pie.