25.2.07

Oscar night

Today´s the day when I spray myself gold, put on the fake eyelashes and leap around the house to the tune "it´s a wonderful night for Oscar", imitating Billy Cristal imitating Liza Minelli. All very postmodern.
It´s the biggest night of the year chez nous. Almost deserves an award in itself, if you reflect that the red carpet pre-show starts at 2:30 am, Madrid time.

I don´t know why I do it. Every year I throw things at the tv, shouting, this is stupid. It´s long, it´s rambling, it´s pointless, why do I love it so much? Profound mystery. Every year it´s the same, I walk off in a huge bait and swear I´ll never watch it again. If you think that my first Oscar dissappointment was when The Princess Bride lost best song to Dirty Dancing, back in 1988, you can see that I have a history. Also, that I was a right little 12-year-old freak. And that I never liked Patrick Swayze. But I digress.

It´s still a lot of fun. My mother, two sisters, and various friends, strictly an all-female cast, stay up all night, trying not to doze off. We fight sleep with a staggering dose of sugar, in the form of all-American sweets. It´s a long standing tradition that the chocolate-chip cookies are brought by Lola, and that I make the brownies. My mother used to proffer a banofee pie, but over time we decided that it was overkill. All that dulce de leche, it was crazy.

But since the NYT recently ran an article on banana cream pie, saying it´s a very LA thing, I´ve decided to give it a shot. On paper, it´s a winner. Sweet crusty pastry, custard, bananas, and whipped cream, what´s not to like? Well, on paper Goodfellas was the best 1993 movie, and what happened? Did the Academy respect a film where garlic was sliced with a razor? No, they preferred Kevin Costner´s droopy moustache. Sigh.

If the pie is any good, I´ll post the recipe over the week. If not, I´ll have to fall back on Lola´s cookies when Hillary Swank ruins my life again. She´s not nominated, I know, but I have nightmares where she turns up onstage with those millions of teeth, snatches the Oscar from Martin Scorsese and beats his brains in with it.

7 comentarios:

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) dijo...

I never watch the Oscars (gasp!), but tonight I will be thinking of you, cheering on your favorites and eating American food in the middle of the night!!!! Have fun!

Rachel dijo...

Oh my god, your Hillary Swank comments cracked me up. I always think the same thing!

Anónimo dijo...

I feel the same way: every year I swear up and down I'll never watch again, and then, invariably, I do. Much to Ben's disgust, I might add. That banana cream pie is a legend in LA and I can't wait to hear what you think: I've had it clipped for years but have never gotten around to making it. And one more thing: if Martin Scorsese doesn't win the thing this year? Let's make banana cream pies and throw them at the Kodak Theater. :)

xps dijo...

Waiting for you, con ilusion.

Anónimo dijo...

¡Aupa Penelope y Marivi Bilbao!

Anónimo dijo...

You are so right about Goodfellas.
Sometimes the Oscar vote just goes so wrong.

I love your party. I think getting up in the middle of the night to watch the Oscars and eat desserts would only add to the occasion.

I saw that banana cream pie recipe in the Times and I'll also be interested to hear how it is. But I might vote for the banofee pie over that. All that dulce de leche? That would be a good thing.

Ramona dijo...

I love Princess Bride and banana cream pie and coconut cream pie and chocolate cream pie.....I'm not picky.

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