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Wow, Oscar night kind of sucked. Luckily I had some really good food (including the great recipe I have at the end of this blog). I was very sick on Oscar night and had to stay home from the band rehearsal, which kind of made me sad. Davey was very sweet and made an Oscar night party out of it to make me feel better. So, he made copies of the Entertainment Weekly ballots so that we all could vote ahead of time and see who would get the most right. Now, I must say that I did pretty good for not being able to see most of the movies (plus, who can predict what those weirdos will pick?). In the end I got eleven right (tying with my eight year old sister:(), but I was beat by Davey at twelve. Oh well! I was dethroned…..for now.
Oscar night…….Yeah, is it just me or did they completely snub Whoopi Goldberg? She was in none of the clips. How idiotic. I mean she was one of the hosts and an Academy Award winner on top of it. Also, in the obituary section they didn’t even put Brad Renfro or Roy Scheider in there. I mean come on! What were you guys doing during the writer’s strike….picking your butts. Honestly! I am a little angry over the whole thing.
As far as the good stuff goes….I didn’t see any really weird dresses (I am really glad not to see any swans on anyone). I am extremely pleased that Marion Cotillard won best actress. Her transformation was absolutely brilliant and Javier Bardem winning best supporting actor was great too. He put a lot of dedication into his part. Plus, he loves his Mom so much that it was just worth him getting the award for that. Of course, “No Country for Old Men” won for best picture and it deserved it. I am glad it won although I would have loved for the comedy “Juno” to have won. It would have proved some humanity is left in the Oscar world. But, alas, I will have to be happy with Diablo Cody winning for her screenplay. My favorite win of the night was “Falling Slowly” for best original song. As you must know, I absolutely love “Once” and it made me very happy. It is nice to see some people as humble as Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova taking a win. I love that Jon Stewart allowed her back onto the stage to give her thanking speech. That was very nice of him. Just to make a comment on the host, Jon Stewart was okay, but Ellen Degeneres was my favorite of all time.
The best part of the night was my No Country For Old Men Almond Cheesecake. It is named after the movie because it was the winner of all the desserts so far. (Very cheesy both figuratively and literally). Here is the recipe:
No Country for Old Men Almond Cheesecake*
Ingredients: 1/3 cup of butter melted, 1 and 1/4 crushed vanilla wafers, 3/4 finely chopped almonds, 1/8 cup of sugar, 1/8 cup of Splenda, 1 and 1/2 tsp almond extract for filling, 4 eggs slightly beaten for filling, 32 oz cream cheese softened for filling, for filling 1/2 and 1/8 cup of sugar, for filling 1/2 and 1/8 cup of Splenda, 1 tsp vanilla extract for filling, 2 tbs slicd almonds toasted, 16 oz sour cream for topping, 1/8 cup of sugar for topping, 1/8 cup of Splenda for topping, and 1 tsp vanilla extract for topping.
1) In a small bowl, put together the crushed wafers, chopped almonds, sugar, and Splenda; stir butter in. Press on the bottom of a ten inch springform pan; set aside.
2) In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, and Splenda on low until smooth. Beat eggs into mixture on low speed. Stir in extracts. Pour onto crust. Put the pan on a cooking sheet before you put in oven.
3) Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes (center will almost be set). Remove from the oven; let stand for 5 minutes (keep oven on). Stir the sour cream, sugar, Splenda, and vanilla together. Spoon around the edge of the cheesecake. Carfully spread over cheesecake with a soft metal spatulla. Bake for 5 minutes. Cool pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan so the cake will loosen. Do not remove from pan yet. Cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate for 6 hours (or overnight).
4) Before serving, sprinkle with almonds and remove pan. Make sure to keep cake refrigerated.
5) Enjoy in rapture.
*The base recipe for this cake was a Taste of Home recipe and was molded by me from there.
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