Hagrid's 11th Birthday Cake for Harry [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (book)]

July 31, 2017 Elyse Roth

Okay so I know that Harry Potter is a lot of things, but it's not a TV show. I WILL say that it might as well be because if any of the movies are on TV, I will watch it. Not to mention that I OWN all eight movies. I love it so much, and in my head it spans genres, so I couldn't not commemorate the 20th anniversary of the first book release on Harry's birthday (don't worry, I will also commemorate the 20th anniversary of the US release). There are a lot of food moments to choose from, but this one felt super special because it's the same time he finds out he's a wizard. The best birthday present ever! I read this shortly before I turned 11, and I spent my whole time leading up to my birthday hoping the book was semi-nonfiction and that I would have a certain letter waiting for me that day. It was nice to finally see someone recognizing Harry in the respectful way he deserved and to give him something...anything, especially this life changing news that gets him away from the Dursleys.

Those familiar with the movie might notice that the cake does not look like the one in the movie. They switched out the chocolate glaze and icing for strawberry and spelled happy wrong, my guess is because it shows up better on screen and to drive Hagrid's character home. In the book, the cake was a large, sticky chocolate cake with "Happy Birthday Harry" written on it in green icing.

My cousin and fellow superfan (and former midnight movie goer) got me the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, and I've been so excited to make something from it. It was hard to choose, but this just felt right. I have to say, I bake a lot and this cake recipe was so soft and fudgy, I think it was the best I've ever had cake turn out. Plus it was my first layer cake! It was a process in my hot apartment waiting for the cakes to cool and the icing to harden, but it was a lot of fun and the end result was super nostalgic.

The Governor's Gift Flamin' Hot Cheetos [Orange is the New Black]

July 18, 2017 Elyse Roth

From the first episode, I knew OITNB would use food creatively. They roast a whole pig on her last night before prison! I knew I was definitely not wrong when Piper got a tampon breakfast sandwich on her first day (I think??) in jail. I've been wanting to make something from the show for a while, and have a lot of options, but I'm behind and a friend of mine suggested I make Flamin' Hot Cheetos based on a story arc from the current season. You don't have to worry about spoilers because I need to catch up and only know what I've read for context that the governor sent a goodwill gift that included the spicy snack in a shipment. This is yet another experiment in making store-bought things homemade and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort, but they were tasty and the coating would definitely work as a versatile seasoning for a lot of snacks (it was originally intended for popcorn).

#tbt Emily's Gift Scone Mix Scones [Gilmore Girls]

June 8, 2017 Elyse Roth

I made these scones for an Easter brunch I was invited to last year, my first Easter brunch ever. As a leap of faith, I decided to bring a brunch-appropriate baked good that I had never attempted before. For my first go, I went with a plainer, neutral flavor and spent the whole time they were in the oven sufficiently anxious. I don't have that intimate a knowledge of scones to be confident when they were or were not done, so it was a long process of feeling them when they had been baked a while, relying on my not very reliable gut and adding 5 more minutes to the oven timer. In the end, you kind of just *know* when they're ready, and they were a big hit! The whole time I was making them, I couldn't stop thinking about the scone mix Emily gives Lorelai in the first episode of season three, and what a fuss Lorelai makes about never making them. It's a semi annoying, semi comical moment. On the one hand, Emily HAS to know Lorelai never goes near her kitchen for cooking, but on the other it's like Lorelai shut up and just take the gift and give it to Sookie or whatever. I felt pretty Lorelai-ish throughout the process and at times wished I had a mix to go off of, but I was so happy with the end result, I can't wait to try different flavors in the future.

#tbt Bluth Frozen Bananas [Arrested Development]

May 11, 2017 Elyse Roth

Now that it's finally getting warmer and summer aka the season of just re-watching everything I've already watched is upon us, I think of warm weather treats and what shows are on the agenda. This Bluth Boardwalk staple came to mind. Not only is it the center of so many funny moments on the show, it's also the most obvious Arrested Development-related food. Actually, it has been on the list of things to make since before the blog even existed, but there's a time and a place for everything and this one is here now. It doesn't take a genius to freeze a banana and coat it in chocolate, but through some research, I got more ideas. The good thing about this treat is that you can use whatever toppings you like once you know the general process. Mine included milk chocolate, caramel, peanut butter, coconut chips and nuts, but there's plenty more months of warm weather to experiment with more combinations. The bad thing about it is that no matter what it will always be awkward to eat and photograph. But when all is said and done, there's always money in the banana stand.

Dev's Vegetarian Cabonara [Master of None]

May 8, 2017 Elyse Roth

I watched the first season of Master of None in one day because of course I did, and besides being thrilled to have Aziz back on my TV, it was a refreshing and realistic yet funny look at millennial life in New York. Obviously it was also amazing for those who are into food and the restaurant scene and plenty of work was put in by journalists to find where they ate on the show. Of course I loved that focus, but when I had the idea for this blog, I remembered a scene that prompted a "challenge accepted" moment from this show. In "Mornings," when Dev uses his spaghetti maker to make a vegetarian version of carbonara for his girlfriend, Rachel, my mind went into overdrive thinking about how I could make that a reality. Part of carbonara's trademark is the smoky meat used in the sauce, so I did a bunch of research to figure out how to replicate it and combined a few recipes that would help make the absence of meat a little more exciting while still resembling the source material. Now, I'm determined to make the real thing (technically in the show he makes both!).

#tbt Ross's 'I'm Fine' Chilaquiles [Friends]

May 4, 2017 Elyse Roth

This part of the Friends plot is decidedly not my favorite, but I've always loved this episode. Ross is at his Ross-iest and the less than compelling plot point of some of the friends switching significant others does make for some great comic elements. I also just love the idea of going to a Friend's (literally!) place and having a full on Mexican meal with fajitas and margs. It just seems so fun! I've seen this episode more times than I can count, and the line "That is going to HURT tomorrow!" is both delivered perfectly forever burned into my brain. I feel his too-many-margs pain when he wakes up on the couch the next morning, it's just a great fun and new-feeling way to get a majority of the group together in a scene. When my friend Sam suggested we make these veggie chilaquiles, I saw the skillet and Ross holding a hot pan with his bare hands instantly came to mind, so I fudged it a bit because it's a dish that can be either chilaquiles OR fajitas.

Cassidy's Revival Blood (Orange Lemonade) [Preacher]

May 1, 2017 Elyse Roth

I have a blind faith in anything Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg do. When I heard they were teaming up with Breaking Bad writer and producer Sam Catlin to create a series based on a comic book for AMC, Preacher, I was immediately excited. Around this time last year, the first season premiered and I was instantly hooked. It's an off-center show that's a bit Tarantino, a bit Breaking Bad, a bit This is the End and a peppering of a few more filmmaking styles. It's cinematic, funny, well acted and very gory. The whole season was just added to Hulu, and I found myself super excited for it to return so I started to watch again. In a particularly gory introduction, non-True Blood or Twilight vampire Cassidy abruptly gets into a fight on board a swanky airplane, leaves everyone dead and jumps out of the plane with just a bottle of blood and an umbrella to use as a parachute. Once again, I took on the challenge of turning something decidedly gross into a delicious drink that resembled the real fake thing. It's the perfect fresh pairing for a spring and summer meal.

#tbt Peggy's Upgraded Sad Desk Sandwich [Mad Men]

April 27, 2017 Elyse Roth

This is not a post connected to The Handmaid's Tale, or not really, but I'm SO EXCITED that it's finally here. Not only was the book amazing and I actually have faith in Hulu to adapt it faithfully, but the cast is also amazing. In the lead up to the premiere, I've been seeing a lot of Elisabeth Moss, and since I finished The West Wing and Mad Men is long over, I realized I really miss seeing her on screen in something new. I decided to culinarily revisit her in the form of early Mad Men, when Peggy was a lowly secretary living at home and brought a sad desk lunch of a sandwich and bruised banana to work. Since there's nothing appetizing about that, I took the liberty to give it an upgrade and left the banana behind.

When I was in high school, my best friend, Julia, invented this amazing sandwich. She takes after her mom in the sense that she's very good at "shopping in her fridge," assessing what ingredients she has and assembling them into something delicious (whereas, I almost always need a recipe as a guide just like my mom). What my friends now call a "Julia Sandwich" is simple and full of fresh and complementary ingredients. It's the perfect thing to look forward to for lunch at work and it's always reliable for a Saturday Netflix marathon lunch break with a friend or few. Just set up all the ingredients and let your guests make their own.

Peter Gregory's Sesame Hamburger Buns [Silicon Valley]

April 24, 2017 Elyse Roth

Silicon Valley is one of those shows that's amazing and you are always reminded as soon as it's back and you can't wait for next week's episode. I love this episode from the first season, where awkwardness and tensions are high and we still don't know the characters and world so well. Eccentricities are common amongst the people in the world, and this scene with Peter Gregory and everything on the menu from Burger King was so memorable, I thought I had to celebrate the return of the new season of the show with the real subject of that scene. They seem kind of random on their own, but who doesn't keep a few buns on reserve in the freezer for burger night or one of those nights that you just have to go with a frozen veggie burger. I already had all the ingredients for these, so on one of those days, why not go with something homemade?

#tbt Liz Lemon's Christmas Half Sleeve of Oreos [30 Rock]

April 22, 2017 Elyse Roth

The first time I was made aware of Tracey Wigfield was when she was on stage with Tina Fey to accept an Emmy for co-writing and episode of 30 Rock. It prompted me to do a deep dive into her background, and shortly after I was made aware through Mindy Kaling's Instagram that she had been recruited to be a part of her writing staff when 30 Rock was coming to an end. I then followed their friendship and her eventual sale of her very own Tina Fey-produced comedy and its making on her own Instagram. I find her hilarious, and some of her 30 Rock episodes are the funniest of the series, so I'm optimistic about her new show, Great News, which premieres next week. To celebrate, I decided to make a familiar favorite from one of the episodes of 30 Rock that she wrote.

Oreos are one of my all time favorite foods, and I've been wanting to make homemade ones for a long time. These were so much easier than recipes I've found in the past, and they were a big hit with all 6 people who finished them in about 24 hours. It's not hard to identify with Liz finishing the half sleeve of Oreos she was bringing to Jack's house for Christmas in the cab on the way.

Selina's Stomach Flu-Free Froyo [Veep]

April 17, 2017 Elyse Roth

While we're on a political roll, I'm celebrating the premiere of Veep with an early episode that I will always associate with the show's antics, plus it's even CALLED Frozen Yogurt. Selina was set to have a froyo tasting at a local DC shop where they even named a flavor after her. Selina gets a taste of the presidency in this episode, and between the staff and her dismissal of her VP tasks once she's briefly called to be president, this episode is always one I like to revisit. Although she went thinking she was going to try the flavor named after her, Selina Strawberry, she only got melty vanilla. I wanted to go the fruit route though since I already made vanilla ice cream, and I had frozen blueberries on hand. If you want to make vanilla, I considered using this recipe (via Greatist) before settling on blueberry. I guess we can call this...Biden Blueberry?

Jessica Jones's Revenge Chinese Takeout [Jessica Jones]

March 28, 2017 Elyse Roth

We all have those days where all you can do for dinner is park it on the couch and order your favorite Chinese feast, knowing full well it's way more than you can eat and likely all fried. It's delicious at the time, but 20 minutes later, your insides feel a little greased and it takes Herculean effort just to get up to put the lefties in the fridge. A friend of mine sent this recipe for sheet pan fried rice to me, and I knew I had to try it. I don't typically dabble in order-in staples, but this is a much healthier version of a delivery go-to, plus it's super quick, it almost seems too good to be true. When I thought about shows I've watched, a lot of them have good Chinese takeout moments, but I thought I'd assign this one to one of my favorite characters in recent memory. At the end of the first season of Jessica Jones (on Netflix), she tricks the season's villain, Kilgrave, into eating drugged Chinese food so she can take over her situation. It's such a badass move, and since Women's History Month is coming to a close, I thought it was appropriate to dedicate a dish to her.

Let's Potato Chips [so many shows]

March 20, 2017 Elyse Roth

TV is funny because it's creating little realities that many times seem to exist in a parallel universe, one that includes food and brands that don't exist in our world. Sure, we're used to really obvious and maybe less obvious product placement at this point, but it's more fun when things are made up, or in this case, a TV industry-wide inside joke. There have been a few different stories (and even a now-defunct blog) about the famous Let's potato chips that pervade TV—spanning networks, genres and decades, and it's fun to compare how the fictional brand is used in different fictional worlds.

#tbt Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Infinity Gift Basket Chocolate Turtles [The Office]

March 16, 2017 Elyse Roth

I'm so obsessed with 30 Rock and Parks and Rec, it's surprising to find out I didn't watch The Office for the first time until a couple of years ago, and obviously I instantly loved it. I've only re-watched one more time sequentially, and I decided to revisit it again recently, which was an excellent decision. Unsurprisingly, food is used intentionally and thoughtfully in the show, featuring specifics for peak comedy moments. This episode, Dunder Mifflin Infinity, was no different. Michael Scott is trying to win back clients with elaborate gift baskets that include all the cliché fixings. I LOVE chocolate turtles and have since I was really young, so when Andy Bernard reached for them and was shut down by Michael, I felt his excitement and disappointment. The turtles recur as a plot point later when Michael throws a fit when he goes to get a basket back in true Michael Scott form and sees they ate the turtles already. I can't blame him, they're delicious. I needed something sweet to bring to a reunion of coworkers and when I chose this, I didn't make the connection that I was bringing something from The Office to former coworkers, and it made me love the choice even more. I wanted to up the flavor with some homemade caramel and I definitely think it elevated these from an above average day at work to Pretzel Day.

#tbt Serena van der Woodsen's Not-On-The-Menu Truffle Grilled Cheese [Gossip Girl]

March 2, 2017 Elyse Roth

My love for the first two seasons of Gossip Girl runs super deep. I watched the pilot live when I was starting my senior year of high school, and I remember this "grilled cheese with truffle oil" moment because I was largely unaware of what truffles were at the time (ha!). Of course, I knew it was fancy because it was Chuck and Serena and they were in The Palace, but then Chuck tried to use off-the-menu fancy grilled cheese as currency for sex and things were turned up to 100 immediately. After the pilot, they changed a bunch of things (like Chuck taking a limo everywhere instead of THE BUS (?!?!?!)), namely that he stopped being a sexual predator because...problems. Soon after the episode aired, the restaurant The Palace started offering truffle grilled cheese as a menu item for something like 15 dollars (or 30 for a soup pairing). I've always wanted to make one of my own, but the pressure honestly made me nervous. Grilled cheese is pretty basic, but this had stakes and I wanted it to taste extra special. Plus I have a bad habit of completely burning bread when I make grilled cheese. I added some extra flavors like crispy onions, used four cheeses and did A LOT of research on how to not completely burn the bread when melting the cheese. This came out delicious, flavorful, crunchy and cheesy on the first try. I may have teared up. xoxo....

Rebecca Bunch's Group Hang Nachos [Crazy Ex-Girlfriend]

February 27, 2017 Elyse Roth

In the first season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rebecca was not thrilled when her dinner hang with Josh became a group hang with a delicious looking pile of nachos (and a lot of other food). The show employs food very thoughtfully, and in the song "Group Hang," I had a lot to choose from. Not only do the nachos appear in the scene and get a call out, when I saw the scene, I got an instant craving for a delicious pile of nachos with the works. I engineered my perfect combination of homemade layers for my own Oscar watching group hang, and then fantasized about them until they were ready to go. Let's just say, they disappeared before the ceremony started.

Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza [The Good Wife/The Good Fight]

February 21, 2017 Elyse Roth

Okay, so this is kind of cheating, BUT it's deep dish pizza so it's an automatic pass, right? Last year (in my old apartment with questionable lighting), I made this to watch the season finale of The Good Wife so we could celebrate with some Chicago fare to say goodbye to a Chicago-based show. Now that the blog is up and running and the spinoff, The Good Fight is up and running, I thought it was a great time to post this instant favorite. Although it's a huge oversight that (to my recollection) we never see them eat deep dish in the show, it can be inferred, right? I live in New York surrounded by amazing pizza, but there are times when deep dish pizza is the only answer. I was really nervous to try this out, considering when you go to the original Uno in Chicago, you order about an hour in advance, I thought the process invited more than one way to completely mess up. Turns out, it's time consuming, but I didn't have much to worry about and I was treated to leftover deep dish for days (it's just as good re-heated).

#tbt Ann Perkins-approved NutriYum bars [Parks and Recreation]

February 16, 2017 Elyse Roth

Technically Galentine's Day has passed, but I'm celebrating Saturday so it still feels like this week is Parks and Rec domain. Instead of going full Leslie Knope and having dessert for every meal, or just straight sugar for the week, I decided to make something a little healthier, if not just as delicious. If I was going to follow the actual NutriYum recipe, it would really be just sugar because according to Ann, it is a block of sugar. I decided to not go that route, but that doesn't mean they aren't tasty and filling. With just six ingredients, these bars are super easy and make a great snack or breakfast on the go. Despite the fact that there is no added sugar (besides the peanut butter if you use sugary peanut butter), I still think Leslie would eat a case of them and be really hyper if she was doing an all night fundraiser.

Awards Show Eats: The Grammys / The Chanels' Better Than Cotton Balls Rice Krispies [Scream Queens]

February 13, 2017 Elyse Roth

So, this is a stretch, but hear me out. I "needed" a way to tie in TV with the Grammys so I took a few steps. Ariana Grande was nominated, and she was on Scream Queens season 1. There are a lot of actual gross food moments on that show, given it's a campy horror show that lives up to that description. But as a former sorority member myself, one of my favorite parts of the show is the usually inaccurate but fun to watch stereotypes of the sorority, like when the Chanels eat only cotton balls for lunch. Although this is a rumor that circulates more in the ballet world, the imagery of the girls at the table with cotton ball lunches was pretty funny (if it weren't pretty wrong and sad, too).

#tbt Betty's Can't Stop at One Ice Cream Sundaes [Mad Men]

February 9, 2017 Elyse Roth

Betty's fat suit era was a fun one for the lifer viewers of Mad Men. Especially when she indulged her larger side and, oh I don't know, ate two sundaes in one sitting when Sally abandoned hers. The idea of this scene feels like an American fantasy—a mother and daughter sharing an American treat in their American home in the 60s. I wanted to recreate it for myself. Except my mom lives states away and it's 2017. So basically I will be sharing this with myself and will soon look like I have some padding just like January Jones did.