Hosting an Elegant and Easy Oscar Party on AM Northwest

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We were back on AM Northwest! This time to talk about How to Host an Elegant and Easy Oscar Party!

Cooking Demo on AMNW. Easy and Elegant Appetizers for an Oscar Party.

I still pinch myself each time we get the incredible opportunity to share our food with an audience like the awesome folks and viewers of AM Northwest. It’s always an honor to share our food and ideas with the amazing team at the show.

Today we talked about throwing an elegant and easy Oscar Party featuring some quick appetizers!

How to host an Oscar-Themed Party on AM Northwest (Video).jpg

How to Host an Oscar Party

The Academy Awards are all about the red carpet, the beautiful celebrities, and all things elegant and fancy. So when we throw a party at home we want to experience a little of that elegance, but we don’t want to spend hours, days, or (in the case of the real Academy Awards) even weeks preparing.

With a few simple tips you can throw your own easy, yet elegant Oscar party!

1) Get some help from the store where you can, like buying a selection of cheeses and charcuterie for a beautiful cheese platter. Mmmmm.

How to put together a simple cheese platter for an Oscar Party

2) Prepare one cold appetizer that you can make in advance of the party, so you’re not running around like a chicken with its head cut off throughout your awesome party. You want to be a PART of the action, right? Prep in advance.

3) Prepare one easy hot appetizer that you can cook as your guests are arriving so that your house smells amazing and inviting as folks enter your home (like the smell of sizzling steak!!! who doesn’t love that?!).

Cold Recipe Ideas: Easy to prep in advance

Smoked Salmon Dip: This recipe is so easy, yet so elegant! And you don’t need a smoker to make it. You can easily grill your salmon on your regular outdoor grill or cook it in the oven. Whatever you need to do to get a fully cooked piece of salmon.

Smoked-Salmon-Dip-t

Hot Appetizers: Cook as Guests Arrive

Marinated Grilled Beef Skewers: this is a recipe we make for the holidays, but it’s just as perfect for an Oscar Party. These grilled steak skewers are simple to prepare, full of flavor (not to mention the aroma of these grilling from your stovetop will be out of this world!), and beautifully presented.

Easy-Appetizers-for-an-Oscar-Party-on-AM-Northwest

Once you have your appetizers in place, the rest is cake!

More Ideas for your Oscar Party

Easy Decorations for an Oscar Themed Party

Decorations for your Oscar Party

Head to your local party store for some fun decorations. They will have everything from red carpets to fun backdrops, to glitter, balloons, Oscar trophies, and so much more.

Popcorn

We found some fun popcorn bags at the party store to fill with our favorite popcorn. Again, you can take some help from the store and buy popcorn there, or make your own. For the show we made some truffle butter popcorn and some topped with smoked salt (yum!!).

Oscar Ballots

Print some ballots with all of the nominations for your guests to fill out. You can get these easy over the Internet. Just search free Oscar ballot printable and dozens will come up. I found these ones from the website Sugar and Charm that I loved.

Oscar Swag Bag

Whoever correctly guesses the most winners can win a swag bag filled with some goodies of your choice, or you can present them with their very own Oscar trophy (again, party store find!).

Dishes from Academy Award Nominated Movies

One fun idea this year is asking your guests to bring a dish with the theme of their favorite nominated movie, and let them get as creative as they wish. One thought I had was from the movie The Martian.

[SPOILER ALERT: Matt Damon’s character finds himself abandoned on Mars and has to survive there until he can get rescued. Let’s just say there is a lot of potatoes involved over the course of the movie.] So for a fun play on that you could prepare your own potato dish, or keep it as simple as bringing a bag of potato chips. I bet Matt Damon wished he was crunching on salty potato chips instead of microwave potatoes doused in ketchup!

There were so many other ideas we wanted to share, but never enough time!

How to Host an Oscar Themed Party on AM Northwest (Video)

What are your favorite ideas for hosting an Oscar Themed Party?

And if you had to pick a dish themed after your favorite nominated movie this year what would it be???


And thanks again so very much to AM Northwest for having us back on! We are always so incredibly honored to share our food with you!


mary cressler headshot

Vindulge

About Mary


I'm Mary, a wine/food/travel writer, Certified Sommelier, mom of twins, former vegetarian turned BBQ fanatic, runner, founder of Vindulge, and author of Fire + Wine cookbook. Thanks for stopping by!

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13 Comments

  1. Oh my gosh SHUT UP! What a cool experience to be featured like that! Go you!!! I love the idea of a swag bag. I mean, who doesn’t love some extra ‘lil treats? Now that is a way to host a party!

  2. The dishes from the nominated movies is such an awesome idea! I’ve never thought of that. Also, friends and I usually get dressed up as a favorite character from the films nominated. It forces us to watch as many of the movies as possible and adds a little bit of costume fun too!

  3. Great ideas, Mary! Smoked salmon is one of my party go-tos – it never lets us down. I love the Oscar ballots idea too. (I wish our upcoming Super Bowl party was “just an excuse to have a party… with the show in the background.” No such luck with that one, I’m afraid.)

    1. Ha! That’s how our Super Bowl parties are. We have no clue about football, but we DO have a clue about throwing fun parties 😉 The TV is just an aside 😉

  4. Heck, this would be great for any kind of party. I love having little somethings for guests to eat, drink and even do as a group to help everyone get to know each other and have a great time. Such cute ideas, thanks!

  5. That IS incredible!!! Congratulations!!!!! I can’t watch the video here at work but love your menu ideas, and beautiful photos, too! I haven’t had an Oscar party before since I usually get so bored watching all of it at once but would be fun to have people over with more to do than just watch (lots to eat and talk about with your ideas!)!

    1. Exactly! That’s why they are so fun. It’s really just an excuse to have a party and hang out with friends, with the show on in the background 🙂

  6. I love the simplicity of popcorn, a cheese and charcuterie plate (I always separate the cheese and meats for vegetarians), one cold dish and one aromatic hot dish like grilled skewers!

  7. This is so awesome, Mary! I love when people come up with creative dishes that are movie-themed. A potato dish to go with The Martian would be so fun.

  8. This smoked salmon dish looks delicious! I can’t wait to watch the Oscars. I am trying to watch all of the Best Picture nominees before the big night!

    -Betsy
    www.goldwilldigger.com

    1. I have a long way to go in watching all the Best Picture nominees! Perhaps I’ll be caught up by this time next year 😉