January is behind us and we’re on to making it through February.  I hope it’s not as cold and I hope you’re keeping warm where you are.

The Movies & Munchies January feature was New Year’s Eve.  I had not watched this film before I recommended it for January’s movie and while it was cute, I’m not sure I’m in love with it.   I was really expecting a Love Actually vibe (which I didn’t get).

New Year’s Eve is a film with eight stories, all taking place on December 31, 2011.  The cast is immense and full of Oscar winners and famous actors.  The cast is too varied to mention here (but you can read more about the vignettes and the stars in the announcement post). We’ll see what others thought but I have to say that I thought Jessica Sarah Parker was too old for Josh Duhamel!  (But there’s the whole Jon Bon Jovi/Katherine Heigl and Michelle Pfeiffer/Zac Efron thing going on too.)

As one of the stories revolves around a chef (Katherine Heigl) and her sous-chef (Sofía Vergara) as they prepare to cater a lavish party, there’s a lot of food prep going on.   They also create an inventive parachute truffle for dessert. Of course there’s lots of champagne and cocktails, too.  There’s a bit of other food mentioned in the “Maternity Ward” plot.

I was inspired by Sam’s (Josh Duhamel) drink of choice, a Disaronno & Cranberry Cocktail.   I had never heard of this and it sounded more than delicious.  Why have I never heard of or had this????

Since it was dry January (mostly), I decided to do a mocktail take on Disaronno & Cranberry.

We cheated a bit and made a hi-octane real version (just for comparisons sake).  I could hardly tell the mocktail and the cocktail apart. I’m just posting my contribution to Movies & Munchies in the roundup.

Culinary Cam agreed it was a “cute” movie but she writes:  “I will say: it’s rife with clichés. But do you know why certain plots are used over and over? Because they work!”    She was inspired by the scene where Laura is stuffing her mouth with truffles and is then surprised by Jensen.  Cam made two recipes:  Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes with Cocoa Tahini Frosting AND Salted Chocolate Truffles!

Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm enjoyed the film and watched it on a cold winter day.   It prompted Wendy (and husband Frank) to whip up a cocktail.  “We talked about the message the movie sent and we talked about how much the actors have changed since 2011.  I was glad that I found this movie.  It is a rom-com directed by Garry Marshall so that pretty much gives you an idea of what to expect.”  Here’s here REAL version of Sam’s drink.

Disaronno and Cranberry Juice

Thanks again to our die hard Movies & Munchies members, Camilla and Wendy!  Wendy is hosting La La Land for February (it being an Oscar Winner and all that).   Please consider joining us.