Sex and the City and the Hummus

Kicked off the holiday weekend by getting some friends together to see Sex and the City 2. Ronnie, Jeff, our old friend Sara Schlotter and Keith and I gathered at our house for a pre-game cocktail hour. Ronnie brought the goods to whip up all-new libations which thankfully were decidedly less lethal than the last ones he made. He made PB and J martinis courtesy of Food Network's Sunny Anderson. Frankly, I could not wrap my head around the concept of this drink but indeed they were tasty. Check out the recipe at the end of the post.

I put out a little munchie spread that consisted of assorted crackers and cheeses including smoked sharp cheddar, Husker cheese(Nebraska cheese with artichokes and spinach) and a new favorite, Boar's Head Chorizo Panino(nice kick!). We also served tortilla chips with our preferred store-bought Sabra Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. We would soon learn that hummus was an apropo appetizer...

We arrived at the theater and soon encountered our old co-worker Joel and his Mama. Soon, we also found our friends Sherry, Trish and Tanya as well. We went in with low expectations as the movie had been savaged in reviews as evidenced by their 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. We were all happy to say the movie wasn't as bad as we feared and indeed we cracked up multiple times(the sand wedge!). In fact, the audience in our theater applauded when he credits rolled.

Food figures in several times from the osso buco Mr. Big makes for Carrie to the obnoxious wedding cake for Stanford and Anthony's wedding. The standout food scenes for me involved Samantha. When the medications Samantha take to alleviate the symptoms of menopause are confiscated at the Abu Dhabi airport, she resorts to reported food cures and starts wearing yam masks and eating hummus by the handful.

Welcome back, girls.

PB and J Choc-Tini
Ingredients
2 tablespoons jelly or jam, preferably strawberry
1/4 cup finely chopped salted peanuts, finely chopped
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
4 ounces chocolate liqueur
3 ounces vodka
3 cups ice

Directions
Spread the jelly and salted peanuts on separate plates. Roll the martini glass rims first in jelly, then press them in the peanuts. Set aside.

Put the peanut butter, chocolate liqueur, vodka and ice into a blender. Blitz until combined. Pour into the prepared martini glasses and serve.