Difficulty Level: Easy

Last year's Academy Award nominated films had lots of food related items so we had some fun in the week leading up to the big night with suggestions for pot luck party contributions. We enjoyed it so much, we've decided to do it again this year.

Of course I'm starting with the film Milk. At the risk of being remarkably tasteless, I just had to make some twinkies. Those of us old enough to remember the deaths of Harvey Milk and George Mascone know that Dan White's lawyers famously invoked what was dubbed the "twinkie defence," suggesting that his capacity for rational thought was diminished by his over-indulgence of junk food. It worked and he was sentenced for voluntary manslaughter rather than murder. If you read Lloyd's post about the chemical bath that twinkies are made from, you could see the point. White had previously been an exercise and health food fanatic and somehow ended up going over to the dark side.

I made this healthier (I think) homemade version of twinkies, and they were realistic enough that I didn't have the courage to take a bite. My husband looked at me and said "am I supposed to eat that?" Then he said "that is repulsive...but don't throw the rest away". So if you are a closet twinkie lover, it sounds like this is the recipe for your. Personally, I think I'm going to stick to the homemade granola bars.

Beverage of choice: there are no points for the obviousness of this, but as you can see from the photo, I used organic milk in a returnable glass bottle.

INGREDIENTS