The Hating Game

 

Movie adaptions.  Film adaptions.  Call them what you want, but I love them.  I almost always read the book first and even if I didn't love it, I still look forward to having the story brought to life.  Thankfully, The Hating Game was both a good book and a good movie.  I read it in the summer of 2021 and then not so patiently waited for the movie to be released six months later.  The Hating Game, based on the best-selling book by Sally Thorne, "tells the story of ambitious good girl Lucy Hutton and her cold, efficient work nemesis, Joshua Templeton. Committed to achieving professional success without compromising her ethics, Lucy ultimately embarks on a ruthless game of one-upmanship against Josh, a rivalry that is increasingly complicated by her mounting attraction to him."

If you've ever looked at my past blogs and thought "sure they're great, but I don't want to spend all day in the kitchen," then this menu is for you!  We're starting off with a treat that can be purchased in just about any grocery store.

Jelly beans and mints make their appearance very early on in The Hating Game and seem to represent their respective consumers.  Lucy is super sweet (almost too sweet in some cases) and Josh is all crisp, at least in the beginning.

Now, I'm going to slip this Easy Glazed Doughnut Holes recipe from Just a Taste right here, but we all know this is another sweet that can easily be found in stores.

This assortment of doughnut holes represents the break room incident in which Josh demonstrates the difference between commas and periods using doughnuts.  Obviously, we're just representing the period here, but if you feel like getting some regular doughnuts and cutting them into comma shapes, have at it!

So far the items on this menu have been widely available at grocery stores.  This next item is the one item that really is best if you make it yourself.  The recipe is easy and can be made even easier by taking a little shortcut.

Because Lucy's family owns a strawberry farm, Josh's nickname for her is Shortcake.  I followed this Strawberry Shortcake recipe from the Food Network.  I baked mine in ramekins to make cute individual servings and to keep everything simple I used store-bought whipped cream.

To finish off our simple and sweet menu, we need a drink.

I liked when we started to see a more sensitive and thoughtful side of Josh. When he was taking care of Lucy during her illness, she mentioned that her mom gave her strawberry juice whenever she was sick as a child.  When she returned to work, there was a rose and a bottle of strawberry juice on her desk.  How sweet! 

If you don't mind spending a little more time in the kitchen, try this Fresh Strawberry Juice recipe from Spice Up The Curry.  Otherwise, grab whatever strawberry juice you can track down in your grocery store.  As you can see, I went with Strawberry Serenity Kombucha which added a fizzy kick to my strawberry juice.

That's a wrap for this Film+Food menu.  I hope this menu encourages you to take your movie night to the next level.  See you next time!  


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