Inspiration Station: "Sixteen Candles"

It's a new year and I'm starting a new series on this blog called "Inspiration Station".  Basically, once a month (at minimum), I'll take a movie and show you how it influences me in two ways.  First I'll cook a recipe that relates in some way to the film (aka: "The Dish") and then I'll show you a bunch of non-food items (aka: "The Doodads") that are inspired by the flick.

First up is "Sixteen Candles".  Of all the "day in the life" high school movies that inevitably end in a major party, this is one of my absolute faves.  It makes you think that anything can happen and keeps every girl hoping that one day the sea of cars will part and you will be looking straight into the eyes of the dreamiest guy in school who is leaning against an equally dreamy car.

1. The Dish: Samantha (Molly Ringwald) makes her mom pack carrots in her lunch every day because she thinks they'll help increase her bust.  As a painfully flat-chested high schooler myself, this piece of the movie and the burning desire to transition from girl to woman always stuck with me.  Since carrot was the most stand-out ingredient in the film, I decided to make a carrot ginger soup and found one on epicurious.com that looked both simple and flavorful (well, technically, I combined the best parts of two recipes).  I hauled out my soup pot and started sauteing onions in butter.  After a few minutes, I added garlic and ginger and let it go a few more minutes before I added chopped carrots, tomato, and lemon zest.  Once all the main ingredients were in the pot, I added chicken stock, brought it to a boil, and then let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  At that point, everything was properly cooked so I just blended it until smooth, adding in extra chicken stock until it was the right consistency.  I topped it with a dollop of sour cream and sliced almonds (pine nuts would have been better, but I had almonds on hand).  Ginger is usually spicy, but when combined with the sweet carrots and onions it just makes the soup a little zestier.  It's thick and rich without any cream, making it completely healthy.  If you want to be super good, use fat free greek yogurt instead of sour cream for that velvety tang.
2. The Doodads: 

• There's a lot of headgear action in this movie so it seemed only fitting to include bracelets made out of the brackets and bands from braces.  Love this idea from Braced-lets, especially with the $5 price tag.  They remind me of how much fun I used to have picking out my colors each month.
• A big portion of the movie revolves around the high school dance and nobody does a high school party frock better than Betsey Johnson.  Her funky dresses have a little 80s flair and are just as rad as the movie.
• Though I'm not sure why they sat on the table when there were six perfectly good chairs available, the last scene of the movie where they kiss over the cake is adorable.  Next time you're decorating a birthday cake, try some of these DIY glitter candles that I found on a blog.
• I don't think I would ever be able to live down the embarrassment of a dork showing my panties to a bathroom of fellow nerds, but if it ever happened to me, I hope he would be showing these that I found at H&M.  A bra and panty set will only set you back about $20 and they are super cute.