- Brie Larson and Courtney McBroom’s new cookbook Party People mixes humor, nostalgia and easy entertaining tips.
- Larson loves bacon-heavy hangover breakfasts and her family’s “Next-Best-Thing-To-Robert-Redford” pistachio pie.
- Instead of turkey, McBroom’s Thanksgiving main is lasagna, whereas Larson’s is peach chicken.
In the new cookbook Party People: A Cookbook for Creative Celebrations, longtime friends and collaborators Brie Larson and Courtney McBroom bring a mix of humor, deliciousness and hospitality to the table. McBroom, a chef and food consultant for Lessons in Chemistry, and Larson, an Oscar-winning actor and producer, share the same easy chemistry in this conversation with EatingWell that readers will find throughout their recipe collection sprinkled with hosting tips.
In this interview, read more about Broom’s go-to Wendy’s ritual, Larson’s favorite dessert that’s “so simple” and the duo’s hosting tips, philosophies on eating well and their Thanksgiving hot takes.
What’s the No. 1 piece of advice you’d give to first-time entertainers? And what recipe would you recommend for beginners to make and serve first?
Broom: The best advice we could give anyone, especially for first-time entertainers, is don’t try to take on too much at once. Make it easy on yourself. If you’re doing this for the first time, you don’t need to start off with the biggest, hugest blowout ever. Invite a few close friends and make recipes that don’t scare you. Casseroles are great because it’s something you can make ahead of time. It can be in your fridge or freezer, you don’t have to prep the day of, and all you have to do is pop it in the oven when it’s time to eat. It’s the best thing you can do to set yourself up for success.
What dish reminds each of you most of home and family?
Larson: I think mine would be Cheesy Jenga Bread. It’s just something that is one of my earliest food memories. It’s been passed down in my family from my great grandma, and so I just have a lot of sensory memories of it.
Broom: Mine for sure is Grandma’s Texas Sheet Cake, it’s the thing that my grandma would make literally anytime I came over, and I went over there a lot. Any time I taste it, it reminds me of her and her love for me and her family, so for sure, that’s the one.
Do you have a go-to hangover meal that you swear by?
Larson: Courtney has called me out in the past for being the one who makes a pound of bacon to deal with a hangover. I think I read in a magazine 20 years ago that the amino acids in bacon will help you get through a hangover, plus the fats that will help your body metabolize all the bad stuff that you’re trying to work through. And it’s such a comfort food. It’s so cozy, and so I like to make myself a really luxurious breakfast: eggs over easy, crispy bacon, toast, maybe some avocado and some cartoons; some easy, easy watches.
Broom: Honestly, same for me. If not a pound of bacon, then put me on the cheeseburger train with a really fizzy, ice-cold Coca-Cola.
Brie recently shared her love for Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza, so Courtney, I’m curious what your go-to fast food order is?
Broom: I’m a sucker for cheeseburgers. I love a cheeseburger, I love a smash burger. There’s a place near me called Burgers Never Say Die, and I like to put the French fries inside the burger—I think that’s an important step for pure burger bliss. But if we’re talking Taco Bell, Mexican pizza, 100% of the time.
Are you a “fries in the milkshake” person?
Larson: Yes, I would like to put that in print. I am a milkshake person—a fry and a strawberry milkshake person.
Broom: I agree. A French fry in a Wendy’s Frosty is the best thing on Earth.
Larson: Nothing better than that, honestly.
What dish needs to be on the Thanksgiving table?
Broom: Every Thanksgiving, I make lasagna. I forgo the turkey and I do lasagna and it’s such a great ritual for me. I’ll go buy all the ingredients one day, I’ll make the pasta in the sauce the next day, and then on Thanksgiving I’ll open up a bottle of wine and assemble the lasagna and cook it. I’ve done it every year for the last probably five years, and it’s so good. It’s like a 22-layer lasagna, and everyone’s trying to eat some.
Larson: A couple years ago, my family and I all finally admitted to ourselves that turkey is just too much work. So we have swapped it now for my mom’s peach chicken, which is actually in the book and it’s called Skips’s Peach Chicken. It’s delicious, it’s made with canned peaches, and it has a really strong, fall flavor in it. We make it every year now, so I give this as a gift to maybe somebody who is also thinking that turkey is too much work this year. Or if you’re a smaller group, if it’s just you or you and somebody else, it’s a great thing to scale up or down.
Favorite dessert?
Larson: My favorite dessert is something my grandma always makes for me. We got to figure out what the actual title of this is called. Courtney thinks it’s called “The Robert Redford,” but we’re not clear. It is a very simple graham cracker crust made with walnuts, or you can use pecans if you have a walnut allergy—my mom does, so we sometimes sub it out. You press it in, and then you layer in some pistachio Jell-O pudding, and then you top that with Cool Whip and some crushed almonds, walnuts, pecans or whatever nut you’re using.
Broom: I have an update, I just Googled it. There’s a chocolate version called “Next-Best-Thing-To-Robert-Redford.”
Larson: Amazing. It’s the Next-Best-Thing-To-Robert-Redford Pie but with pistachio pudding. But you can do anything, you can do banana pudding, sometimes we’ll do four different flavors because everybody has their favorite. It’s so simple, that’s my favorite dessert.
Broom: Beyond the Texas Sheet Cake, my favorite dessert is the Candy Cherry Ritz Cake in the book. It’s really taken off as its own thing among our fellow party people. Anytime Brie or I bring it to a party or I make it for a birthday, people flip out over it.
What does “eating well” mean to you?
Broom: I think eating well is all about balance, and by balance I mean go eat the Mexican Pizza at Taco Bell, put the French fries in your burger. That’s OK. Go to the fancy restaurant and order the fancy thing, and go to the farmers’ market and get really clean ingredients and make yourself a smoothie. Don’t hold yourself back.
Larson: I agree with everything Courtney says, and I’d also say, get your fiber in. Get your fiber in and also get your Taco Bell in, and you’ll be good to go in this life.
Photographer: Noah Fecks. EatingWell design.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
