Baking & the Big Screen: Soft Pretzels and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a movie I kind of kept in my back pocket as an “in case of emergency” movie for these baking/film combos. I figured it was all about food coming from the sky, so surely some of them had to be baked goods. I also have been dying to make soft pretzels for a while, and I almost cheered out loud when I saw three separate instances where they were highlighted in this silly cartoon. My favorite is the one pictured above, which is now one of my greatest fantasies - being surrounded by a pretzel that giant (as long as there is a swimming pool of beer cheese nearby). The movie was silly, but well worth the 90 or so minutes that gave me the excuse I needed to make these.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Starring Anna Faris, Bill Hader, Bruce Campbell, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Al Roker, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Lauren Graham, Will Forte
Director and Writer: Phil Lord
Released in 2009
Available to watch on Netflix
I don’t remember much about this movie when it came out twelve or so years ago, but I didn’t think it made that much of a splash, so the biggest surprise to me was discovering a sequel on Netflix as well. The movie played out about exactly as I expected. A young guy invents a machine that causes water molecules to turn into various foods. What’s in the sky? Clouds. What is in a cloud? Water. You see where this is going. I feel like everyone reacts appropriately - a combination of overwhelmingly thrilled and also a bit scared at the destruction giant burgers, meatballs and breakfast combos can cause to a small town.
The best thing to me was the incredibly stacked voice cast. While the story is silly - and adapted from a children’s book, so that does make sense - and as predictable as you hope a cute animated movie would be, this is an incredible roster of people. Andy Samberg as a washed up baby star has-been (as much of a star as you can be with being the sardine can version of the Coppertone baby) may be one of the funniest and most incredible casting choices I’ve witnessed. Will I watch it again? Probably not. Will I keep in mind that there is a sequel in case I have another month where I just need inspiration on what to bake? Absolutely.
Now, these pretzels, these I will revisit again and again and again. I think it took me just under an hour from measuring the ingredients to pulling the trays from the oven. The recipe was incredibly easy to follow, and odds are that you have the majority of the ingredients in your pantry on a regular basis. I had to put them in the freezer after trying one so I wouldn’t constantly devour them over the span of two days. Soft pretzels are one of my absolute favorite things and now that I know how easy it is to make at home, this will definitely be a standby for me, especially during baseball and football season. Now I just need to get better at making them a teensy bit browner and a teensy bit better shaped. Oh no, I guess I’ll just have to make another batch soon.