Limitless (2011)

photo from this site

Apparently, in 2011, Bradley Cooper was simultaneously promoting Limitless (which was just hitting theaters) and filming The Words. In both movies he plays a struggling writer, so I guess we know what he likes to do. This was all at the same time People was awarding him his crown as Sexiest Man Alive. Busy guy. I guess once you know how to do something, you might as well stick with it, right?

On to our Movie Night details: Because I had heard that breakfast sandwiches played a significant role in the plot of the movie (thanks, LT!), and coming off an amazing trip to Cooperstown, NY, Stagecoach Coffee's "The Unusual" popped directly into the front of my brain as something I had to recreate.

Let's see. Stagecoach does it up right with rich cream cheese, a disc of bright, fresh tomato, silky smooth avocado slices, crunchy sprouts and salty crumbled bacon atop a hearty toasted bagel. We riffed using ciabatta rolls, chopping the tomato (in an attempt to keep everything from sliding off the base), and keeping the bacon slices whole, mostly for visual interest. This is one of the most delicious combinations I've ever had the pleasure of eating and it is perfect for both weeknights squeezed for time or those in the sultry summertime that are simply too hot for cooking.

Limitless Breakfast Sandwiches
Adapted from Stagecoach Coffee's "The Unusual"
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS
2 sturdy rolls or bagels, sliced
cream cheese
fresh, ripe tomato
ripe avocado
coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
broccoli sprouts
8 slices bacon, cooked until crispy

DIRECTIONS
Toast the rolls or bagels and spread both open sides with cream cheese. Dice the tomato and avocado and distribute between the four open halves. Season to taste with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. Add sprouts, then top with bacon strips and enjoy!

Not to worry—if a bacon and egg breakfast sandwich on an english muffin is more your style, you're in luck! Those are the ones our lead character orders in the film. And from the moment he returns with said sandwiches until the end of the movie, you're on a pretty great ride.

NZT48 is the Limitless drug that clears the mind, focuses attention, and increases productivity. It's an appealing idea, I'm not gonna lie. Eddie turns his life right around and becomes super successful with the help of the pills.

A few additional highlights to the movie include the soundtrack and a great gray sofa at Eddie's girlfriend's apartment. Salad and toast points with a variety of spreads or patés would be appropriate if breakfast isn't appealing, or an Italian or Chinese meal would be appropriate... with Eddie's enhanced abilities while on the drug, he learns to speak both languages.

Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

Movie stills found here

MAGYAR

(Hungarian, subtitled)

And porkolts. You know porkolts?

JIM PRODEAUX

(Hungarian, subtitled)

Yes, I've had it.

MAGYAR

It's very good. Better than goulash. 

I of course had selected our Hungarian recipe (Chicken Paprikash) before seeing this little segment in the beginning of the movie, otherwise i would have thrown some peppers into our paprikash and voila! we would have had Porkolts. 

This was such a cinematically beautiful movie, the plot was fantastic, with an abundance of talented actors. Based on the 1974 British spy novel by John lé Carré the film focuses on a retired agent (Gary Oldman) finding a mole within the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)–who doesn't love a spy thriller? Only, this beautiful movie wasn't so thrilling that we both didn't nod off from time to time. Still, I would hesitate to recommend it–we probably just ate too much delicious paprikash!

Movie Rating: 

Plot: 4 stars

Cinematography: 4.5 stars

Acting: 4 stars 

Average: 4.16 stars

Hungarian Chicken Paprikash

Recipe adapted from the one found here

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs chicken, bone-in, skin-on (we used two breasts, two thighs, and two drumsticks)

1 large onion

2-3 tablespoons paprika

salt and pepper 

6 cups chicken broth (water would be fine too, plus this measurement is just an estimation)

1/4 cup flour

1/2–3/4 cup sour cream (full-fat yogurt would work as well)

egg noodles (prepare according to package instructions)

DIRECTIONS

Season the chicken generously with salt, pepper, and paprika. Brown the chicken over medium heat on all sides. Cover chicken with the onions. Allow the onions to soften. Pour the chicken broth over chicken and onions until covered. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken falls from the bone. Remove the chicken and allow to cool. Put the 1/4 cup flour in a medium bowl and slowly add small amounts of broth until you form a thick paste. Keep mixing and adding more broth until the "roux" is thin enough to add back to the pot. Once the chicken has cooled, remove the bones, etc. and return the chicken to the pot along with the sour cream. Serve over prepared egg noodles. 

Dinner Rating: 

Movie Relevance: 5 stars

Taste: 5 stars

Presentation: 4.25

Average: 4.75 stars

The Iron Lady (2011)

Do people have mixed feelings about Meryl Streep, or do they assume whatever she does is going to be good, like I do? 

Meryl Streep photo found here; Margaret Thatcher photo found here

Her role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) was well played, and I could hardly believe it was her in the segments where she was getting on in years, but the movie? Well, it sort of fell flat. There seemed to be so much potential, but compared to other biopics—even British ones, like The King's Speech—it felt sadly disjointed and barely scratched the surface of the complexity behind Britain's only female prime minister. Saving grace: I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher by the Not Sensibles on the soundtrack.

Movie Rating
Plot: 3
Cinematography: 3
Acting: 4.75
Average: 3.6

My dinner strategy was to use an iron lady of our own: the ever-reliable, rugged cast iron skillet.

Thanks to Gabby L. for lending her skillet in this starring role!

A search of the BBC GoodFood site yielded this recipe for lamb steaks with roasted veggies. I'd suggest using pearl onions in place of red onions for relevance... when Thatcher is first deciding to run for prime minister, she's advised to lose her signature pearl necklace. This advice is met with her response, "the pearls are absolutely non-negotiable." We weren't big fans of the lamb, but it's probably just because of the strange leg steaks the butcher at Whole Foods made for me from a larger leg roast. I can imagine this would be delectable with bone-in chicken breasts or fat pork chops as well. The roasted veggies were by far the highlight of the dish.

As an accompaniment, I wanted to try making yorkshire puddings like Eric's mom makes, so I used this recipe. Had we remembered to salt and pepper the batter, they would've been just perfect. I could hardly believe we got them to puff the way they did!

Cast-Iron-Roasted Lamb Steaks and Vegetables with Yorkshire Puddings
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
For the lamb and veggies:
2 TB olive oil
4 lamb leg steaks
salt and pepper
1 sweet potato, finely sliced
2 carrots, chopped
2 parsnips, chopped
1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 TB whole grain mustard

For the yorkshire puddings:

1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
3/8 cup milk
canola oil, for cooking

DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 450 Fahrenheit.

Season the lamb steaks on both sides with salt and pepper.

Heat half the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high, and brown the steaks on both sides. Set aside. Toss the potato, carrots, parsnips, onion, remaining oil and half the rosemary in the skillet for a few minutes, then lay the steaks on top.

Turn off the heat on the stovetop. Brush steaks with mustard and scatter remaining rosemary on top.

Once the oven is good and hot, drizzle a little canola oil in each hole of a 12-hole muffin pan and place in the oven to heat. While the pan is in the oven heating, make the batter: put the flour in a medium mixing bowl and beat in the eggs until smooth. Gradually add the milk and continue beating until the mixture is lump-free. Season batter with salt and pepper. Transfer the batter into a liquid measuring cup (or something else with a spout for easy pouring). When the oil in the muffin pan is hot, pull out the rack and distribute the batter evenly among all 12 holes of the muffin pan.

When finished, push the oven rack back in and move the full skillet into the hot oven to roast for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender, lamb is cooked, and puddings are puffed.

Dinner Rating
Movie Relevance: 4
Presentation: 4
Taste: 3.5
Average: 3.83

Of course, for dessert, we had to have tea and cookies.

There are a few typical British food items throughout the movie: soft boiled eggs, toast with "much too much butter", tea (of course!), halibut, whiskey & seltzer.

If a Tree Falls

Movie still found here

I have been having a series of hectic mornings lately and as such I have been missing out on my morning news program which left me itching for a documentary. It lost out to "Undeated" at the Oscars this year, but being nominated landed it in my Netflix queue. Ben and I have grand plans for tearing down two trees in our yard so this film seemed fit the zeitgeist. 

The documentary focuses on the story of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a radical environmental group that the FBI has dubbed America's 'number one domestic terrorist threat'. Seeing the destruction of forests in the West as well as the brutality of the police against protesters was incredibly heart-wrenching and hard to watch at times. If you have a minute, check out this PBS video clip from the movie about a particular protest in downtown Eugene.

The film also focused on Daniel McGowan an ELF member facing a life-sentence for his arson crimes. In my opinion, the movie was split into two halves, the second half focusing too much on Daniel McGowan's feelings about incarceration and not enough about the cause itself.

Movie Rating: 

Plot: 3 stars

Cinematography: 2 stars

Acting: 3 stars 

Average: 2.66 stars 

 This amazing pot of fresh herbs was a wonderful housewarming present! Thank you Joan!

Radicchio with Linguine and Fresh Oregon-o

Recipe adapted from the one found here

INGREDIENTS

2 head radicchio, cored and julienned

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1/4 pound pancetta, julienned

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound fresh linguine

1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano

salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add pancetta and brown, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low and add onions. Season with a little salt (not too much as the pancetta is already salty) and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until inions are translucent, about 5 minutes more. Add garlic and cook for two more minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water until al dente. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Add radicchio to the onion mixture and cook, stirring, until radicchio is wilted, about 3 minutes. Add pasta and reserved cooking water, mix well. Finally add 1/2 the cheese, the oregano. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with a little cheese on top.

We both though this was quite the tasty dish! But with the slightly bitter radicchio and salt pancetta, we couldn't help but wonder what it would taste like with something sweet such as golden raisins added.

Dinner Rating: 

Movie Relevance: 3.5 stars

Taste: 3.8 stars

Average: 3.65 stars

Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Image found here 

First Movie Night in the new house! Still trying to figure out how this stove from 1952 works and still have most of my kitchen packed up in boxes, but it doesn't get any easier and delicious than this recipe (below).


Ah Humphrey Bogart. What can I say? I just dont get it. Am I supposed to swoon for you? I can't understand a bleeping word you are saying. Playing a drunk is definitely your forte and that just makes you even more unappetizing. The best part of this movie was the ongoing side commentary by prospectors Ben and Barb. I do wish that I could whistle through my teeth while I talk like they can. The gist of the movie (if you must know and still feel like watching it after reading this) is that Humphrey hitches up with another dude and an old Prospecting dude to go mining for gold. Which they find and then some! Its the keepin' it that's the thing...

Movie Rating: 

Plot: 3.75 stars

Cinematography: 2.5 stars

Acting: 2 stars 

Average: 2.75 stars  

recipe found here 

Mexican Chorizo & Caramelized Brussel Sprouts

INGREDIENTS:

6 ounces chorizo

1 pound brussel sprouts

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 package yellow rice (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Remove chorizo from the casings and fry in a medium sauté pan until fully cooked. Meanwhile, clean and trim the brussel sprouts and cut them into quarters.

When the chorizo is cooked, remove from pan and set aside.

Making sure your pan is hot, drop in the sprouts and stir to coat in the chorizo drippings. 

Cook for about 8–10 minutes, tossing occasionally to make sure they don't burn, but not too much as you want them to become nicely caramelized. 

Add the chorizo back in along with the olive oil for another 2 minutes until the flavors have blended. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Dinner Rating: 

Movie Relevance: 5 stars

Taste: 5 stars

Average: 5 stars

Harvey

Image found here 

This is a blog post for a movie we watched around Easter this year. I would not normally highlight my extreme posting delinquency except that this 1950's film stars James Stewart playing Elwood P. Dowd opposite his co-star: a 6-foot imaginary Rabbit named Harvey. This plot is certainly unique plus gave us an interesting insight into 1950 cinematic portrayal of a mental institution. Elwood P. Dowd was an endearing character who seems harmless enough-which begs the question: Is there anything really wrong having an imaginary pal? Perhaps he describes himself and his pooka (a benign but mischievous creature from Celtic mythology) best:

"Harvey and I sit in the bars... have a drink or two... play the juke box. And soon the faces of all the other people they tuen toward mine and they smile. And they're saying, 'We don't know your name mister, but you're a nice fell.' Harvey and I warm ourselves in all these golden moments."

I love that this bizarre little movie came out in 1950 and I would love to see this remade today, maybe by the Wes Anderson??

Movie Rating: 

Plot: 4 stars

Cinematography: 3 stars

Acting: 2.5 stars 

Average: 3.1 stars  

Spring Egg Sandwich: Poached eggs, Asparagus & Pickled Onion

adapted from the recipe found here

INGREDIENTS (serves 2):

1/2 bunch asparagus

2 small baguettes

2 eggs, poached (we used poach pods again!)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons diced raw onion

2 tablespoons French mustard (aka dijon!)

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

lemon juice to taste

fresh dill

salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Trim the asparagus by cutting off the woody ends and cutting the spears in half length-wise. Cut the red onion and place it in a small bowl with the red wine vinegar and set aside.

Prepare the asparagus by blanching it in boiling water for a minute. Then, in a large skillet over high heat add a little oil. Sear the asparagus spears, about 3–4 minutes on each side. Split the two baguettes in half and remove a little of the doughy center so the egg can fit inside. Smear with some mustard and a little olive oil.

Poach the eggs. Add them to the top of the sandwich along with the asparagus, dill, a little lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper

Dinner Rating: 

Movie Relevance: 4.5 stars

Taste: 4.5 stars

Average: 4.5 stars

The Descendants (2011)

All movie images from imdb.com

"My friends on the mainland think just because I live in Hawaii, I live in paradise. Like a permanent vacation. We're all just out here sipping Mai Tais, shaking our hips, and catching waves. Are they insane?" —Matt King

In The Descendants (2011), George Clooney plays Matt King (in an Oscar-nominated role), who lives in Hawaii, and whose wife is in a coma as the result of a boating accident. He is wrestling with the role he's played in his family's life as he is forced into the lead role from being the "back-up parent" to his two daughters, Scottie (10) and Alex (17). Learning that Elizabeth will never wake from her coma, he tells his older daughter that they need to say their last goodbyes. Alex then reveals to her dad the affair her mom was having at the time of the accident.

Add to this weight the fact that Matt King also happens, along with all his cousins, to own 25,000 acres of undeveloped land on Kauai. Land that has been passed down through generations of his family and is held in trust for a mere seven remaining years. The family's decision on what to do with the land makes headlines regularly in the newspaper, and Matt King is the sole arbiter of the trust, meaning he holds the power to make the ultimate decision.

In the throes of his wife's final days, Matt King takes his daughters to Kauai to wrestle both with his wife's affair and whether to confront the man she was involved with (played by Matthew Lillard), as well as to revisit the land of his forefathers in the hopes it will guide his judgment. They go out to eat at Tahiti Nui, where Matt runs into Cousin Hugh (Beau Bridges) at the bar and drinks an Old Fashioned while his daughter orders him mahi at the table. Side note: Beau Bridges is an actual Tahiti Nui customer!

The movie was a definite tear-jerker. Lindsey and I both ended up with watery eyes at the end of this one, something that has rarely happened in Movie Night history. It also ended up winning one Oscar, for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay. It was also nominated for the best director, editing, picture, and actor awards.

Movie Rating
Plot: 4.75
Cinematography: 4.5
Acting: 5
Average: 4.75

Let me start by saying that we could have done a better job with our dinner prep. In a rush after a busy day, I bagged the idea of actually grilling our skewers outside over charcoal to save some time and hassle. Despite it being a beautiful day, under the broiler they went. I was focused on searching out Hawaiian recipes, and naturally, pineapple was an easy place to start. I've been craving red meat lately, too, and combining the pineapple on a skewer with teriyaki-marinated steak sounded really tasty.

Movie-wise, we could have had burgers, crab legs, mahi, Mai Tais, Old Fashioneds, and either (or both!) strawberry or mocha chip ice cream for apt tie-ins.

Hawaiian Teriyaki Beef and Pineapple Skewers 
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
For the teriyaki sauce:
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 TB honey
1 TB brown sugar
1 clove garlic, minced (could increase to 2)
1 tsp minced or grated fresh ginger
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 TB cornstarch

For the skewers:
2 large beef sirloin steaks
1 fresh pineapple
1/2 red onion, cut into wedges
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped into skewer-able pieces
10 skewers (we used wooden)

For serving:
brown rice

DIRECTIONS
In a medium saucepan, combine soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, garlic, ginger, and vinegar over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until sugar is dissolved and mixture comes to a low boil. In a separate small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water, then add to the mixture in the saucepan. Simmer for 6–8 additional minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat and cool.

Place the cubed steaks and half the teriyaki sauce in a resealable bag for at least 20 minutes (or up to overnight) to marinate. If you are making brown rice as an accompaniment, this is a good time to get it started.

Meanwhile, cut your pineapple: start by cutting off the top and bottom, then stand the fruit back up and make vertical cuts through the core to break it down into quarters. Slice off and discard the woody center and carefully cut the rind from the outer edges, discarding it as well.

Cube half the pineapple for use on your skewers and save the other half for another use (my fave other use for pineapple—completely off topic—atop greek yogurt with this granola and some honey).

Once the meat has marinated, assemble your skewers by alternating between beef, pineapple, onion, and pepper pieces. Grill the skewers, or roast them under the broiler, for about 5 minutes per side, or to until the steak is done to your preference. Serve with remaining teriyaki sauce, atop a pile of cooked rice.

Dinner Rating
Movie Relevance: 4.5
Presentation: 4.5
Taste: 4.25
Average: 4.4