Category Archives: Movies & Meals
Movie Fuel: Hook
This is different from Meals On Wheels, so please don’t be confused. Welcome to Food It Forward’s first Movies & Meals posts. This is a weekly segment of the blog that is going to be so much fun!
ABC Family is airing the 1991 movie, Hook, today at 3:00 p.m. here in California. Get those DVR’s set. If not, you can easily find it on Netflix or Amazon. Now, we’ve just realized this M&M snafu and will be posting future M&M’s at least a few days before the movie we discuss airs. So sorry about that!
Do you still have Halloween candy left over? Us too and it is dangerous! A friend from book club suggested popping individual candies into brownie batter. This would work really well if you have The Perfect Brownie Pan. For the movie, I decided to take a twist on the idea of popcorn with M&M’s (the candy, not the blog title.) I popped 1/3 cup kernels with a spray of canola oil and a dash of salt in my microwave popcorn bowl. A brown lunch bag works if you don’t have a bowl designated for popping. While the kernels popped, I melted a few bite size candy pieces in a small pan with about a teaspoon of butter. I mixed Milky Way bites with 3 Musketeers.
The chocolate needs to be melted and stirred to the point of almost liquid. You want the candy to pour or drizzle out of the pan, rather than dump and clump.
The popcorn quickly clumps, so you’ll need to give it a few stirs with a fork to separate and fluff. Yesterday’s Sweetly Spiced Nuts might mix well with candy popcorn, too.
As you know, I am in cahoots with a man who loves movies. Unlike myself, he is able to clearly express what a movie is about and what you can take away from watching it. We are going to try to choose movies that are airing on a channel most people get as well as films that lean towards family friendly. If you like what you read, visit my guest poster at his Facebook page, Movie Fuel.
Hook (1991)
Starring: Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts
Directed by Steven Spielberg
On the surface Hook presents a story of a man named Peter Banning (Robin Williams), too busy and distracted in his grown up world to pay attention to his family and the simple, joyful delights life has to offer. He is thrust into a magical world after his children are kidnapped and to save them, must learn who he once was. If you look deeper at Hook, you may be reminded that as we age and get caught up in our adult life, we can easily lose who we are if we aren’t careful.
“You know that place between sleep and awake?
That place where you still remember dreaming?”
This is a film that works on two levels, children (ages 8-14) can get caught up in the action, the magic and the imagery. Adults can relate to Peter as he discovers who he is all over again, learning through mistakes.
“He’ll crow. He’ll fight. He’ll fly. And then… he’ll die.”
There’s a part of us that wishes they could return to the childhood version of themselves, a time full of rambunctious playfulness and absent of responsibility. But, that is not what this movie is about. For adults, this movie tells us, life is about finding balance and not forgetting our true selves. Kids can thrive with a movie like this because it reinforces the idea fun and unlocking new worlds through their imagination. There is also a great message for kids about appreciating their father or father figure as their hero. As a father myself, I appreciate that message.
So what do I suggest you and your family eat while watching this movie? More fun food, of course! There is a great scene in Hook, where a Never-Feast occurs. No food in this meal is real, until imagined so. After that, the sky is the limit!
I’ve spent years of my life asking others what they call the food shown above. Growing up, my parents cooked what they call, bullseyes. I’ve heard bread in a basket, toad in a hole, eggs in a frame, egyptian eye and others which I just can’t remember. I wanted to assume everyone knows how to make this. However, when I fried a few servings up over Memorial Day, some of Jy’s family wasn’t quite sure what to make of the ordeal. It was new to them. So, here’s what ya do…
Find a cookie cutter with an open shape that is not too intricate. Or go ghetto style, as we did growing up and use the top rim of a glass to pop a hole in the bread. Heat a frying pan to medium high and let a tablespoon of butter get point where it starts to bubble. Fry up your bread and its cut out piece and crack an egg into the opening. Once the white is fairly firm, flip the toast and let cook for another 30 seconds. The yogurt above has a few sprinkles in it, to make it fun. However, they are also there to take the edge off of the look of the chia seeds. There are no veggies in this meal, which I don’t love. Then again, I am a grown up. Throw the veggies out the window (for one meal) and party like a kid again!
What to Do with 5 Pounds of Carrots
In our Costco frenzy yesterday, I grabbed as many produce items I thought would fit in the fridge. I had two choices when it came to carrots, five pounds of baby carrots or five pounds of full sized carrots. Both were organic and I’m thinking the full sized were cheaper. Who has time to wash and cut multiple pounds of carrots? Not me!
When squash gets really cheap (anytime now), I don’t mind buying and roasting them. Until then, I am more than happy to buy the pre-peeled, pre-cut variety. As soon as we got home, the jumbo carton of butternut squash went into the oven with some olive oil, sugar and cinnamon on top (at 400 degrees) for about 40 minutes. It’s good cold or hot and makes both my toddler and preschooler happy. Score!
Back to the carrots…
I found a recipe from the original Moosewood Cookbook on Slash Food, before it moved to Huffington Post. Click the link to find the original recipe, the one below has been changed a bit to make life easier. I used pre-chopped onions and garlic, courtesy of Fresh & Easy. For the chopped nuts, a couple blasts in my Ninja blender did the trick.
- 2 or 3 pounds baby carrots
- 4 cups stock or water
- 1½ teaspoon salt
- 3-4 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1-2 small cloves crushed garlic
- ⅓ cup chopped cashews or almonds
- 3+ cups of roasted butternut squash
- Choose one:
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup yogurt or buttermilk plus a little honey
- ½ pint heavy cream
- ¾ cup sour cream
- Seasoning choices:
- -2 pinches of nutmeg, ½ teaspoon dried mint, dash of cinnamon
- -1 teaspoon each of thyme, marjoram and basil
- -1 teaspoon grated ginger
- Place carrots, liquid and salt into a medium sized soup pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer it for 12-15 minutes. Let it cool to room temp.
- Saute the onion, garlic and nuts in the butter until the onions are clear. Towards the end of cooking, stir in the seasoning combo of your choice. Add roasted squash in batches. Puree everything together in a blender until smooth.
- Whisk in one of the dairy products.
- Garnish with toasted nuts, some toasted bread crumbs or eat just as it is.
I have to stop at this point and mention that the recipe makes this soup sound like it takes more work than it actually does. You could omit the squash if you didn’t roast any. I wouldn’t omit the nuts, they add a little crunch. It was pretty easy to make this, I swear and my whole family loved it. This is including Jy, who doesn’t consider anything a meal if it doesn’t involve meat.
My local Costco sells Bolani, which is Afghan bread. We grabbed the spinach filled type and played around with the sauce trio also sold at Costco. It helped give our lunch a little something extra. Dallas (my four year old) really liked all the Bolani toppings, and they are spicy! I learn something new about my little crazy man every day.
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