Wednesday Movie Night: Big Trouble

Sam's turn for the movie of the week, and her choice was 'Big Trouble', a comedy that quietly snuck in and out of theatres in the aftermath of September 11th (September 21st 2001 was the original release date, but it was pushed back to 02 because of a scene involving smuggling a bomb onto an airplane... so no one has really heard of it.)

"A chain of events starts with the arrival of a mysterious suitcase in Miami. Arthur Herk, a corrupt business owner, wants to get his hands on the case. At the same time, two hit men want him whacked. Tired of his constant fixation on drinking and television, Herk's wife Anna and daughter Jenny decide to find new love interests in divorced dad Eliot Arnold and his son Matt. To add more complication, two thieves decide to steal the case and lead a Miami police team and two FBI agents on a wild goose chase."

So the food of the week was miami cuisine... Which for us meant Key Lime Pie, cuban sandwiches, and Arugula pesto.

Unfortunately, Key Limes aren't in season up here... So lame lame Jess made Lime Out of a Box.

Sam, on the other hand, was still delicious.

Pasta with Arugula Pesto

What We Used:

• Fresh baby Arugula ( not sure about how much, I used about half a 142g package )
  
• 1 cup pecans
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 clove elephant garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
  
• 2 cups macaroni

Okay, well, this was supposed to be an easy thing to make, but it took a little bit more effort than I remember. First things first! Prep your ingredients, make sure you have them all on hand and get your food processor ready.

Start with some of the arugula, put the pecans on top to weight the leaves down (I found it a little hard to get the right consistancy at first) and start grinding them up. Add the garlic, the parsley and the olive oil, and more arugula if you need it. After that, add the grated parmesan!

After everything is ground up nicely, taste it. Add salt and pepper if you need/want to.

Cook your pasta, and toss it with some of the pesto, using however much you like! Add more parmesan as a finisher and voila!

Cuban Sandwich

What We Used:

• 1 loaf french bread
• Grainy deli mustard
• pickles (bicks garlic baby dills)
• roast pork deli meat
• old fashioned ham deli meat
• swiss cheese

It's fairly quick and easy. Slice the french bread open like it was one enormous kaiser roll. Slather some mustard on the bottom layer, then a layer of sliced pickles, a layer of roast pork, a layer of ham, then finish off with swiss cheese. We put the top back on, sliced it up into portions, then due to our lack of panini press we just put portions into a hot frying pan and pressed on it with a second pan until the cheese was melted.

Anyway... time to get back to work. I have a key lime pie in a box that needs making.

-Jess and Sam