Movie Monday*: The Hundred Foot Journey

I am back in LA and this LA girl is here to bring you a movie review!  So LA… I know.  I love going to the movies, catching all the trailers, eating a big thing of popcorn and watching a movie on the big screen!  Except I can’t eat popcorn anymore because I am not allowed to have corn (according to this blood type diet that I am kinda on)… So LA… I know.

Anyways, I have been looking forward to seeing The Hundred Foot Journey ever since I saw the trailer for it last month.  I am a sucker for gorgeous films about culture and food… The Exotic Marigold Hotel, Julie & Julia, Eat, Pray, Love and of course, Chocolat (I watch it every year around Easter).  And the director who brought you Chocolat is now bringing you… The Hundred Foot Journey.  And he did not disappoint!

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The Hundred Foot Journey is about family, bravery, love, passion, acceptance, understanding, taking a risk, overcoming obstacles, following your bliss, thinking outside of the box and opening your heart and mind to things that are different and when things don’t turn out how you planned them to go.

I loved this movie.  I laughed.  I cried.  It made me think about life.  It made me feel hopeful.  And it made me hungry.

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Here’s the trailer…

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This movie made me think about the story of the Fisherman and the Businessman.  The first time I heard this story was in Tom Shadyac’s class at Pepperdine and then I heard again last week from my Uber driver.  (His was a little bit different… I got the Russian version from him. Something about a guy sitting under a tree smoking and drinking vodka.)  Anyways, go see the movie and then watch this. Or watch this and then go see the movie.  (Click here to watch!)  And I am sharing this story as a reminder to stay mindful of your life and to make sure you check in with yourself to make sure that you are happy!  If I took this quite literally, I would be moving to Nantucket right now… but I have some dreams I have to chase first.

There are soooooo many good movies coming out in the next few months and towards the end of the year!  Expect a lot more of these Movie Mondays!

XOXO

* Sometimes I don’t have that much to bring you up to date on, so instead of sharing a lame Same Page Monday, I have decided to come up with all these different Monday things.  Movie Mondays, Memory Mondays (like Throwback Thursday but on Monday) and well those are the only two I have come up with… Get excited.

Photo Credit: IMDB – Photo by Francois Duhamel – © DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC.

The Stever Cocktail

TheStever4Created by my one and only… Steve Hollister. It’s refreshing with a little kick and it was the perfect drink to compliment our Hunter Gatherer Dinner! (Steve I hope you don’t mind that I’m sharing your recipe!)TheSteverThe ingredients:
3 oz. of tequila
The juice of half of a lime
1.5 oz. of freshly squeezed orange juice*
.5 oz. of agave nectar
2 jalapeño slices
Club soda to top off
*Now you can’t go using tropicana.  You have to either squeeze it yourself or buy the good stuff –  Natalie’s is my favorite brand.
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Add all of the ingredients except for the club soda to a cocktail shaker and shake it up!
TheStever3Pour over ice and top it off with some club soda.
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The Hunter Gatherer Dinner

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Last week, Steve went fishing and caught and brought back this AMAZING Striped Bass.  So the next day we decided that we were going to cook that freshly caught fish for dinner!

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Earlier that day, Emily and I went on our Ivy Adventure, the one that Emily goes on everyday.  We were walking along and talking about what we were going to make with the fish that night when we came across a woman looking in the brush along the side of the trail.  Annie (we later came to find out her name) informed us that “the berries are out”! (Emily and I looked at each other, both wondering what  she talking about!?)  Well, it turns out that there are wild blueberries and blackberries growing along the walk we take Ivy on everyday!  We would always see Ivy going into the brush and eating something but we just assumed that she was eating the leaves off the plants like she usually does… but she was actually eating yummy berries!!  We got so excited that we gathered up a whole bunch of berries and took them home with us (well, a whole bunch got eaten along the way too)!

We thought this is what men and women must have done back in the day… We were really proud of ourselves and deemed our dinner that night, “The Hunter Gatherer Dinner”!

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Emily thought it would be best to keep it simple.   She salt and peppered the fish (generously) and then cooked it on the flat top (it was raining that night so we couldn’t grill).  She then melted butter and lime zest together, spooned it on top of the cooked fish and then topped it with fresh basil and cilantro!

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We made an easy salad of greens, cucumber, radishes (from Bartlett Farm) and avocado with a fresh citrus dressing that Caroline whipped up from our favorite Forest Feast Cookbook!

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We served it with cous cous AND the famous Stever Cocktail (recipe to come)!  It was the most delicious meal!  And those hydrangeas are from our Mom’s garden!  It was a very rustic and very homemade meal :)

Then it came time for dessert!  We decided to make a galette… I knew how to whip one up because I had made one a few weeks before!  (Click here to see the Apple Galette I made!) It was so easy.  I washed the berries, mixed it with a little sugar, flour and lemon juice.  Spooned it on top of an unbaked, store bought pie crust, folded over the edges and baked!

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It was the best way to end that meal!  A big thank you to Annie for letting us in on her Nantucket secret!

And here is a little video of our Berry Picking Adventure on our Ivy Adventure… I didn’t have that much footage but you’ll get a feel of the experience :)