Dinner and a Movie: Indie, Spaghetti and Cocktails

While I love going out and seeing what's new and exciting in Milwaukee, I also love making dinner and watching a movie in my pj's. My friend Melissa is on the same page. So last Friday was GNO in my living room with the both of us looking up recipes on Pinterest, cooking, and watching Your Sister's Sister.

The movie was great. It's about two half-sisters and the guy that gets between them - a little awkward, a little funny, and a lot of layers. I had actually watched it the night before but talked it up so much that we watched it again. I remember hearing about the movie on NPR - the acting was very organic, often unscripted. Speaking of movies......the Milwaukee Film Fest is going on and I'm determined (even with working 10-12hr days) to get my butt over there to see the documentary Ethel.

Anyways, onto the food. Our spaghetti with tomatoes, black olives, garlic, and feta cheese recipe was from Food & Wine here. Our Honey Badger cocktails were champagne and St. Germain Cocktails with honey syrup from the blog Design Love Fest. Find the recipe here. These were freakin' delicious. So perfect for fall.

{Dinner and a Movie} Drive + GTO

Guanjato Mexican Restaurant is a lunch counter dinner with melamine plates and a car-like nickname , "GTO", that serves cheap and tasty dishes right in the heart of Bay View. Although you've probably driven past and never noticed it.

Drive is a frustrating and haunting movie of many cars including a GTO, although mostly a '73 Chevy Malibu. And there's Ryan Gosling, too. Except he's a stunt car driver turned for-hire getaway driver turned murderer.

The immediate taste of both GTO and the movie Drive was that they were the exemplification of 'meh'. But, that blandness was just a facade - the sneaky disguise of a true hidden gem.

I would have never walked into GTO if I hadn't heard the rumors they were hustling the best tacos in town. I wasn't ready to be converted. The tiny restaurant ironically goes unnoticed on the bustling corner of Howell and Lincoln in Bay View, but word is catching on because the night I went there almost wasn't anywhere to sit. The chips and salsa were good, the waitstaff friendly, but I wasn't wowed. I guess I thought I needed to be immediately wowed. But then I realized-- I am still craving their huaraches a day later; I just drank good margaritas for $2.75; And there is a lunch counter - no where has a lunch counter anymore -- And it hit me: This is my new favorite mexican restaurant. This place is the real deal. And real deals don't need a wow factor.

As for Drive, I'll admit that I just wanted to look at Ryan Gosling for 2 hours and wasn't expecting greatness of any sort. The movie starts with an intense chase scene and I eased into my chair satisfied I was getting what I paid for. Then the movie went what looked like 'nowhere', like I got dropped off a mile from my house and now I had to walk home. I was upset - this wasn't what I signed up for. Ryan Gosling's character barely speaks, he's awkward and can't even ask a girl out (this is not Crazy, Stupid Love 2, btw). But then it happens, the movie already dark and gloomy turns dark and sinister with no apparent resolution ever. And it was so incredibly, dauntingly....epically....FRUSTRATING. I was screaming at the the television (I was at home, not a theater thank God). I was angry in the pit of my stomach. It was the most visceral reaction a movie has ever gotten out me. And that's when I realized, the movie was that good. Good enough to get me so emotionally invested that I would swear at the t.v. and lie awake at night with that plot just eating at me. This movie was not overtly amazing in any way, in fact, I began to wish I hadn't seen it because it raised up so many ugly emotions. The only parts I did enjoy were the M83 songs. And that's when it hit me: Enjoyable does not always equal good. But a movie that haunts you and keeps you up at night thinking, now that's a good movie.

{dinner and a movie} Star Wars + Spanish Chicken

image: Pick Yin blog

For Christmas I gave my husband the complete Star Wars saga on blu-ray. He was ecstatic, and I didn't get it. See, I have never really watched Star Wars. And what I think I may have seen might have just been a misunderstanding between what is Star Wars and Star Trek. I know, major faux pas.
We used our new cast iron skillet to make Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes before sitting down and watching the first Star Wars aptly named Episode IV.

Here's a 28 year old girl's commentary on Star Wars having never seen it before: This was made in 1977? These special effects are amazing. Princess Leia has an attitude - I don't like her. What's so awful about the galactic empire? I'd rather be on their nice ship than that hunk-of-junk Millennium Falcon. Who's the green dude and where did he come from? Doesn't this movie seems like a metaphor for socially awkward boys' strained relationships with their fathers?

It was obvious I went into 'random question overload' when my husband started replying with a disengaged "yeah" and an eye roll. The plot is confusing and often hurried and I don't speak wookie, so half the conversations were lost on me. I can appreciate Star Wars for being revolutionary for its time, its message on doing good, but the fandemonium and conventions I just can't relate to. Maybe I just need to watch it a few more times.

As for the dinner, there were no rambling and confused questions with that. The recipe is a take on Nigella Lawson's original recipe for Spanish Chicken, Chorizo and Potatoes. The hubs did it all on the stovetop in about 40 minutes. High-five for husbands.

Nigella's Spanish Chicken, Chorizo and Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

2 x 15ml (2 x 1 Tbsp) tablespoons regular olive oil
12 chicken thighs (bone in, with skin)
750g (1 1/2 lb) chorizo sausages, whole if baby ones, or cut into 4cm chunks if regular-sized
1kg (2 lb) new potatoes, halved
2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 teaspoons dried oregano
grated zest 1 orange

METHOD Serves: 6

Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7 (450F) . Put the oil in the bottom of 2 shallow roasting tins, 1 tablespoon in each. Rub the skin of the chicken in the oil, then turn skin-side up, 6 pieces in each tin.
Divide the chorizo sausages and the new potatoes between the 2 tins. Sprinkle the onion and the oregano over, then grate the orange zest over the contents of the 2 tins.
Cook for 1 hour, but after 30 minutes, swap the top tray with the bottom tray in the oven and baste the contents with the orange-coloured juices.