I Love You, Man. Now Eat.

I have spent a great deal of time lately watching the movie “I Love You Man”.  I love this movie. It’s as if Jason Segel and Rush were put through a blender of awesomeness and, for extra awesomeness, topped with Paul Rudd and garnished with a few others to create an addictive, hilarious and quotable movie that gets funnier every time I see it.  The more I watch it, though, the more I realize just how much time they spend eating. 

It’s true. They eat. A lot.  I think they’re eating in about 70% of the movie. And they eat a wide variety of foods, too, ranging from panninis to Chinese food to fish tacos to a 6 foot sub to an upscale steak dinner to frozen pineapple treats.  It’s a good thing I don’t eat meat or I’d be starving by the time the movie ended. Obviously this gets me thinking about how I can recreate some of these recipes on my own because they look that damn good. Since I’m not creative enough to come up with truly original recipes, I’ll have to steal borrow some to make for my family and to share, of course.

Then I got to thinking…I could probably do a whole series of posts related to the food consumed in “I Love You Man”.  However, I fear that a series of that nature would be entertaining only to me. So I’ve decided to narrow it down to two recipes in honor of my two favorite scenes in the movie.

The recipes I’ve chosen, although not necessarily the most economical, are fairly easy to prepare and are definitely something different to bring to a party or potluck. The first recipe, for sun-dried tomato aïoli, made me do a little research to find out exactly what aïoli is (it’s a garlic based mayonnaise). The second recipe, which also had me doing some research, is for a drink rather than food just to shake things up a bit (get it…shake things up?).

Here they are:

Sun-dried Tomato Aïoli (from Southern Living)

Ingredients:

1 1/2  cups  light mayonnaise

1/3  cup  firmly packed sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained

1/4  cup  milk

1  garlic clove

1  teaspoon  chopped fresh rosemary

1  teaspoon  lemon zest

1/2  teaspoon  salt

1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground pepper

Garnish: fresh rosemary sprig (optional)

Directions:

1. Process all ingredients in a food processor 15 seconds or until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed.
2. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
3. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 1 week. Garnish, if desired.
4. Serve with vegetables and chips.

LimeLight Cocktail (from allcocktails.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 oz Vodka
• 1 oz Melon Liqueur
• 1 splash Grapefruit Juice

Directions:

1. Stir well with ice cubes and strain into a cocktail glass.

And just in case you are unfamiliar with Rush, here’s a video of my favorite Rush song, Dreamline: