Trading Dinner Places (#64)

Trading Places has been on my holiday list for a while, but the group kept skipping over it at Christmas time. This time it appeared on our list as the next film chronologically and the group decided to give it a try.

In this film, Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy play a wealthy man and a poor man who are forced to swap lives. Both are great comedic actors, so even though I had never seen the film before, I knew that I was going to be in for something fun. 

(Note: This film does contain language and content that is not family friendly and could be triggering to some. This includes language, nudity, use of the N word, blackface, and sexual assault of a man. Overall, it was still a good movie if you are able to look past those things as a product of the time.)

For our meal, I decided some role reversal was necessary as well. For dinner, we would have fancy or expensive ingredients served in a simple way and then for dessert, a simple ingredient served in a fancy way. Here's what it looked like:

Smoked Salmon Pita

This dish was a creation of mine. I was inspired by the simple BLT, a tasty sandwich with minimal ingredients. How could I make something that with fancier ingredients? Upon researching this film, I learned about the scene with the smoked salmon. I decided to make that the protein and built the sandwich around ingredients that I thought would pair well with its flavor. Our sandwiches were made up of:

Flax, Oat Bran, & Whole Wheat Pocket Pitas
Sliced Wild Smoked Sockeye Salmon
Baby Arugula
Tomato
Cucumber

Once the ingredients were all put in the pita, it is topped with a sauce or cream cheese that compliments the strong salmon flavors. I made available a lemon and dill sauce and also a chive cream cheese. I preferred the cream cheese, but some of my guests really liked the lemon dill sauce. I found these at the grocery store. Lemon, dill, chive, and cream cheese are all flavors that pair well with smoked salmon, so I trusted that these would work. They did.

These sandwiches came out really good. They were also very filling despite being small. I had only one sandwich made from half a pita and was good. Only a couple guest went back for a second sandwich. 

I also served some couscous with the sandwiches. The couscous was seasoned simply with olive oil, garlic, and salt.

Oreo Truffles

I tried to make truffles once for a previous movie night and they came out terrible. I could not get the consistency right. This recipe was meant to be something fun and silly, but it will probably now be my new go-to truffle recipe. Not only did it taste delicious, but the consistency was soft and decadent. Everything you could wish for.

Ingredients: (makes about 40 truffles)

2 14oz packages of regular Oreos

16 oz of cream cheese spread

melting chocolates, graham crackers, cocoa powder, or other coatings/toppings

Steps:

1. Blend or pulse whole Oreos to a fine powder. Whole Oreos don't blend well, so I recommend breaking them into small chunks first. Don't try to do them all at once. Do about 1 or 2 cups at a time, to make sure that they blend well. It should look like a chocolate dust or powder when you are done with no whole chunks. Do not remove the cream in your Oreos. You won't see it after you blend them, but it's still there.

2. Put your Oreo powder in a mixing bowl and turn you mixer on to a low/medium setting. Slowly add the cream cheese spread and let it mix in. Every once in a while, turn it off and scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all the cream cheese is mixed in well. If you don't have cream cheese spread, you can use regular cream cheese, but make sure that it is room temperature. If it's not soft, you may need to microwave lightly. It needs to be soft for this recipe. Cream cheese spread is usually soft, which is why I recommend it.

3. Once everything is mixed well, you are ready to roll your oreo mixture into your truffle balls. Make sure your hands a clean, but also dry. Roll the batter into one inch balls and put them in a container or on a tray that you can refrigerate. Make sure the balls are not touching each other.

4. Place balls in refrigerator and leave for an hour or two. This is to give them time to firm up.

5. After they have been chilled for awhile, take them out and apply your coating. You can roll them in something like cocoa powder or graham cracker dust for a quick and easy coating. You can also melt some chocolate or candy melt to dip them in. That coating will harden and create a nice crunch which makes the softness of the interior stand out.

6. Once coated refrigerate again and leave in fridge until ready to serve. I like to prepare this the night before so it has plenty of time to cool and I don't feel like I am rushing it last minute.