Chocolate Raspberry Brownies aka Heisenbrownies

O-Mg how good is Breaking Bad??

Water cooler banter has been dominated by Walt, Jesse, and the terrible and wonderful world of our favourite P cooks.

For the three of you out there who haven't heard of Breaking Bad, the formula is pretty basic: geeky chemistry teacher turns to cooking meth to make money for his family when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer.  The whole, however, is much greater than the sum of its parts.  It's not always easy to watch: it's brutal,  it's gritty, but keeps a quirky element of humour.

I confess, I can't actually handle all the violent bits so I make C watch them and report back to me but I just can't seem to turn away.  We and it seems the rest of the world are totally addicted.

We've been making our way through season 3 but will definitely keep our ion the SERIES FINALE next week.  Eeeeeeeeeeee!!

Ok ok sorry for boron you with chemistry puns. Would come up with better ones but it seems the good ones argon.

I'll stop now.  

How do I have friends??

{via here}

Anyhoo, these Chocolate Raspberry Brownies are a little like Walter White: they're a simple run-of-the-mill chocolate brownie transformed into something all dark, complex, sinful, and totally out of control.  The ultimate brownie. Pretty much, Heisenbrownies.

Foux de Petite French Lemon Cream Tarts

Jermaine: Je voudrais une croissant
Jermaine: Je suis enchante
Jermaine: Ou est le bibliotheque?
Jermaine: Voila mon passport
Jermaine: Ah, Gerard Depardieu
Brett + Jermaine: Un baguette, ah ha ha, oh oh oh oh
~ Flight of the Conchords, Foux de Fafa

Have I raved to you about how much of a francophile I am yet?

It might have started when I first read Madeline as a kid and I've been obsessed ever since. I took French all the way through school. Went on language exchange there when I was 15.  I've watched Le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain 14 times.

It's gotten to the point that when I hear strangers speaking French on the street I have to fight the urge to creepily follow just to hear them talk.  Not weird at all right?

{via weheartit}

But let's be franc, what's not to love about the land of romance, cheese, wine, and glorious buttery pastries?  And those accents... As Brett and Jermaine so cleverly illustrate, anything sounds good when you say it in French.

So I was chatting to someone yesterday who had just come back from a trip to France and it got me a) jealous and b) reminiscing about France and the amazing food and irresistible pastries those clever French have invented.  I gained 8 kgs in just 5 weeks living over there.  All happy weight.  All thanks to gloriously sweet and butterific French pastries just like these Petite French Lemon Cream Tarts.

Broccoli & Feta Harissa Salad with Spicy Roasted Pepita for Lucy

 

Every intern wants to perform their first surgery. That's not your job. Do you know what your job is? To make your resident happy. Do I look happy? No! Why? Because my interns are whiney. You know what will make me look happy? Having the code team staffed, having the trauma pages answered, having the weekend labs delivered and having someone down in the pit doing the sutures. No-one holds a scalpel until I'm so happy I'm Mary Freaking Poppins. ~ Dr Miranda Bailey, Greys Anatomy.

Before we started our surgical rotation, I thought I had a pretty good idea as to what it was going to be like.

I've watched Grey's Anatomy.  I knew how it was going to go down.

But I'm no Meredith.  I never ever thought I'd want to be a surgeon.  High stress, long hours, super competitive people and lots of yucky stuff.  Did not sound like my cup of tea.

AND I was bracing myself to be that girl. 

Boy, was I ever wrong.  I have absolutely loved it.  Surgery is amazing.  Sure, I probably won't get to even look at a scalpel for about a million years but it's enough just to be there and get to watch it up close. Gah so much awesomeness.

One of the downsides of watching surgeries though is that you're on your feet for hours on end, so if you haven't eaten a big enough meal beforehand your face-plant risk is pretty high. 

My friend Lucy and I pondered this very dilemma: what would be a good pre-surgery lunch that's filling enough to keep you on your feet but refreshing enough to not give you a food coma?  My answer: Broccoli & Feta Harissa Salad with Spicy Roasted Pepita.

Maple Sweet Potato Pie / Maple Kumara Pie

"I feel like a pie" has a completely different meaning in New Zealand than it does in the States.

When a Kiwi talks about pies, we're most likely thinking about savoury meat pies: the kind with delicious mince and gravy wrapped in flakey short pastry.  All buttery and greasey and just what you feel like on a Sunday morning after the Med Ball a late night out.

But from what I understand, in the USA, "pies" are generally sweet, like pecan pies, pumpkin pie, peanut butter pie.  Drool.  I've only recently been introduced to this magical world of American sweet pies thanks to Sweet Mothers Kitchen.  Ermahgerd how good is that place??!?  Totally obsessed.

So to further fuel my obsession and because it was becoming embarrassing how often I go to walk past the place and find myself walking out with a slice of pie, I decided to create a Kiwi-ized version of the southern Sweet Potato Pie - a Maple Kumara Pie.

Just as a side note, in New Zealand we tend to call sweet pies "tarts".  But I guess "I feel like a tart" has a double meaning also...

Review: Crab Shack, Baby, Crab Shack

If you see a faded sign by the side of the road, that says 15 miles to the Crab Shack! Crab Shack yeah! ~ modified from the B52's

My review posting needs a bit of a review.  I haven't posted any reviews in ages.  Over a whole year, would you believe?

Think it might be a combo of things: being a poor student again and not going out much, it being really tricky taking photos in a dim restaurant so fusspot me not being happy with the photos, and my long suffering husband getting all embarrassed at me taking too many pictures of meals.  What you would call first world problems.

So despite having lived in the Capital City for a fair six months, this is my very first Wellington review.  Outrageous.

But what better place to break my review dry-spell, than with the recently opened, Simon Gault owned, eating establishment: The Crab Shack.

 

Inspired: Mark Twain & Foodie Inspo

So inspired by this Mark Twain quote.

Chocolate Dairy Food a.k.a. Chocolate Pudding

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery:  He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.  ~ G.K. Chesterton

There are some foods from childhood that are best appreciated only as a kid: Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum, Fruit for Yonks and Roll Ups a.k.a. plastic fruit leather, lolly pops that make your mouth go blue, fake cheese slices. 

And then there are childhood favs that I'm pretty sure I will still love when I'm 80: fairy bread, marmite and chip sandwiches, and Chocolate Dairy Food.

Now those not in New Zealand, what we know as "chocolate dairy food", you know as "chocolate pudding", a creamy cold treat made of milk, cocoa and cornflour.  They were the quintessential lunch time snack for the average kiwi kid, sold in little plastic pottles in packs of six, so you can hang them conveniently on the edge of the supermarket trolley when Mum and Dad did the grocery shopping (I still do that...).  Nowadays, it's marketed as a kiddie snack that's a source of calcium but every now and I buy a pack as a treat for myself...of course since calcium is good for adults too and all.

Shameless Plug: Let Them Bake Cake - A Fisher & Paykel Bake Off

Ok ok this is a total shameless plug, but the lovely folk at Fisher & Paykel Appliances sent me a super awesome goodie box and I loved it so much I wanted to share with you all in case you were keen to win one too!!

Fisher & Paykel Appliances are sponsoring NZ Hottest Home Baker and are running an online Bake Off!  All you have to do is upload a photo of something you've made on the Let Them Bake Cake gallery and let people vote on your baking creation. There is a grand prize worth $10,000 and also bonus prizes each week of these super cool goodie boxes.  They give away 20 goodie boxes a week so there's a pretty good chance of winning one!