Homemade Big Mac

Vincent: And you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
Jules: They don't call it Quarter Pounder with Cheese?
Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the f*** a Quarter Pounder is.
Jules: Then what do they call it?
Vincent: They call it a Royale with Cheese.
Jules: A Royale with Cheese. 
Vincent: That's right.
Jules: What do they call a Big Mac?
Vincent: Well a Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big-Mac.
Jules: Le Big-Mac. *laughs* What do they call a Whopper?
Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.
~ Pulp Fiction

Oh yes my friends, that is two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun.  A Homemade Big Mac.

I don't know bout you but after a gruelling week of exams/work/life what this girl wants, what this girl needs, is some good honest trash food.  Greasy salty junky awesomeness. Get in my belly.

I'd been meaning to make burgers for dinner for a while now.  And if you're going to make burgers why not tackle THE burger right?

{le big mac}

Oh YAY! Baking = love on Huffington Post!!

Huffington Post's HuffPost Taste section did a wrap up of their fav butterscotch recipes yesterday and my Sticky Date Cake with Butterscotch Swiss Meringue Buttercream with Butterscotch Sauce made it to #6.

Excitement!!!

Check out all the gooey butterscotchy recipes here.

Gotta love butterscotch.

{via here}

1 more to go...

{my mantra}
{poster by emma bergqvist}

Coming to the end of a mareish set of exams.

Will be back on the blogging bandwagon after this.  Got loads of procrasta-cooking to share with you.

Bring. On. Friday.

Steak Frites for Dad: Scotch Fillet, Sweet Potato Fries, Roasted Tomatoes and Everything Dressing

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me. ~Jim Valvano

Dads as a species are notoriously difficult to buy presents for.  My dad was no exception.  But I'd like to think gifts don't always have to be things you buy per se but could also be things you do.

So along with obligatory socks and ties, my gifts to dad were small things done with great love.

As a kid, for my dad, I would crawl out of bed in the early hours to watch a rugby game, a tennis grand slam final, or FIFA world cup.  Just for dad, I would relinquish the remote so he could watch the racing even though there was something really good on E!.  And only for my dad, I would sit with him and listen through entire BeeGees, Celine Dion and Albert Hammond albums.   

My dad was my hero.  His gift to me was that he believed I could do anything I put my mind to.  So what's a little BeeGees now and then in comparison huh?
 

Yesterday was dad's birthday.  He would've been 57 had it not been for the big bad cancer that took him 8 years ago.   

So every year now, my gift to him is still to cook something he loved.  To remember him. To celebrate him. To show how much I love him and miss him.

{rocking it bruce lee style since way back}

One of the things dad loved the most was a good steak.  So this year for dad's bday meal I made steak frites with Scotch fillet, Homemade sweet potato fries, Roasted tomatoes and Everything Dressing.

Happy Birthday Dad.

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...