My recommendations

I was at Danny Boys with Mandy and she said that while looking over the blog with a friend, she said it wasn't super clear what places I did and didn't recommend since a 5 is my basic not food poisoning pass. She helpfully suggested that I make a post detailing my definitive recommendations and keep it updated, so I guess this is what this is. There may or may not be posts attached to these places, its a work in progress!

My tags on the side mean:
Student cheap: a giant sized main for around $10. Suitable for impoverished students who want to catch up with friends at a meal.
Cheap food: main+drink for less than $20. Bargain!
Medium price: main+drink for less than $30-40. Also a bargain!
Expensive as fuck: anything more than $40. What can I say, I'm cheap and I love cheap food hahaha!
RJIE: Random junk I eat. Normally reserved for a post where I've only got to a restaurant for one meal, eaten something I've wanted to share. Normally a bit of a cop out post when I'm stretched for updates ahahaha.

Dishes:
Western style wings? King of the Wings, find them. Best wings in Brisbane. I recommend, all the flavours that they make. Seriously.
Eastern style wings? Yang nyum wings from Seoul Bistro, that earth shattering crunch <3.
Burgers? Plain cheeseburger from Judes on Eagle St Pier during lunch time for the biggest burger you cannot possibly finish or Miel Container for their beef bulgogi burger.
Ribs? Pork ribs from Ribbets. Best so far, but still not impressed. On the hunt for better.
Noodles? XO sauce stir fried handmade noodles from Endless Noodles. They do exquisite hand pulled noodles with a glorious homely quality to them.
Ramen? Taro's Ramen. No doubt. 
Sushi? Kotobuki Sushi. I love them no matter what JGirl says.
Sandwich? Pulled pork from Bread and Meat Co. Damn that's a good sandwich and some fine pulled pork too.
Potato dish? Poutine from Bread and Meat Co, dem real cheese curds.
Doughnut? Salted caramel doughnuts from Chester St Bakery, although the doughnut holes fresh at the Eagle Farm Markets come a close second.
Cheapo pizza? Meatlovers pizza from Pizza Hut with their creamy garlic dip. 
Fancy pizza?: Holloways in West End make the best seasonal pizzas I've ever had.
American style pizza?: T4's Gourmet Pizza and Pasta! So cheap and tasty, plus their toppings range is huge.

Cuisines:
Thai place? 2B Thai.
Yum cha place? New Shanghai.
Vietnamese place? My house, of course.
Korean place? Seoul Bistro.
Malaysian place? Malaya Corner in Sunnybank.
Indonesian place? Sambal Oelek, $10 mains. Yassss. 

Desserts and catch up:
Coffee? LTD Espresso, hands down. 
Cold press coffee? Cleanskin cold press latte with raw sugar syrup.
Not coffee hot drink? Any of the hot chocolate range from the Dark Chocolatier on Ann Street in the CBD. $4.5 for a 12oz cup and no surcharge for soy? Yes please! You can choose your percentage of cocoa and you can really taste the difference. More than 60% is coma-tastic though, I'd be careful if I were you.
Bubble tea drink? Lychee frappe with lychee popping pearls from Little Singapore. Let it get a little slushy and melted for 10 minutes or so and you will thank me. Mmmm that lychee goodness.
Bubble Tea Chain? Sakuraya, where all the hip Asians go. Hazel Tea is very consistent too.
Best pearls for bubble tea? Hazel Tea, wherever you can find them, CBD or Sunnybank.
Bakery? Banneton Bakery.
Asian dessert place? Just Soy Cafe, for all your shaved ice needs as an Asian. Closely followed by Papa Rotti buns, that glorious crunchy sugar-coffee icing is a god send.

Random brands:
Castello White Cheese - creamy camembert style cheese with a hint of blue flavour. Delicious.

Indimex Cafe Bar Restaurant

I'll tell you two secrets. The first is that the email I created for people to contact me on thatseriousgirl@gmail.com is not actually the one that I use for my mobile phone/ gmail account or the one I use for my blogger account. As a result, I had to set up a forwarding protocol with gmail that never seems to forward on important stuff to my more commonly used hotmail account.

The second is that my two least favourite cuisines are Mexican and Indian food. I've had bad experiences on multiple occasions with upset stomachs or food poisoning not soon after eating them so I tend to avoid it. It doesn't make any sense because I eat a lot of spicy food from other cuisines like Thai or Korean without any problem. Not to mention the fact that I love every other countries version of curry beside the original Indian one.

I received the email inviting me here in early January but didn't see it until almost the end of January when I was manually checking my gmail account. I accepted the offer and dragged along Mr W., as my plus one, since he enjoyed both cuisines and it had been a while since we had had a date.

I was absolutely livid when I realised my camera wasn't in my bag for the third time eating out that month. I ran back to the car and couldn't find it anywhere. I was desperately hoping I had lost it as I had remembered to bring my Kindle along and it had been sitting on that when I left. Lo and behold, it was on my kitchen bench when I arrived home. The following pictures are taken on my mobile phone as a result.

Watch out for this bright red place!

I loved the decorations here. From the loads of mustachioed man cushions.

So manly

To the kooky Indian/Mexican artwork!

OLE SUP

To this gigantic spice? wall. I missed a few photos though. They had a really interesting mural of people who changed the world such as John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Che Guevera and then oddly, what looked like James Brown? I coudn't get the entire mural in one shot, so I let it be.

What does it even say?

Here is a link to their extensive menu, it completely changes from meal to meal. I got the gorgeous Brisbane Sunset as my drink, orange, pineapple and cranberry juice with grenadine syrup! I had a huge mouthful of grenadine syrup to start with so make sure to give your drink a good stir. I loved the balance between the sweet, sour and refreshing flavours of the juices used. Good mocktails are hard to find!

Delicious

I picked their holy guacamole as my starter! Pulverised yet still textured avocado, onion, tomato, jalapeno pieces and a fair whack of garlic. Mr W., and I both felt like there could have been a bit more lemon or lime added to give it a bit more zestiness but we both still enjoyed it. I particularly like that the guacamole didn't have a smooth paste texture and still had noticeable piece of avocado to break up the texture. The fried tortilla chips were great, can't go wrong with freshly fried tortilla chips, crunchy, salty tastiness!

Mmm guacamole

Mr W., and I had a long discussion about what we would order on the menu. He pointed out that as a food blogger and someone who goes out a lot, I would order the weirdest thing on the menu or a chef specialty to show off the place. He was right though, because I had been eyeing off the Bombay Pizza a la Naan or getting one of the fusion dishes. 

Mr W., tended to go with safe options or the most popular option, he's traveled a lot overseas and wisely pointed out that you can't go wrong with chicken, seafood is the thing most likely to give you food poisoning. I think this was the second or third time we had gone out for a meal together, so I reminded him that he couldn't order the same meal as me!

Anyway, after much deliberation, we reversed our opinions! I decided to try one of their curries for a classic option. I initially wanted goat but they told me that wasn't available for lunch, so I picked a lamb madras with a heat rating of super hot. Their menu actually carries a warning that they use Trinidadian Scorpion Butch T Chillis, widely regarded as one of the spiciest chilis in the world. I think they only use that for the vindaloo haha,

Oh god, the curry was so good. I love that strong coconut fragrance as it hit the table and the huge chunks of lamb. The lamb was delectable, huge chunks of lamb that were so tender I was able to cut through it with a spoon. My spoon just hit the plate and the lamb fell apart with a sigh, they used a wonderful cut with ribbons of fat throughout the meat. 

The curry was so spicy, I nearly cried. It wasn't a bad heat, it was instantly noticeable but it didn't linger for too long and you could continue eating. I'm not sure if I got used to it later on or it was because when the physical heat abated, I felt like the curry spice was more bearable.

We ended up begging the waitress for some of their raita which I forgot to take a photo of. It's a very strong minty raita that was quite sweet, but it did the trick to cool off my poor mouth.

Delicious lamb

I tossed up between naan and rice for a while too. I love naan but I love how rice soaks up all the sauce. I was wearing a white dress as well so I couldn't risk the sauce dripping onto my clothes! I always think long grain rice looks odd. I'm very used to short or medium grain rice and so the length of long grain rice, which loops in on itself is just odd to me.

Odd rice

I got a few pappadums as well! They were super crunchy and little cumin seeds as well.

I had fun eating these

Mr W., got the very interesting bacon, cheese, garlic, oregano and chili naan which was nearly a meal in itself! I really enjoyed this naan and I'm pretty sure I ate at least 3/4 of this by myself. It had a huge amount of garlic on the surface, lots of little bacon pieces, the oregano scent wasn't too discernible and I found the chili flakes weren't too spicy either. I loved the flakiness of the naan and the cheesiness too, I'd gladly go back here again for the naan bread.

Mmmm naan <3

Mr W., got the sizzling chicken fajitas, there was a lot of onion and sweet capsicum pieces mixed in as well. There was also a pile of salsa on top as well as a wedge of lime. The smell when it hit the table was amazing! I love the theatre of having sizzling food bought around to your table, the sound, the smell, the spitting sight of the stuff and the steam rising off the food! I love how the sauce becomes a thick caramel, coats the meat and gives it a great charred flavour. We were both very surprised when we tasted the chicken as we were both unsure what the spices used were, I had a second and a third piece before I realised what it was. Tandoori chicken! After that, it all made sense and we were able to finish the meal in peace haha.

See the steam!

We also received a basket of sour cream, guacamole, black lentil dal makhani and a pile of tortilla shells on the side.

Mmm lentils

Mr W., got the iced coffee and he remarked that he didn't like it since there was no ice, it had no ice cream and was still quite warm. The coffee flavour itself was quite good.

Indimex Cafe Bar Restaurant

Atmosphere: 7, super cute restaurant with interesting artwork, great decorations and lots of different seating arrangements. 
Service: 7, pretty good service! The two waitresses seemed busy but were always easy to find. We had a slight hiccup where fajitas were placed on the wrong docket, and we had to wait a bit longer for the food to arrive. It was very quick service all in all and they came up to us multiple times to ask if we needed anything else. That being said, we were invited there as guests so there's that too.
Food: 8, really excellent food! Huge portions, well cooked food, a great explanation of what everything is on the menu and reasonable prices for a main. I would happily go here again for lunch with friends especially as everything on the menu is easily shared between a group of people.

 

Menya Mappen Noodle Bar

I'm not religious and Vietnam doesn't have any really cool festivals or anything besides Tet, so I don't really look forward to celebrating anything all yet.

Except Lifeline Book Festival.

Its a nerds call to arms

I attend that with religious fervour. I request the day off, I have trouble sleeping, dreaming of all the books I buy and pack a wheelie bag with a water bottle ready for the day. The day of Lifeline, sees me on the train at 7am to get there by 8am for the grand opening.

It looks the same every year really.

Anyway, I bought a shit ton of books. I think I only spent $97 this year. That's actually not a lot for me, once I left the place with an entire shopping trolley full of books. It was like I was buying stuff for a book burning or something. Its really fun I think, there's an unpriced, a priced and a high quality section, unpriced is like dodgy old books you'd see from before the 70s, they cost about $1-3 each. The priced are books from the last ten or so years in relatively good condition, around the $2.50-5 range. While the wallet destroying high priced section is full of books from the last year or so, costing anywhere between $5-10 dollars a book.

What I love about Lifeline besides the immense amount of books is the feeling of finding a bargain there, time and time again. Most of my books are from there and there's always a sci fi section too. The high quality and priced section are my downfall and I usually buy $30-50 dollars worth of books there at any time. Sometimes books get placed in the wrong place and you can pick up the same book from the high quality section in the priced section for half the price. Or you find a book you've been wanting forever at Lifeline and clutch it to your chest like its the Holy Grail. Or finish off a book series that you wanted to finish but were reluctant to buy at full price.

Ermahgerd cherp berxs

You also discover lots and lots of authors and books you wouldn't otherwise read there too. Just like a library, I tend to recycle my books back to Lifeline the next year. Some of the authors I've read since I started going to Lifeline a few years back include Sarah Zettel, Brent Weeks, J.V Jones, John Grisham, Jilly Cooper, Gail Dayton, Peter V Brett, Glenda Larke, Erich Segal, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Judith Krantz and many, many more. Even with having a Kindle, cheap and an earnest Pastafarian, I still find myself getting lots of books here. I collect books I would find too expensive to buy first hand.

The weird thing is though, that even though the books are so cheap, you get weirdly stingy about buying so many? I would normally spend about $20-35 for a brand new book depending on whether or not I got a paperback or a hardback book and I buy them in groups of 2-5. I find myself going, well I have thirty books now and that's like $60, I better put a few back, yet how does that even make sense.

The last few days are always the best though because the books get heavily discounted, everything becomes fill a bag for $5, or high quality books are $2.50 or something like that. I try and go at least two or three times every time its in town. I go on the first day, work permitting, and a few times later during the week.

As well as the wonder of buying about 20 books for $100/60/20, I always get called around this time to meet up with old friends who also love books. This time I met up with N., one of my friends from uni that I trained with. We had a great day buying books and discussing work and then decided to high tail it home and get some food on the way.

We were walking around for quite a while before we found even a map. The store is outside on the very corner of the building, towards the under storey parking. I wouldn't ever think to walk down that way due to how dark and shady it looks.

Casually pointing you inside

Menya Mappen Noodle Bar was my first choice, cheap, cheerful, high ratings and well spoken of on the blogosphere. I've been meaning to go here for a while but I have no idea which shopping centre in Sunnybank is called what, with the exception of Market Square. I know there is also a Sunny Park and a Sunnybank Plaza, I never remember which is where.

Menya Mappen doesn't have a particularly extensive menu, everything is available in either soba or udon with a choice of hot or cold or with a half boiled egg. They have student discount of 10% off and a loyalty card.

It didn't photograph well

This is apparently new

Anyway, its got an interesting system. You rock up to the counter, order your meal, choose your additional hot toppings such as tempura flakes, a chicken karaage skewer, takoyaki, sausage tempura, vegetable tempura, fish cake tempura, bean curd skin, sweet pancakes and prawn tempura.

L-R, mixed veggie tempura, prawn tempura, fish tempura, chicken karaage, dumplings x4

L-R, Sausage tempura, sweet pancake, takoyaki, sweet bean curd

Same as above just a better picture of the food

There's a cold topping section with the drinks that comprise of picked veggies, kimchi, seaweed salad and pickled jellyfish. Also there's a green tea slushie machine that looks amazing, but I felt like that would be slightly too much.

L-R, mochi is the blurry white stuff, seaweed salad, pickles, kimchi, pickled jellyfish

At the end of the counters where you pay, there's also a box of green onions which you can only have ONE spoon of. As well as a water fountain with really low water pressure as well as a glimpse of the kitchen and where you have to put your trays back once you're done.

I chose the ontama mentaiko udon, a bowl of udon noodles covered in a light sauce with a half boiled egg and spicy cod roe caviar. I also got like one of each of the hot toppings, well almost, I picked up some takoyaki, a chicken karaage skewer and the fish cake skewer, oh an a little container of seaweed salad. Also helped myself to some boiling hot tempura sauce.

Yum!

The ontama is interesting, there's a bowl of eggs beside where you get the main meals and the guy serving us just cracked it open straight onto the top of our noodles. I was really surprised to see a half cooked egg slide onto my noodles! For some reason I was expecting an semi cooked egg to be placed on my bowl from like a covered dish of them or something. I guess it makes sense that they're just really soft boiled and just need to be cracked open! They are super gooey soft, they're less than soft boiled, the whites are still super blobby.

I swooshed it all together so it looked gross

The mentaiko was interesting, I've never had it before and it was creamy and spicy at the same time. Since the roe were so fine, it didn't have that distinct popping feeling that very large or even medium sized roe do. It was scooped out of a plastic bucket with an ice cream scoop and plopped onto my noodles. It had a faint fishy scent and made a delicious sauce when swirled in with my ontama and the udon sauce.

The hot fried items could've been better since we came just after lunch time peak hour and they'd obviously been sitting out for a little while. The takoyaki had 1-2 scant pieces of octopus and was covered in a flurry of bento flakes and tonkatsu sauce, nicely seasoned though. The golden fried skin was also wrinkly and a bit chewy because of how long it had been left out, lukewarm takoyaki is not as good as mouth scorching takoyaki.

L-R, fish cake tempura, chicken karaage, takoyaki

The fish cake tempura was terrible. I don't think it would've been any better as the fish cake turned super chewy as it was sliced super thin.

Chicken karaage on a skewer were really juicy, lightly marinated and still crispy good. One of the better chicken karaages I've had. N., was super excited to have these and she agreed that they were delicious as well.

Just the right size

The seaweed salad was not the best I've ever had. It could have been sourer but still had good texture, slippery and crunchy at the time.

N. choose number 14, whatever that was with soba, she also got the same hot toppings of chicken karaage, fish cake tempura and takoyaki. Unfortunately, she forgot the first rule of eating with a food blogger, you don't eat until the camera goes away. It was half gone by the time by the time I put away my camera. She was happily slurping down noodles and was telling me that it hitting the spot. We left full and happy. Headed straight home to read books.

On the other hand, I had the same dish again, several days later and had two bouts of vomitting at work. The same side dishes, except I didn't have seaweed salad or the fish cake tempura and I had the green tea slushie. Suspicious, but then I'm lactose intolerant and the slushie tasted like green tea ice cream.

Menya Mappen Noodle Bar
Atmosphere: 7, I would've given this a 10 but the lack of any sort of sunlight makes me inclined to think of this place as cute, charming hole. Its lovely and kitschy cute, but no matter how much you decorate a prison cell, it doesn't stop the fact that you're in prison.
Service: 5, we got greeted and farewelled like in all Japanese restaurants. Service was prompt and efficient. Most of it was self serve though.
Food: 7. It would've gotten an 8 if the food was hot! Really, really cheap food that still is good quality although the serving styles make me laugh

Hazelnut and Chocolate Chip Brownies

I made these brownies on Christmas Day to bring into work, these were the ones I intended to make for the secret Santa party, but I had forgotten to actually bring the hazelnuts I had bought from my sisters house to mine.

These brownies were based off a recipe I originally read on the back of a Nestle Cocoa tin, my sister and I made them. I remember right off the bat, that the first time I made them they were great, crispy edge, soft gooey centre, dense chocolate crumb, it was gone within days. The second time we made it, it was slightly burnt, overly chewy and really good when microwaved and shoved into ice cream. I think I was the only one to eat the brownies that time. They were absolutely terrible and I've never made them since.

Brownies are wonderful things though and I've become a much better cook since then, so I toughened up and made some more. The salted caramel GF brownie I made was really good, so I thought I'd make this one too. I turned out well in a different way, this one had a chewy crust with a soft cakey centre. I'm still wondering if I should stick to traditional cooking times of 160C for an hour or so, I've been using 180C at 20-30 minutes for time constraints as well as sweltering heat considerations with a fan forced oven. Its not as crunchy a top, but I prefer my brownies more cakey. So here's my recipe.

Hazelnut and Chocolate Chip Brownies

Uses: soft gooey brownie with a crispy top

That box of chocolate is from the bakery my mum works at :)

Ingredients:
100g butter
100g sugar
200g dark chocolate
2 beaten eggs
2tsp baking powder
1/2 cup of plain flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup raw hazelnuts, use roasted if you can find them

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 180C and line your pan of choice with baking paper

Looks the same as any melted concoction

2. Melt butter and chocolate together in a bowl, using your preferred method. I'm a fan of double boiler melting in a bowl, above bubbling hot water.

3. Roast your hazelnuts on a a sheet of baking paper at 180C for 10 minutes. Once cooked, rub off the skins with a slightly damp tea towel. They're crisp up in a few seconds. Remember to shake out your tea towel before washing it, or you'll get hazelnut skins in your work uniform like I did

This is the picture from the chocolate cake loljk

4. Mix the sugar and eggs into the chocolate and butter mixture

5. Then sift the flour and baking powder into the disgusting brownie mixture

Seems like a lot but you'll thank me?

6. Place your hazelnuts and chocolate chips on the bottom of the baking tray and then slowly pour the brownie mixture on top. Tap the tray several times to reduce air bubbles and even the surface out a bit more
7. Bake for at least 20-30 minutes at 180C. Leave to cool and eat. Or eat, whatever.

I had a dream the other day that I had retired. I worked part time at a busy little cafe I owned. I spent my day baking cakes and making drinks, while my mum made the savoury food with my aunt. At the end of the day, I went home to my husband and I got to be a foster mum for a horde of golden retriever puppies from the Seeing Eye Dogs Australia.

It was a really good dream and I think I would be a very happy woman if I got to do this when I'm older. Check out their website, the Seeing Eye Dogs Australia, I donate $50 a month to them to help train up seeing eye dog puppies. Its tax deductible so you get it all back at tax time and you get frequent updates from association with pictures of your puppy, what its up to in its training and other information about the training process in general. So its like saving money for a fantastic reason, you can feel good about your use of money AND you get cute pictures of a puppy. Did you know it costs $30, 000 to train up a seeing eye dog and only about 60% of them get through the training?

RJIE 6: Teppanyaki Noodles @ Chandler Markets

I alternatively love and hate Sundays. I nearly always finish my night shifts on them and its hard to find anything to do on a Sunday, because nothing store wise and restaurant wise is open, either at all or until much much later in the morning.

On the upside, there are a ton of markets to go to. Park Road, New Farm, Woodridge, Mt Gravatt, Salisbury, Nundah, Manly, Southbank Lifestyle, Chandler, and probably more I can't name. I'll go to at least one market a Sunday, Park Road is my go to, since its just near work, its pretty terrible for produce but the food is great, the entertainment is lively, they hold Boggo Prison history tours and there is a lot of couples with their dogs here.

New Farm, I heard are great for produce, especially around 11am where everyone starts doing specials to offload their excess. L., and D., go here a lot to pick up stuff for the week.

Woodridge is where my mum and aunt love to go, its just pure ethnic produce. Its up at the crack of dawn, there's a lot of people who have just spread out a blanket or a table and are selling stuff from their garden. The produce here is always amazing but you really have to be there early to get the good stuff. The food pretty much consists of fried chicken and authentic back door Thai food, but it looks all a bit dodgy so go straight to the vegetables and fruit produce. I've often found cool stuff here like devils cucumber and finger limes.

Mt Gravatt, is my other good to go to produce place, the food is terrible, the random crap is pretty much just crap but the produce is always solid. Plus its mostly under cover which helps when it rains.

Salisbury, I've read is one of the biggest random crap markets ever. Its apparently like a giant flea market, and I'm keen to go there one day.

Nundah, I've heard is particularly good too. A gourmet food and produce place, but it looks a bit far to get to via public transport.

Manly, I'm not a fan of. Produce is terrible, food is just cheap chips and coffee type venues, random stuff is overpriced, but VGirl and I got some nice fake Pandora charms for Dr H once.

Southbank Lifestyle, is always a bit of a tourist trap, overpriced clothes and the occasional cool place but mostly a tourist trap.

Chandler, is far away, we had to take a bus to Westfield Carindale before taking another bus to the Chandler Aquatic centre, but its great for those random knick nacks you find in markets. There's old books, dodgy knock off toys, cheap cookware and the like. The produce is great, and I always find myself heading out with bags of seasonal produce especially lots of fruit, being a massive fruit eating fiend. The food there is fantastic though.

YAKI UDON FTW

YAKISOBA IS GOOD TOO. 

The cooks doing their thing

There's this one stall that has been there every time I've gone, a small little Japanese Teppanyaki noodle place. I'm not sure if they have a shop somewhere, but they all have t-shirts with the name on them, so I'm pretty sure they do. I'm just not sure where it is since I'm a Southside girl. They sell sushi, some drinks, and freshly cooked beef/chicken/vegetable teppanyaki udon or yakisoba. I've had both and they are equally delicious, they're a bit light on the meat, and the vegetable ones are cooked on the same plate as the meat, so not the best for vegetarians. The free range fried eggs, for an extra dollar, are beautifully fresh with bright orange yolks and a great creaminess.

So much delicious, so much mayo

The lack of posts is due to my computer screen dying recently. Every so often when I move my computer from place to place, the cables stop working so my monitor works, my processor works, they just refused to work together. Maybe its time to bite the bullet and get a new PC?

Dark Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies and Meatball Stew

So I've been wanting to make this dark chocolate and macadamia cookie recipe for months now. I saw it many moons ago in some woman's magazine like Woman's Weekly or something. We get these magazines all the time at my workplace and we normally get given them by patients once they are done with them. The only issue is that when it comes to recipes, they normally go missing.

This is because some scum bags at work like to rip out the recipe instead of photocopying it or taking a photo like a civilised human being. You hardly deserve to be called ladies, and I hope that the recipe was fantastic and you fail badly at it. I always feel so annoyed when I see the recipes have been ripped out because it means it must've been good enough, and by the low standards of my workplace, easy enough for someone to pull off and still look good.

Dark Chocolate and Macademia Cookies

Super delicious

Uses: bribing house mates, study rewards, nurse fodder.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of sifted cocoa

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of white sugar

250g of cubed butter

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup and 1/2 cup of sifted SR flour and plain flour. Or use 1 cup plain and a tbsp of baking powder

1 cup of halved roasted macademias

150g of good dark chocolate or cooking chocolate

Seems like a lot of ingredients, but its not!

Note:

I didn't use milk in this recipe at all. I thought I was going to but decided on a mostly shortbread style biscuit, which doesn't require any milk. I'm never a fan of using plain flour and baking powder, so I normally use weird ratios of SR and plain flour.

Instructions:

1. Preheat an oven to 180C while you are doing all this. Line several baking trays with baking paper

2. Whiz together the sifted cocoa, sugars and butter together until creamy brown paste is formed.

Simple!

3. Scrape out the mixture and mix in the beaten egg

4. Begin sifting the flour onto the mixture, don't be shy, tap it.

There is an egg somewhere under that

5. Mix briefly until no white parts remain, but don't overmix or it gets weird and starchy.

Nice and smooth

6. Mix in the macademias and dark chocolate. Don't overmix, just mix until just combined

Good enough

7. Space far away from each other, a small 50c piece sized ball of dough, flatten slightly and continue. Or do it however you want, its a cookie, its going to get eaten not admired

This will not end well. They turned into a flower, see the top image :)

8. Bake for 10-15 minutes to desired consistency. They will firm up once cooled down, but will be very crumbly until then. 

On the day that we made this, my Boyfriend's housemates were cat calling us all evening, trying to score some cookies. We left the plate out overnight and he said in the morning there was a hand written sign saying, "OMG I ALMOST HAD ONE, SO TEMPTING." He promptly printed out a sign of this:

Her response was: OMG BEST RESPONSE EVER. Then when we left the house half the plate went missing haha.

As usual, I made a savoury dish but this time it was as more of an afterthought since I really wanted to make the cookies first and foremost. This is just a basic meatball stew/soup recipe cobbled together that I normally make for lunches in winter. Change/adapt to whatever is in your kitchen but here is my basic recipe. Its not the fanciest thing in the world, but its cheap, filling and smells delicious, and nearly everyone has this stuff in their pantry.

Meatball Soup

Uses: warm belly lunches. Making salad eating nurses jealous.

Meatball recipe:

Ingredients:

500kg beef/chicken/pork/veal mince

1 small onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup of tasty cheese
1 large egg, beaten
Salt and pepper to taste

All the ingredients in one!

1. Mix all this stuff together

Before

After

2. Make small 50c piece sized balls or whatever shape you want. Squeeze them hard like you're strangling your worst enemy

Nice. Also a wild hairy foot is spotted!

3. Put in the fridge for at least 15 minutes so they hold their shape,
4. Briefly fry them in hot oil until golden brown edged

Mmm meatballs. Ignore burnt bits, they will add flavour to your soup!

5. Set aside and begin making soup

Soup recipe:
1 large onion, sliced/diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

2x 500g cans of diced tomato

1x 500g can of 4 bean mix

2x carrots, sliced
1 large potato, scrubbed, diced
1 small capsicum, diced
1tbsp Tomato paste
500ml-1L of chicken stock
1tbsp mixed herbs
Salt/Pepper/Brown Sugar/Balsamic Vinegar to taste

Ingredients:

1. Brown off the onion on a medium heat until slightly browned

2. Throw in your garlic and stir until you can smell cooked garlic

3. Throw in everything hard, like potatoes, carrots, all your canned goods and all your stock. Bring to the boil. Hard herbs go in now as well.

Classy.

Overcrowding ftw

4. Remember to skim off scum. Reduce to a simmer until the potato begins to soften, throw in meatballs and softer vegetables such as mushrooms, capsicum and friends

SKIM SKIM

5. This is the time for seasoning with salt, pepper, sugar, balsamic vinegar and soft herbs if wanted.

Lastly, here is a picture of the first blog related injury sustained in the kitchen.

Poor darling.

What happened? Well the can opener I picked out was apparently one of the two dodgy ones in my Boyfriend's share house and it doesn't maintain equal pressure when being used. So I had to keep repuncturing the can. Once I failed to open it, I called in my Boyfriend and he got out his actual can opener which works, and did another go around the can, which resulted in this razor sharp second ring on the can. He then pried out the fallen in ring and flicked it up against his thumb quite deeply. Thanks for taking one for the team darling :)