William Broadhead

We had dinner tonight with my honey at Star of India after enjoying “L’arnacoeur” at the Broadway. A nice evening.

Vanessa Paradis

Movie was very well done. Had Vanessa Paradis in it. Last film I saw her in I was in France and it was a strange magical fantasy style movie. “Un amour de sorcière” si je me souviens bien. Il y avait Jean Reno aussi dans ce film. I’ve always liked him since “Le grand bleu“. And “La femme Nikita“. And “Les visiteurs” bien sûr. “Un amour” was not great a great film though. Pretty bad actually. So wasn’t sure what to expect in this film with her as the leading lady. Vanessa Paradis in it who did reasonably well. But she has been busy with Johnny Depp since then.

Romain Duris

I’ll tell you who had a great performance was Romain Duris. I vaguely recall him in “L’auberge espagnole“, anyone, anyone, anyone remember this one? I thought this was also decent. This had Audrey Tatou of “Amélie” fame in it as well. So Romain did a great job. I was a little worried about him being convincing as a bodyguard but they pulled it off and made it all come together.

L’arnacoeur (Heartbreaker)

So it was good! I recommend it. I like how they used a play on words (jeu de mots) with Arnaqueur. Ha ha. It made me laugh. And YES, they offset coeur in a different colour just in case you missed it (it is a homonym sound in French). Funny thing is “Les arnaqueurs” was the very first film I saw in France (The Grifters with John Cusack). I can’t remember if I saw it in VO or dubbed anymore. Funny that. I still have only seen “Soylent Green” in German… [… “Soylent Grün ist manfleisch!!!!…. as they drag away Heston]

Star of India

Food was great! Took me back to college days when we would all go to Sarita’s and have Paneer, Kheer, Indian cheesecake, Saagaloo, lamb, sishkabobs, rice, chutneys and curries. Yum.

WBQ BBQ Burgers. YUM!

I hope you all had a great weekend. Our fam enjoyed a Luau, a Chile Verde Fest, and an evening at my house with extended family featuring my own special recipe for spicy WBQ Burgers. I  will  give you the recipe as best I can, but I always make it to taste with what I have on hand. I can tell you it almost always includes oatmeal, Dakota sauce, chile powder and/or cayenne, Worcestershire sauce, and sometimes cold pressed whole flaxseed. Sounds good and healthy, right? I don’t know about healthy, but it sure is good, and you get a little more fibre than usual. One of the main reasons for adding the oatmeal, in addition to pretending to be better for you, is that it helps the meat stick together better. If you try omitting it and then add all that sauce and stuff, you will have a tough time keeping your burgers in one piece on your grill.

Here is my best guess at a recipe for these burgers:

WBQ Burgers

Makes 16-18 1/4 to 1/3 lb burgers

• 4lbs 85 -90% lean hamburger
• 1.5 cups old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup cold pressed flaxseed
• 1/4 cup Dakota sauce (sub with Hickory Smoke Flavour + more Chile/Cayenne if you can’t find this)
• 1tbsp chipotle powder
• 1 to 2 tbsp chile and/or cayenne powder
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

Mush this up real good. I use a little aluminium burger press to make slightly larger than 1/4 lb burgers by not squeezing it completely shut. Then I round it up a bit by hand. I get my grill up to about 400 and throw the burgers on so they get good sear marks. I turn the grill down to about 275-300 and let cook 2 or three minutes and then flip for another 3 to 4 minutes with the grill on low so the temperature drops (at the hood thermostat, your grill may vary) to about 225 and they are usually done by then. I usually squish them a bit to get some of the fat out. Remove from grill and let sit for about 6 to 7 minutes while I toast the buns on the grill and then serve. Delicious!