With Great Privilege Comes Great Responsibility

Today I become a doctor.
Christ.
After 4 years of medical school, 6 years working within maxillofacial surgery also mostly during this time, 5 years at dental school followed by a brief year as a dentist and no less than 3 separate degrees, I am finally being let lose with my “MBChB” or Bachelors of Medicine and Bachelors of Surgery degree. It’s terrifying. Only by the virtue that I have, in a lesser way, been here before – by being the junior “doctor” looking after head and neck trauma and cancer patients whilst “just” a dentist (fear not – this is perfectly legal!) plus I’ve had years to think about and prepare for this day am I not paralysed with the pressure of this huge responsibility. I drew the short straw and have been assigned medical nights on call as my first shift hence why I am here prattling on to you guys! My baptism of fire commences at 9pm this evening. So I best get this blog post written so I can get back to sleep …

Right ho, after that bombshell I feel a recap is needed. I’m painfully aware of how long it’s been since I last blogged and I have missed it terribly. But, sometimes you just have to sit back and allow life to take you where you need to go. The last 7 weeks between finishing my medical degree and starting work as a real doctor (OMG) have been a period of great reflection for me. About who I am, where I am now and where I want my future to take me. I’ll not bore you with a soul-wrenching monologue on “me” but I will give you the highlights of the what I’ve been upto.

There firstly was leaving med school – a period of great tension release, much sleep and the start of much jubilation and celebration for me, my friends and extended family. The weather picked up, I started cycling outdoors lots and lost more weight yippee! However, me and Hungry Hubby took a very last minute trip to Lanzarote to get away from the madness of everyday life and relax in the sun and we both came back with much extra baggage and I don’t mean from souvenirs either lol! This trip was sponsored by my Daddums who made the trip possible by the way of an extraordinarily generous graduation gift. Thank you Daddums – it was exactly what I needed and I know just how hard it would have been for you to give me such a generous gift.

Whilst we were away, me and Hubs celebrated our 12th year of being a couple – we haven’t even been married two years yet but we’ve been together since I certainly was a teenager and we celebrated with a fabulous meal in a sea-adjacent restaurant on a balmy evening in the beautiful Playa Blanca in Lanzarote on 14th July. Bliss! It did my soul good to be away from social media, mobile phones and constant emails I can tell you that for free! On our return, the following day was my graduation – a wonderful happy day filled with smiles, laughs, great food, a bottle or two of fabulous wine and champagne and to top it off, even the extremely clumsy me managed to teeter across the stage to collect my degree certificate in my 5 inch nude pink patent leather peep toe heels without falling off them – a miracle people, I kid you not! I’m so glad I went to my ceremony as it cemented for me the idea that I *can* do this. I *am* qualified and so to date, the 13 years since I left school have been propelling me ever forward towards this day and whilst I might be understandably anxious, I’m finally ready for the next challenge. Hello vertical learning curve old friend, we meet again!

One blog-relevant occasion which occurred whilst I was sunning myself in 35 degree heat next to the hotel pool, reading an actual book (no Kindle for me!) was that my wee blog celebrated (all by its lonely self) it’s first birthday! 11th July marks the day I created my blog. Whilst I did not have the time to bake a cake to mark this wee momentous occasion (to me at least ) nor was I here to post a “Happy Blogday” post, I was reflecting on the year gone by and just how much I have loved every minute of food blogging. It is this which I feel most guilty for missing by my unintentional blog-sabbatical.

The last thing to mention is also the source of the recipe for which I am leading up to giving you. Just before I went on holiday, a few of my local-ish foodie friends (pictured above) paid me and my hometown a visit to spend a day together, eating cake and pastries at my place then toddling into town for some shopping then an early dinner to celebrate my imminent graduation. It was the most wonderful day, the sort after which you collapse into bed to tired to speak but with a happy smile on your face as you drift off for a big sleep. Here’s a selection of the yummies I made for the occasion. You can make the large sweet Danish plait and the sausage ones from the incredible (if magnificently over-indulgent) pastry recipe I’m about to share with y’all.

From the top left clockwsie we have a coconut and cranberry cream cheese danish plait, sausage and bacon danishes, miniature chocolate Guinness cakes with mascarpone frosting and orange and sultana scones to be eaten with clotted cream and jam

As one of said foodie friends has just gone vegetarian, I decided to make a veggie version of a recipe I’d been eyeing up in Jo Wheatley’s A Passion For Baking – her sausage and bacon savoury danishes. Having never made laminated pastry before (essentially a yeasted dough puff pastry) as it’s rather naughty due to the mahoosive butter content I jumped at the chance at finally having enough “taste testers” to make it and not have to worry about eating the evidence all by myself lol! Sooo, for Em, said veggie friend, I created a mushroom and caramelised Marsala mushroom danish, just praying it turned out edible! To my surprise and delight, they proved so popular that I only had the meaty ones left at the end of the day – even the confirmed carnivores wolfed them down with abandon! There’s nothing that makes a cook feel more warm and fuzzy then hearing yummy noises followed by empty plates with crumbs and the occasional smear of chutney on the plates. Awesomeness itself.

So here I give you my mushroom danishes. Not the prettiest picture in the food blog world but the taste more than makes up for that, I promise! You do need a day beforehand to make the pastry but the assembly is beyond easy and the I warn you, eating only one is not an option
Mushroom & Caramelised Onion Danishes

Wish me luck for tonight – I’ll see y’all on t’other side with lots of exciting new recipes to share with you plus a very exciting secret collaboration soon to be aired on a blog near you. Details will be forthcoming, mwuahahahaha!