The Food in My Beard

Refreshing Summer Drink

2008-07-03T06:01:43.81-07:00

This drink was inspired by a drink Mandi got at KO prime. From the menu:

Grapes of Wrath
Grey Goose Poire Vodka , New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, muddled cucumber & pineapple.

She continually said that this was the best part of her meal. She wasn’t the biggest fan of her bone marrow app (I was), and she has had better pork belly. We didn’t look up the actual drink last night when we attempted to re create it, but what we made was delicious and very similar. On a side note, I hate muddling and did not muddle this drink. I think you can get all the flavor from the fruits and mint without bruising and smashing them into a big mess. This is a great article on mixing drinks and it totally captures my opinions on cocktails. Be sure to watch the video too!

I like to make simple syrup very sugary so there is not unnecessary water in the drink. This was 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water. Heat and stir until the sugar melts. Add some more sugar if you think the water can absorb more, then cool it before using. This simple syrup appears to be cooking on some sort of dream world floating stove.

Harvesting some fresh mint for the drinks.

I got a little carried away. The white words are the ones related to the drink.

Who needs “one part of this, two parts of this.” Just dump it and eyeball. This is a complicated drink so it is easier to make a pitcher so you aren’t forced to make them all night for people. Notice I did not put soda water in here. I like to put that in to each person’s glass as you pour it.

Couple ice cubes in each glass, then pour in the mixture half way and fill with soda water.

This was very refreshing for a summer night!

To review:
Cucumber chunks
Pineapple chunks
Mint
Simple Syrup
Triple Sec
Vodka
Soda Water
Limes
Ice

Tip – Since you aren’t muddling, to get the best flavor from the mint, slap it in your palms a few times

Plant Update

2008-07-01T05:12:28.824-07:00

When you last saw my plants, the situation was dismal. The tomatoes had leaf miners and were extremely infected. The cayenne pepper plant had holes in many of the leaves, clearly being eaten by some pest who doesn’t mind spicy food. After doing much research online, I decided my best bet was to strip all the leaves from the tomato plants and just hope they survived. I was heading out on vacation to Boston and I didn’t tell anyone to water them when I was gone. This was because I did not think they were going to survive anyways and was kind of upset about the whole situation. Just as I was getting into the cab to the airport, I looked over my plants and saw a new leaf on one of the tomatoes! I was shocked and kind of disappointed that they would be left to nature for water purposes for the next week and a half. Well when I got back, I was stunned to see large, green, leafy, and thriving plants in my walkway! My landlord had taken it upon himself to nurse my poor plants back to life! Before I had 4 tomato plants and 2 pepper plants, and now I have 2 tomatos and 1 pepper, so it wasn’t a 100% recovery, but it was still really great because I thought they all were goners.

My herbs are doing great as well, except for the cilantro. Cilantro does not do well in high heat. The plant is now flowering and while there are still many leaves, they taste kinda funky. They have a distinct cilantro flavor, but it is off for some reason.

This is a Thai basil flower. You are supposed to take the flowers off of basil, but we left one because it is so beautiful. Also because we use Thai basil less than sweet basil so we thought it would be ok. Different from cilantro, this flower tastes wonderful and we may try to use it for presentation at some point. When we went to Ken Oringer’s restaurant KO Prime in Boston, he used herb flowers in almost every dish.

Now here are the tomatoes and peppers.

The pepper plant is clearly doing great.

Here are some blossoms where tomatoes are about to grow.

Here are some already started!

Fresh Ricotta

2008-06-30T05:46:47.382-07:00

I have always wanted to make cheese at home. But you know how those things go... it's just something that I talk about but keep putting off. Yesterday when I saw ricotta in our recipe I decided to stop putting it off and give it a try! Ricotta is a great intro to home cheesemaking because it is fairly simple. Now that we've tried it, I have the feeling we will start making it all the time because it was easy and so delicious! I have seen Mario make this before and planned to use his recipe, but we ended up using one from my new favorite food site - playing with fire and water. The only ingredients were milk, buttermilk, and salt! The main difference is the acid used to help the milk separate into curds and whey. In Mario’s recipe, lemon juice is the acid but in this recipe it is buttermilk.

Cheese cloth isn’t used for cheese much anymore, it’s mostly used for straining, cleaning, polishing, dusting, waxing, and staining for furniture and cleanup.

Most recipes say to line a strainer with the cheesecloth, but we don’t have a big strainer so I just stretched it out over a bowl so it was sturdy enough to hold the cheese and let it strain into the bowl.

Put a gallon of whole milk and a quart of buttermilk on medium high heat. Every 5 minutes, lightly scrape the bottom of the pot with a rubber spatula to be sure no curds are sticking to the bottom and burning. Do this slowly so you don’t disrupt the curd formation.

Use a heavy pot. Ours wasn’t quite heavy enough and the milk kinda freaked out a few times. I don’t really know how else to describe it…

For those who have a thermometer, you need to bring this to 170 F. If you do not have one, it is ready when it looks like this.

Shut off the heat and move it to another burner. Add 2 ice cubes. Stir lightly. Let it sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. Then scoop the curds into the cheesecloth.

Mmmmm

After 10 minutes in here, it’s ready.

Put it into a bowl and fold in some salt. This is delicious warm with a dot of honey. Then put it into the fridge and use as store bought ricotta. Tune in later this week to see what we used it for!

Again, the recipe is here

S'Mores

2008-06-27T06:12:19.799-07:00

Going away parties are always bittersweet events. You go and have a great time, but in the morning you have fewer friends. Todd and Joy are heading home to Canada tomorrow and had a beach party last night to say goodbye. I decided to take some pics to post here for 4 reasons. First, nothing I have on the site is simple, so sometimes people think I can’t eat normal food. Like I have to spend 2 hours cooking dinner or I won’t enjoy it. I think no matter how immersed you are in the food world, if you cant eat a hot dog, you’ve crossed the line into snob territory. Second reason, Mandi loves s’mores. So do I, but not as much as her. Last summer every time we lit the grill she would have a s’more appetizer. In my opinion, it is the best desert flavor combo. Whenever I ever see a s’more dessert at a restaurant I have to try it (and I usually don’t get dessert). We even tried to make a s’more ice-cream cake once and bought a mini blowtorch for it but it didn’t turn out that good. The third reason for me posting these pics is to say goodbye to Todd and Joy. I have worked with Todd, and Mandi has worked with Joy, for over a year and they will be missed in the office, at the work events, and of course, at the parties and bars. The final reason for this post is I’m wicked behind on cooking since our return and I had nothing else to put up!

Pickles and onions are essentials for me on hot dogs.

I had to drink 2 beers while I prepped so that the food could fit in the cooler.

The party is underway. These pics make it look like it wasn’t that nice of a night but it was actually beautiful with not a cloud to be seen.

I snuck my dog onto the grill.

This is how I like my hotdog. Raw onions, pickles, and a lot of mustard.

I liked the way these pics came out with no flash.

Mandi likes to burn the marshmallows, but I cook them slow with a nice golden crust.

So serious.

If Mandi’s hand wasn’t so sandy, I would contest that this is the best picture ever taken of a s’more.

Ewwwwww lick that sandy hand.

As usual, things started to get crazy after everyone finished eating.

If you don’t understand this picture, you should be ashamed of yourself. Learn.

One last marshmallow for the road.

The party is dying down. Keep in touch Todd and Joy! We will miss you.

BBQ

2008-06-26T05:52:10.068-07:00

One of the many highlights of my trip home was the last day. Steph hosted a BBQ so I could see a bunch of people from the area that afternoon. Fun times were had by all. We ate cous cous salad, corn on the cob, jalepeno poppers, pancetta wrapped peaches, scallops, and of course, ribs! Recipes / links are at the bottom of the post.

Steph and Kim were in charge of the ribs since I had lunch with my family. When I got there, they had been in the oven for 2 hours on low.

Mandi started prepping the cous cous right away.

Blurry chives

Lisa and Cait cutting some jalapeños for the poppers

I like to wrap some bacon around these, but Cait is the V-word. She filled them with sour cream and cheddar and topped some with Doritos crumbs.

Dressing the cous.

2 hands at once

The ribs are out and the liquid they cooked in is reducing to become glaze. It took way longer than we expected for this to reduce.

For the peaches, I first cut them in half, pitted them, then cut them in to 1/8 size wedges. Then I wrapped them with the thin pancetta slices. I saw this recipe in the newest food and wine magazine.

They were easy to cook cause they had 3 flat sides. Get the pan going real hot so they crisp up nice without making the peach soggy.

Lisa looks like she just got caught doing something wrong.

Cait grilled the poppers until they got melty.

I just put the peaches over some mixed greens and drizzled on balsamic and olive oil. Not everyone was a fan, but the people who were, were HUGE FANS. Bill?

Kim is finishing off the ribs in the grill, glazing them as she goes.

Get that dirt off ya shoulder.

Riiiibs.

The food is done, time for the real party to start.

Notice the rib bone he is holding with no meat on it. That’s a sign of a good rib!

A few fireworks to end the night right.

Ribs

Pancetta wrapped peaches

Cous cous salad

Jalapeño Poppers:
Half jalapeños the long way, scoop out middle but leave a little for some heat.
Fill with cream cheese Top with cheddar
Grill until melty

Scallops (not shown) and corn (barely shown) :
Salt, pepper, grill, done.

Iceberg Wedges

2008-06-25T06:50:47.691-07:00

Were back! And what a great vacation it was! Wanna hear about it? Here goes. Ribs 4 times, potato salad, peaches wrapped in bacon, pasta salad, scallops, taco dip, chicken wings, cheesesteaks, qdoba burrito, cheese fries, cheese fries, mcdonalds 4 times, steak egg and cheese bagel from there, sausage egg and cheese from dunks, finagled another bagel, 2x taco bell, (once drunk at 1:30 am with my family?) clam chowder, clam chowder, chili, fried fish sandwich, beef burros, boneless wings from petes (still good), soft pretzel, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, spicy basil pad Thai, spring rolls, kobe flat iron, tuna tartare, sweetbreads, bone marrow, and about 400 or so beers. I’m sure I missed stuff; we had about 4 meals a day. And NOW it is time for a diet! Starting off my diet today I have an iceberg wedge salad with a blue cheese dressing. Blue cheese dressing!?! You can’t have that if you are trying to be healthy!!!!! Relax folks, we only used 4 oz. of blue cheese (<200 calories each) and made the dressing with low fat yogurt and buttermilk. It was delicious!

Strain the yogurt to give it a better consistency. Overnight is better, but an hour is ok too.

We were in the mood for celery after seeing Alton do a whole show about it the night before so we used a lot.

Fine dice for the tuna, and bigger for on top.

So we didn’t want to use mayo in the tuna just like we didn’t use it in the dressing. We tried to figure out something creamy that would be delicious and bind the tuna. I thought avocado because I put it in my tuna sandwiches so I knew the flavor combo would work. We just hoped the color would remain appetizing.

Yogurt, buttermilk, and blue cheese for the dressing.

Smash it in there.

These are for the tuna.

Chives from the garden were a nice touch but not necessary. We also squeezed a few drops of lemon juice in.

We decided to keep the lettuce in wedges to make it classy like at a steakhouse. These wedges are in dramatic lighting.

The tuna mixed with avocado, celery, and red onion. Tuna guacamole if you will. Because I will. I even kinda like the color.

A drizzle of this

A pinch of that.

Some celery leaves for the top.

And more of the celery and onion.

Tune in tomorrow for another healthy salad, and Friday for some pictures and recipes from the TFIMBBBQ.

Vacation

2008-06-13T12:34:38.46-07:00

Hello loyal readers of TFIMB. I wanted to let everyone know that there will be a week and a half hiatus of posts because Mandi and I are off to Boston and Springfield for a week’s vacation that includes my cousin’s wedding. I am sorry because I know you all will miss my daily musings on food and life in Bermuda , but I am really excited to get off the island for a bit! Here is a list of restaurants and other food related places I am hoping to hit. Some are old favorites from living and working in the city, others are new places I am pumped to try out. If I hit most of these, I will come back a happy man. Check out some of my old yelp reviews of the ones I’ve been to, and the websites of the ones I haven’t.

Strega
Otherside Café
Border Café
La Verdad
Qdoba / Flamers at the Pru food court.
KO Prime
Petes – old college wing place. Is it still good?
Presto – Greasy Pizza like we cant get in Bermy

Then of course, there is my sisters apartment for one of her infamous NBA Finals grubfests. A TFIMB sponsored BBQ in Springfield , and a dinner party with the design team.

If you are in Boston next week, CALL ME! Or click that mail icon thing on the upper left and send me an email with your number and I will call you. You know you're gonna eat well at least.

Mexican Party

2008-06-13T07:14:08.098-07:00

Last weekend was the 7^th annual Mexican party hosted by Amy and Cheryl. Mandi and I were lucky enough to go last year, and this year TFIMB was the corporate sponsor (without actually giving any money). A great time was had by all and I took some pictures of the festivities. There will be no recipes today except for one vague one for the pork that everyone requested.

Dan: hey you think i could get the pork recipe for the post today? im not going to put up any recipes except that one cause it was such a big hit.

Amy: There wasn't a recipe actually. I put a Mexican dry rub on it that I bought at Target (Archer Farms). In the bottom of the pots, I put a mixture of orange juice, lime juice, garlic and oregano. Roasted at 425 for about a half hour to brown a bit, then took it down to 300 for about 5 hours. Each Boston Butt was about 5-6 lbs. Oh my god, I'm hungry!

This is some beef chuck boiling away

Delicious!

Homemade salsa.

No cans here folks

Queso!

TC is MAN-ing the grill.

His Domain

Cheryl prepping some of the appetizers.

The beef shredded.

Corn bread. Ain’t nothing wrong with that!

Where are you going?!? You're gonna miss the party!

This is quite the authentic party

Kel and Todd setting up.

Here is the pork we discussed earlier.

Our gracious hosts. Thanks guys!

People are starting to arrive.

I was passing out fliers as you can see, she got one.

This happy couple is in Texas gettin’ hitched as we speak. Congrats!

A different angle. I could never imagine feeding this many people!! Yet.

Cheryl made tortillas all week. Over 200!!

The pork all shredded.

Im not sure if these 2 were fussing with the trays a ton, or if I was just drunkenly taking too many pictures, but this made me laugh.

The sun goes down and it is time to eat.

Oh my.

I was first to eat and was finished in time to get a few shots of the assembly line.

CLEANING IS FUN!!!!!

Chili Cheese Corn Dog Fries!?!?

2008-06-12T05:01:09.997-07:00

My sister has made the most heart attack inducing, cholesterol raising, trans-fatty incredible meal that she wanted to share with the world the only way she knew how, with a guest post on TFIMB! She will take over for the rest of the post and I may have some comments in red. (P.S. the recipe links seem to be diverting to the main Phantom page because they are advertizing a beach bbq. if you go to the bottem right of the page you can get to the main phantom page, then click restaurant recipes and it is the first one there.)

Since the 1st Celtics playoff game vs. the Atlanta Hawks, there has been a feeding frenzy at my house. One of our regular group, who has been there for every game, could easily take on Kobayashi in a hot dog eating contest. Since the beginning of the playoffs, he's been talking about the chili and cheese corn dog fries that he saw on Phantom Gourmet. My promise was that they would happen when we made it to the finals. Well, here we are, game 2: the C's vs. Lakers.

Ubuntu

this is one of the easiest 3 layer dips, and it tastes really good too!

In honor of TFIMB I chose to do the prep on the coffee table (that and there was probably something good on TV)

I guess she had to make something to throw to the crowd to keep them at bay.

I learn every thing I know about broiling cheese from my brother

The original recipe didn't include chili or cheese but i mean come on, honestly? This is the ground beef onions, and garlic. The onions were softened before I added the ground beef.

I'm really excited.

Yikes! Good thing your hair is in the way. This is a family website! Kinda..

I'm sure my brother will tell you that making chili from scratch makes all the difference, but the biggest concern tonight are the corn dog fries. Plus Bush's Chili Magic is really good.

Making chili from scratch makes ALL the difference here. trust

YUM

Back to the coffee table. Hot dogs were cut in to fourths the long way.

And then in half

The dry ingredients

The best part about this was the 3 grown men crying from the onion in the other room. I need about 3 grated onions for the batter.

The wet batter was cream corn, 1 jalapeno, the grated onions, and butter milk. This is after I added the dry mix to it.

I decided to throw some onion rings in the mix. I’m sure you’re thinking "if this has been going on since the beginning of the finals then they must have gained 10 pounds." You would be wrong, it’s more like 15.

The batter should get nice and dark. I cut the dogs in half so there not quite long enough to curl up like it says in the recipe.

the onions.

Holy amazing.

Their mouths are too full to smile.

Go C's take it in 6 in Boston , so I can reclaim my living room.

It may be that the games start so late, but my guess is it’s the 7 hot dogs he had at a bbq just before he came over to eat a huge plate of chili and cheese corn dogs that put him on the floor.

Recipe.

Taco Burgers!

2008-06-10T05:37:46.955-07:00

Mandi always claims she hates burgers. I think one of the reasons is that when I make them, they always end up huge and have no direction. I put in whatever is in the fridge and they end up tasting more like meatloaf than cheeseburgers. Now that grilling season has begun, I am trying to make more focused burgers and turn around Mandi’s opinion. My first attempt was a taco burger. An obvious choice due to her love of tacos!

If I was enjoying these burgers in the comfort of my own apartment, I would just put some thick avocado slices on top, but today I needed a more portable option. I blended 3 avocados with a spoon of sour cream and 1 lime of juice.

It was a pain to get it into the squeeze bottle because it was really thick so I handed the job off.

I am sorry I do not have exact measurements for the spices, but it doesn’t have to be exact. This is 1 pound of beef.

It was windy that day so we had to build the fire behind a rock.

When we finally got the coals going, they were really hot because of the constant wind.

That’s the kind of char I like on a burger, you can see it and taste it, but it doesn’t overpower and is still tender on the inside.

Top it with cheddar cheese, the avocado condiment, and a nice big piece of lettuce. A thick tomato slice would have really finished them off nice but we didn’t have any.

I think she is scared of the taco burger. Don’t be scared!

More avocado!

In the beef:

Salt
Pepper
Cumin
Chile powder
Paprika
Cayenne
Cilantro
Onions
Chipotle
Oregano

In the Avocado topping

3 avocados
Juice of 1 lime
Spoon of sour cream

Beef Stroganoff

2008-06-09T07:29:26.849-07:00

I think Beef Stroganoff is kind of a wintery meal for most people. For Mandi, she craves it when she is sick. I know in the afternoon when she isn’t feeling too well. She says to me, “can you make me something yummy and eggy noodley tonight?” I hadn’t made her stroganoff in awhile so I decided to go a different way with it which was a real risk because if Mandi is in the mood for something, it can be very specific. I wanted to make a Jamie Oliver recipe I saw him make on the mushroom episode of Jamie at Home. I usually make this sans mushrooms but I wanted to add some today. I did not have the fresh mushrooms or venison he uses, but I was looking more for a method anyways.

(Note about the recipe. It is really lame that this recipe is only available in the US . It doesn’t even make sense to me. I just had my friend who lives there get it and email it to me. I was going to post it on here but I don’t want the food network or Jamie to get mad at me!!)

Dried mushrooms in a bowl ready to be reconstituted. Instead of using water and losing all the flavor, use a liquid you will be cooking with.

I used the brandy needed later in the recipe. (What am I gonna do with all the rest of the brandy??? I will look something up and get back to you.)

Sliced garlic, diced onions

Parsley leaves for garnish, stems for cooking.

“finger sized” pieces of tenderloin.

They are covered in salt pepper and paprika.

Slight brown on the onions and garlic.

Squeeze out the liquid from the reconstituted mushrooms and save it to add in the pan later. I added some more brandy as well because that wasn’t quite enough.

Here I am pouring the brandy into the pan. I have my lighter out and ready to flame it up…

Wohooo! Fire! *(Note about the fire, Mandi didn’t get the pic in time so I had to simulate it. It's cool though I don’t think people will notice. not her fault... she was sick remember?)

Crème fresh added at the last min.

He uses rice but I love this with egg noodles.

Pickles on stroganoff? Jamie you must be crazy! It turned out he was crazy in an awesome way because it was delicious. I almost didn’t even put them on but it was great.

Recipe. (remember not available outside of the US, use a proxy server or friend to get it)