Tacos.  Almost every week since college I have eaten tacos on Thursday night.  At one time it was much simpler.  Taco kit, jar of salsa, bag of cheese, some pre washed/cut lettuce, and call it a day.  As the years went by, we swapped out the pre made ingredients one by one to get where we are today. Trade a jar of salsa to bought fresh salsa to actually making salsa.  Go from the taco seasoning packet, to half the packet and some of your own spices, to fully using your own blend.  This obviously is a very American version of tacos, tune in Monday and I will post a more authentic Mexican version of tacos we actually made last night!

The most common question asked of me by friends is this – “what’s a quick, easy, healthy, and delicious dinner I can have after work tonight?” What do you guys think I am, Rachael ray?  Well guess what!? You’re all in luck! I am on a diet since bathing suit season starts in a week or 2 here in Bermuda. (Even though actual Bermudians refuse to go to the beach until May 25^th.) So I will have some healthy weeknight dinners up here in the next few weeks.  Now don’t worry, they won’t all be healthy.  I have a few posts I made pre-dieting that I am waiting to post.  Also, my diets are short because they are intense.

I’m rambling, so without further a due, my FAVORITE fast easy delicious and super-ancient-whole-grain-run-a-mile-punch-a-baby-healthy meal!  Fish-in-a-bag!

Some of my friends right now are saying “Fish?  Really?  I mean… I don’t really like fish.” To you I say shut up and make this and you will LOVE it.  Unless you mess it up somehow which you probably will.  Jeez my friends are dumb... just kidding friends!

Click below for more!!

A slightly shorter review this week because while it was an interesting episode, there was not much to report on because no one did really great or really awful.  The theme for the 5 remaining restaurants this week was branding your establishment and making sure people know what your restaurant is all about when they come in for a meal.  Raymond decided that he would give the teams some direction and tell them that teaching a cooking class would be a helpful way to explain to people about your brand and get the word out.

Click to continue **SPOILERS**

Today I am pleased to bring you an exciting and all new section on my website!  This new category will be called restaurant recipes, where I try a dish at a great local Bermuda eatery, and using my excellent taste buds; I will reverse engineer the recipe and present it here for your at-home enjoyment!!  Imagine, sitting at home reminiscing on your beautiful honeymoon in Bermuda, eating at that wonderful restaurant.  Now you can take that experience home!

First up-

La Trattoria’s Spaghetti alla carbonara

You guys are in for a real treat here!  Spaghetti alla carbonara – pasta in the style of the coal miner’s wife – is a staple in Italy.  A real Italian classic. Let’s get started

This dish classically requires pancetta, but for a very special Trattoria twist, go to the supermarket and grab any old packet of thin sliced bacon.  Nothing special here, the cheaper the better.  This will give you that authentic taste; you will think you are eating inside the restaurant!!

Now take that bacon you got, and cut it into strips, put it into a sauté pan and cook it for about 30 seconds each side.  Make sure it stays mostly raw – you want that deliciously unappetizing chewiness of undercooked bacon.  Now go in the refrigerator, and grab some leftover spaghetti.  Something you cooked yesterday that is kind of all starched together. Don’t worry about that cause once you get it in the pan, it will break up.  Ok throw this into the sauté pan with the barely cooked bacon and coat it.  In a separate cup, mix one egg, 2 cups of cream, and a tablespoon of Kraft parmesan in the plastic green container.  Dump this into the sauté pan.  Make sure it is extra hot now so that if some egg hits the pan it gets nice and scrambled.

Take it off the heat and put it in a to-go container!   Wow!  It’s THAT EASY!  You can have authentic food from La Trattoria restaurant at home!  Whatever you do, DO NOT put parsley on this dish!  Why would you ruin it with green stuff??  Also, if your guests inquire about the bacon in the dish, act really confused.  Say “bacon? I don’t know…bacon? What’s this bacon you speak of?”  Insist that it is Pancetta and make sure you say it like this: pan-cheh'-tuh.  This will give your guests that true feeling like they are actually at this restaurant.

--EDIT-- April 2nd --

This post is half April fools joke, half bad review of the restaurant.  To be fair however, we do go there for lunch often because it is convenient and delicious (if you order the right thing).  Also the pizza is pretty good.  One Sunday after sleeping a little late and not having any food in the house, I suddenly had the craving for carbonara and what I got was pasta in cream sauce with half cooked bacon.  That’s what prompted me to write this.  Also the fact that they take themselves really seriously as Italian with accents and if you pronounce something wrong, they act like they have no idea what you are saying, but then when you get the food, it is just the usual Italian American fare you would find at an olive garden.  Please don’t ban me for life La Trattoria.

Today I have a guest post from the design team.  Rich and Kim had a few friends over Rich and Mike’s apartment and served them a delicious looking duck dinner.  When a bunch of friends get together like this, it makes me wish I could be back in Boston hanging out with them.  But in a few weeks, I will be making them jealous with weekly beach trips so it isn’t so bad.  Rich’s comments will be in green, and I might make a few in black.

"Cookin' Up Some Quack"

Kim, Mike, Steph, Alex, Amy, and I were the 6 party people on Friday...  good thing there weren't any more people than that, even though I invited 5 other people who couldn't come.  The amount of food ended up literally being just enough and there was only 1 piece of Duck left over.

I have decided that yesterday and today’s posts may be a bit confusing to people who might want to make some of these dishes for themselves.  Because of that, over the weekend I will be writing the individual recipes down for each dish and posting them on 5 separate pages in the recipe section.  So you should just look at these posts as a view of a fun night and come back next week for the recipes if you so desire.

We continue where we left off, just as the guests were arriving...

Since we decided to house sit for our friends, we knew we needed to have a dinner party.  We have people over for food all of the time, but it is very casual.  It is also hard because we don’t have a table to eat on.  We usually end up having pizza or cheesesteaks.  We knew we would have a really nice kitchen and dining table for a week and we knew we would need to use them.  We decided to go OTT with this party because who knows when we would next have such an opportunity.  The more over the top we started thinking, the crazier it became.

I am disappointed to say that I will NOT be reviewing last restaurant standing this week.  Unfortunately, the cable at my apartment goes in and out, and last night it was out.  The cable company blames “sunspots” but I think it is just an excuse for their terrible service!  I hope to catch the episode sometime this week and be back next Wednesday with a new review.  Please check back here tomorrow because I am excited to bring you part 1 of a great 2 part post about a dinner party we had this past Friday.

This is not my beautiful house…

Tiny bubbles slowly begin to rise to the surface of the pot, the hiss of the frying pan becoming steadily louder.  Beautiful, fragrant smells hit my nose as my stomach begins to quietly rumble.  The symphony that is my dinner is about to hit its crescendo!  It's time to reach into the cupboard to do some last minute seasoning.  This is it; I can feel it coming together now... this is the easy part.  Like clockwork I can reach from spoon to spice.  Mix. Stir. Taste.  But wait… what is this… DOGFOOD?  What!  Nothing is where it should be?  This is not my kitchen!

And you might ask yourself – well… how did I get here?

As you probably know, this past week Dan and I had been house-sitting for some friends of ours while they were away.  We were pretty excited because they have a great kitchen, especially in comparison to our tiny place!  They have gas burners, plenty of counter space and ::gasp:: a dishwasher!  (Which here in Bermuda is a bit of a luxury.)  The other night after burning some garlic while searching for the salt, we started talking about what a funny thing it is, to be cooking in someone else's kitchen.  I don't think that I had realized the importance of such little things like knowing where the strainer is kept, or in which cabinet the cumin is hiding, because in cooking, timing really is everything.  While watching Top Chef the other night, I had a whole new respect for the contestants as they frantically flailed about in a foreign kitchen filled with strangers and a strict time limit!  But really isn't this what all chefs do on a nightly basis?  No matter how long a chef has been working in his or her kitchen there are always going to be some unknown factors that could cause chaos in a place that requires such precision. 

So how do they do it?  What is the key to this flexibility in the kitchen all the while maintaining the high level of accuracy needed?

Now I'm no expert, by any means, but this past week taught me something about cooking in a strange kitchen.  Something that I think applies to all cooking in any kitchen.  To borrow a rather cliché phrase made famous by the boy scouts, one must "always be prepared".  This point may seem blaringly obvious to some, but I think it’s worthwhile none the less.  Gathering up all supplies before beginning the task at hand is infinitely important.  To quote a personal hero of mine, Tony Bourdain, "as a cook, your station, and its condition, its state of readiness, is an extension of your nervous system".  I don't think I could possibly have said it any better.  Organizing your pots, pans, utensils, ingredients, and any other necessary preparation is referred to as your "mise-en-place".  And this is, I think, one of the keys to success in the kitchen.  So whether you’re in your very own home preparing the simplest dish, on an adventure in a foreign kitchen, or even a professional cook in a restaurant, I think that properly setting out your work area before cooking commences is vital, or else things are gonna get hectic real quick.  Once Dan and I had located everything we needed in the kitchen we could just enjoy the cooking (and the puppy) and not worry as much about finding the whisk.

Oh chicken tikka, like spaghetti with meatballs and general Tso before you, you have no cultural reference.  The California roll of Indian cuisine.  Created by an Indian expat in Britain to help western palates adapt to Middle Eastern flavors, Chicken Tikka Masala is the most popular “Indian” food around.  Since we hadn’t cooked Indian before, we thought it would be a good starting point.  We didn’t have much time to cook that night, but this recipe seemed so simple, what I had overlooked was resting and marinating times.  Because of this, our final product was slightly on the bland side but still really delicious. Click below for more

For the “about me” section of the website, I decided to have some of my friends interview me via email for the past couple days. This was hard for me because I don’t like writing about myself.  Anyways, here is the result.

Since Bermuda only has one fast food restaurant (kfc), which one is your first choice when visiting the states?  What is it that you missed?

Well, I love me a nice McDonalds cheeseburger, we usually get this first because it is usually on the way from the airport to wherever we are heading. But in reality what I miss most is taco bell and Qdoba.  We try and get taco bell 3 times on every trip to the states.  Other then that, I stay away from most fast food.  Trips to the US are basically eating frenzies for us because I miss all the food in the US.  Some restaurants here are really good, but only a handful, and as they get better they get crazy expensive.  The unlimited restaurant cornucopia we get when visiting the states is a bit too much for us to even handle.  I think I gained 8 pounds on my last trip.

Last restaurant standing is consistently getting better each episode and this one did not disappoint.  Last nights theme was selling your product.  Different from marketing outside the restaurant like 2 weeks ago, this is marketing inside.  Raymond has a secret ingredient he sends all the restaurants that the need to up sell over the weekend.

Click below for the review *** SPOILERS ***

Today is the coldest, windiest, dreariest day we have had here in Bermuda this winter.  Just when I was thinking the weather would turn and we would be at the beach in a few weeks, we get this crazy storm.  I had coffee today for the first time in months when I got in to work because the ride was so crazy.  Gigantic waves were crashing into the sea wall and splashing upon the road.  Gale force winds threatening to toss my bike like a child’s toy off of the asphalt and on to the rocks below. 

To further warm my body and mind, and remind me that spring IS coming here in Bermuda, I have decided to post some beach BBQ pictures from last year. Click below for the rest of the pics

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone, I was planning on cooking something themed for this day but unfortunately I’ve been pretty busy and also out of my element working in a foreign kitchen (more on this later).

Just a quick comment, I’m proud to say TFIMB has been featured this week on the threadless website because Mandi was wearing one of their shirts in some pictures.

Because last week was recipe intensive, there won’t be as many actual recipes this week, but I have some other stuff planned.  Here is a quiz I made for my friends recently where you need to identify the ingredient or food in each picture.  There are 15 pictures, this one is fairly easy but I may put up “round 2” if people are interested.  This is a good thing to challenge your friends with, and if you like it, check out this candy one I posted earlier.

One great application of chicken stock is making risotto.  Because of the effort involved in making it, I like to throw a lot of veggies and meat in and have it as a meal instead of a side.  Not that it is hard, it’s just time consuming and needs attention.  Like all the things we make, we made a ton and had lunches for work the next day.  It kept great and possibly even tasted better the next day!  This recipe is similar to a Giada recipe you can check out here.
Click below for more

These last two days of "happy chicken week" are just to show a couple different, interesting uses for the stored up chicken stock.  Our idea this past weekend was to cook something that looked like a totally different food than it actually was.

A few weeks ago at the Grillin and Chillin event we had a dish by Chef Shaker Estephane where the Mango was cut into what looked like stringy little noodles. This gave Mandi the idea that she wanted to make an entire dish where everything was shaped like noodles. I had also been thinking about it when reading Morimoto’s cookbook that I got for Christmas. He loves what he calls “visual food puns”.  So we first thought of a food we have often, spaghetti and meatballs. It got us thinking... what if the meat was the noodles, and the pasta was the meatballs? What we ended up with was pretty awesome. Click below for more.

Before I start my review today I just wanted to mention 2 things.  1, that happy chicken week will resume tomorrow with a recipe for risotto using that great chicken stock, and 2, that the new season of Top Chef starts tonight on Bravo.  This is hands down the best reality show about food there is on TV. (ha)  Definitely check it out tonight.  I WON’T be reviewing the show because a ton of other sites do including my favorite food blog Serious Eats.  Also because it comes on at 3AM in Bermuda and I have to watch it a day or 2 later.  I will however tell you that without seeing even one episode, or knowing anything about personality, TFIMB dot com is officially supporting Andrew for winner of top chef season 4.  Just look at that formidable beard.

Now on to Last Restaurant Standing!

 

Click below **SPOILERS**

This post stems from a few different things.  First – Mandi and I have been somewhat inspired by some of our favorite chefs, especially Jamie Oliver, in their discussion of the treatment of animals and what your meat goes through on the way to your mouth.  We watched Ramsay purchase baby turkeys on his show “the F word” and build a pen for them in his backyard.  His children would feed and play with them.  Eventually they became Christmas dinner at his restaurant. If you are interested in this topic you can read some great articles here and here

Anyways, because of all this, we decided to try and only eat what mandi calls “happy meat” for a few months (lent).  This may not seem hard to most people in the US.  Just go to Whole Foods, shell out a few extra bucks, and get yourself some hormone and antibiotic free beef and free range chicken.  Here in Bermuda, it’s a bit more of a challenge. Click below for more.

In the next week or two I will be doing a few posts for an “about me” section. This is for people who are new to the site to check out and get a feeling for where I am coming from. Today’s about me is a list of my top 5 favorite Celebrity food personalities with a few honorable mentions at the bottom.

The Guest Blogger is back again today.  It's Mandi, and her comments are in red.

This year for Dan’s big day I decided to get him the camera he’s been wanting.  He’s usually annoyingly good at guessing my presents but with this one I don’t think he expected it at all which is fun.  Probably because it’s way more than we usually spend on each other for birthdays… but I knew he really wanted it and truthfully I’m just sick of hearing him moan about his crappy quality pictures for the blog!  Anyway, so once I sorted out the actual camera it was time to conquer the cake…

Last nights episode of last restaurant standing was pretty boring.  I missed the antics of Sam and Jackie but also wanted more people kicked off so we could really get down to the meat of the show.  The problem is they skip around between all the couples too much.  It wasn’t as bad the last 2 weeks cause they just blatantly ignored some couples, but now with 7 left they tried to give them all a piece of the spotlight and it didn’t really work for me.  What I like about the show is it’s focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the different couples and the many beginner mistakes people tend to make.  This episode didn’t really touch deeply into anyone.

Click below for full recap/review **SPOILERS**

Note- This is the second pasta recipe in a short period of time.  I have 3 comments:

1.  We love pasta and make it all the time
2.  I am trying to clear out pictures taken with my old camera
3.  Next week has a theme – “Happy Chicken Week” – no pasta there

Anyways, there are a ton of pictures here, but I couldn’t narrow them down any further cause this was an awesome night and a great meal.  We cooked for almost 4 hours then watched a foodie movie.  What more can you ask for?

This is a direct recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.  You can find it here on the food network website and in her cookbook “Everyday Pasta.”  I am going to explain the recipe as we go today.

I had a great time at the Bermuda gourmet getaway this past weekend. Mandi and I went to “Grillin & Chillin” on Saturday night and the Viking Village on Sunday afternoon to see the finals of the Escoffier cup. If you want my opinion on both of these events, and a few pictures, click below to continue reading. If you don’t, why are you here?

We had revenge on pad thai this past weekend.  I didn’t take as many pictures this time because we had so many good ones last time.  Also because once you get going with this dish in the wok,  you need to be focused and keep the ingredients coming.  If you are serious about trying pad thai, check out chez pim and read her page on it.  It may seem long, but you need to read through it to get the idea of how to make this dish really great. 

Today the site turns 1 month old.  Today I also turn 25 years old.  In addition, today is the day that my design team has finished the layout and as you can see things have changed a bit around here.  If you see something that looks out of place or awkward, give it a day or two and it will be gone.  Other than that, the site is official!  Welcome.  Make yourself at home.  Kick off those shoes and cap.  Grab a cold one.

Last night was the Challenge episode of LRS where one team would have to go home.  The challenge was between jazz lovers Jackie and Sam, mother and son Tom and Nicola, and the team I hate Martin and Emma.  The Challenge this week was to turn a profit working a cafeteria lunch for scientists at their lab.  The couples had some members of winning teams helping out and would each have a station at the cafeteria.  There were 800 scientists working there and it was up to them which food they would choose to purchase.

Click below for the review ** SPOILERS **

Last year for my birthday Mandi made me this burger cake.  She gave me a grill and when I opened it, this crazy cake was sitting there.  I was pretty impressed.  The onions and cheese are made out of that magical friend of Duff Goldman known as fondant.  Fondant is an interesting thing because it does taste pretty good but you can’t eat much of it cause it is gummy and too sweet.  We had both wanted to try it because he uses it so much we wanted to see what it was all about.

If you want to try something like this, you can check out this site.  This is where she looked to get the ideas of people who had done it before.  I think she is one of the best of those pictures.  Some are pretty awful but some are great.  A few are bigger then the birthday girl haha.

I wonder if she has something up her sleeve for my coming birthday this Thursday…..

These pictures are really bad quality, sorry!!

My favorite nerd webcomic xkcd has a great food entry today.  I do agree to some extent and have always thought about this ratio but never had the idea to graph it.  The problem with grapefruit for me is its goodness percentage, when it is good its great, but I can never seem to pick the best ones

Last Friday, we had a few people over for a pizza party. We made 9 different pizza varieties and fun was had by all. In a month or so, I will be doing a real pizza post, detailing the cooking process, dough, and toppings. For now, I leave you with a few pictures of what the kids call “food porn” complete with the pizza upskirt.