This post is continued from yesterday. As I mentioned, just after we ate, Sebastian pulled up with his ceviche ingredients as promised earlier. He finally got out of his volunteer event (at the beach) and came right over. We were all full, but thought we could eat some ceviche in an hour or two, which happened to be the exact cooking time! Sebass assured us that ceviche is not like other foods and does not fill you up, but rather gives you energy and power! Mandi, Amy and I had all had ceviche a few times and were nervous about making it at home. We all kinda equated it to sushi and were nervous about getting fish that was fresh enough. Soon we all realized that this traditional ceviche is much different from the stuff you get at the swanky restaurants; only lightly dressed in lime and served almost immediately. A more traditional ceviche has much more lime, salt and onions(all cooking agents) and truly cooks after sitting for an hour and a half. What I ate that night was absolutely not raw fish.

A friend of mine keeps telling me he is going to make ceviche. He grew up in Peru, and the plan was to have a Peruvian dinner at my place. We finally planned to do it on a Saturday afternoon. Amy was making a potato side dish, and Sebastian would make his now infamous ceviche. Just before we were supposed to start, we all got a text. Sebastian was stuck at a volunteer event and was unsure if he would make it. We sprang into quick recovery mode and grabbed some meats and veg for the grill.

I have a quick post today after a longer one yesterday. What do you do with a tree full of cayennes that you know will go bad before you are able to use them all?? Make hot sauce! Another thing we did with some cayennes was cut them in half and put into a bottle of vodka seeds and all! A week later the vodka was spicy spicy. I don’t have any pictures of that though. Click through to see the hot sauce.

When I noticed all the banana trees in our yard, one of the first things I thought of was cooking with them. When we saw the place, there was actually a bunch of bananas growing off one of the trees. Unfortunately they were gone by the time we moved in (1 week later!? There are a lot of banana thieves in Bermuda). After looking up recipes online, I saw that Malaysian cooking uses the leaves often. I found a sort of tapas or dim sum of Malay cuisine called Pulut Udang that I was excited to try. Another way banana leaves are used is to wrap around and steam fish. I decided that these two dishes would make a great pairing. After going to several Pilipino and Asian sections of grocery stores here, I could not find the dried shrimp that goes in the pulut udang recipe. It was probably a good thing, because this dish was already a bit shrimpy tasting for our western palates. We substituted ground beef as the recipe says you can.

I enjoy wine from time to time, but it is definitely NOT my drink of choice. However, now that I am “growing up” there are events where wine is not only the sole option, but also the topic of discussion. I’m at a dinner Saturday night. A “grown-up” dinner with adults. I acted like a grownup as well. I did not drink more than I should, tasted the wines and wrote my observations, engaged in intelligent conversation over hors-d’oeuvres and dinner, and all in all was proud of myself for a respectable performance. Then it happened. In slow motion, the moment I hoped wouldn’t happen had arrived. I watched a full glass of red wine bounce off the tips of my fingers, tilt from the table where it was sitting and float through the air aimed at an unsuspecting diner’s white skirt. The act was over; the adults realized I was not one of them. Why wasn’t there a kids table? Someone should have brought keystone light for this amateur. Does this happen to anyone else? I know it has happened to me once before this occasion and to Mandi as well. Wine glasses are so easy to spill!! Click below to see a few ideas for better wine glasses.

Two curries in a row? Sorry if this bothers people, but my posts are kind of all over the place and I need to organize them. This was a random weeknight meal we decided to make as work was coming to an end one afternoon. It turned out to be a really simple and really great meal. The dumplings were not needed, and actually made the soup much more effort. If you still want meat, make the dumpling filling and cook it in the pot before adding the curry paste.

I haven’t quite put my finger on the word curry and its meaning. Wikipedia is no help really. For one, it’s a spice, but the spice is really a blend of other spices. Second, there are curry leaves which are a mystery to me, because wouldn’t you think curry powder would be made from this curry tree? Third, it is a name for hundreds of dishes from all over Asia that are completely different from each other! When I first started having curries, I only liked Thai curry, so as I made a few, I started to think that the meaning of curry had to do with mixing a blended paste with coconut milk, and simmering. After making a few Indian curries as well, my current definition of curry is: Curry: Any dish where you puree a bunch of sh*7 including lots of spices BEFORE cooking. Can anyone help me on that definition? I think it's pretty accurate, but I am guessing it will become even vaguer as I continue making curry from different areas.

Anyway, today I have a quick, healthful, and delicious weeknight meal for you to check out. I saw the recipe for the cauliflower on the food and wine website a few days ago, thought it would be good with fish, and made it that night.

Fajitas! I have always loved them. They were a common dinner at my house when I was younger. Fajitas are pretty easy to make, and when I was on my own for dinner recently, I realized it is a perfect meal to cook for only one person! Follow these 12 simple steps, and you can eat Fajitas in less then an hour, with very minimal effort, and NO CLEANUP! You only use one small dish, one large dish, one knife, fork, and spoon. If you don’t have a grill, you will also have to dirty one pan, skillet, or grillpan, to cook the steak in the center, and the peppers/onions on the sides. This quick one-off fajita was delicious, but not my ideal fajita. Stay tuned after the quick version to see the more involved one to make with friends.

I have a new quiz for you today. This is a tough one, but I am really happy with how it came out.

RULES: There are 2 points on each picture, 1 for naming the character, and one for naming their restaurant, or where they work. A perfect score is 32, but if I were to take this (before doing all the research and finding the pictures), I would get a 24. I watch a lot of TV, so lets say:

24 – 32 – Genius
15 – 24 – Pretty good
10 – 15 – Average
Less then 10 – what do you do with your time? Read? Pssh!

Remember, don’t cheat on Google!!!! I will find out.

Click Below to Start!

On a holiday such as Labor day in Bermuda, all of the stores are closed. On Sundays, stores are only open a few hours, so if you miss that short window, a Monday holiday can be tough. A lot of times we will go out to eat because we are unable to get any cooking supplies. Since we just moved, I was excited to see some new stores in the area. I called one and they said they were open. Considering that they have another branch near my old apartment that is one of my favorite stores on the island, I figured it would be a large store with everything available. When we got there it was tiny and had little to no fresh produce or meats. We had to pull together an idea of a meal with a meager selection. When I saw the ageing (not in a good way) meats, I immediately started thinking what I had at home. Some leftover bacon from breakfast, a few chicken tenderloins in the freezer, I can work with that. We went to the pasta section and my eye caught risotto. Lets go get some spinach! Nope, they had neither fresh nor frozen. Ok ok, hmmmm. We bought some canned artichokes, chickpeas, and surprisingly good feta and headed out.

Pasta Fagioli is my favorite soup. By far. When I get it at restaurants, it is much different then the version I grew up with, and when I see Mario and Giada make it, it is definitely different from either of those. So what gives? Well after doing some research, I realized that this soup started as a meal of leftovers. Whatever you had that was about to go bad, throw in the soup. Pasta Fagioli really just means pasta and beans, so if it has those two things, I think you are on the right track. Here is my take on my grandmothers version. She gave the recipe to my mother a few years ago after years and years of hiding it, and we were all surprised it was so easy. I changed a few things to protect the family secrets…errrr I mean because I like it this way! I know first week of September is still pretty hot for most people, but that chill is seeping into the air. If you make this on the first chilly or rainy day, you will be extremely satisfied!

Store hours in Bermuda have caused me to be pretty creative a few times before. When everything is closed, my fridge is empty, and I am hungry, my first thought is often flour. I remembered Giada making some donuts with leftover pizza dough and I set to work.

In college, my roommate Rich and I were developing ideas for a website called ‘eXactLy iNaccurate’. We had a ton of characters, games, designs, wallpapers, and interactive fun. At the center of this site was a comic strip called bootleg starring… well… us! As time went by, the site kept getting pushed aside; we were no longer able to sit in our dorm room blasting The Mars Volta thinking of hilarious ideas for comics. Work was calling and we answered the call, I moved to Bermuda, started getting really into the food world, and decided to make my own site. I asked Rich and another friend Kim to help me with the design, layout, and drawings(I was never the artistic one of the group(except for with my food)). Now a half year after my launch, Rich is ready to launch exactly inaccurate, not as our site anymore, but as his. The comic strip is there and the games will soon follow(as soon as I stop cooking for a minute to help out). Please TFIMB fans, check out www.exactlyinaccurate.com. A few other quick things before I send you off. 1. This site isn’t really for the kiddies like TFIMB is, there is mild drug references and swears. 2. I have added a new link bar on the left by my food blog links. Here I will put the link to exactly inaccurate, along with some other sites I frequent. Cool, thanks. Check me out in cartoon form with and without the beard. There are 2 particularly food related ones here, and here.

Fast food is a touchy subject in the food blog world. People love to hate it. The mere mention of a fast food joint on most food blogs causes 50 comment wars about corporations and global warming and McDonalds being the root of all evil. Such hostility! Well guess what folks, I partake in the occasional fast food indulgence and I am NOT afraid to say it! Sometimes, you just crave a dollar double cheeseburger or a cheesy crunchy gordita. There are a lot of commercials for fast food, and when its late night here in Bermuda and one comes on the screen, it’s hard to handle since there is no fast food on the island! One of the things Mandi and I crave most, is McDonalds breakfast, it’s a must when we are off the island. We recently tried to recreate a McDonalds steak egg and cheese bagel and have had near perfect results. I thought this would be a great recipe to share for all those college kids out there who love a hung-over McDonald’s breakfast but rarely make that 10:30 AM cutoff!!

Sometimes to me, being on a diet dosnt mean eating really healthy. I feel that I always eat fairly healthy including whole grains and plenty of vegetables into my diet. My main problem is portion size, and eating really late at night. If we are hanging out on a Thursday or Friday night we often wont eat until 10 or later! So what I try to do when I am being good is eat before 6:30. This may seem impossible to most people, but what we do is run to the store after work, get home, and frantically pull something together in a half hour, and be sure to only make enough to have a reasonable portion. A sandwich is a perfect option. Its fast, and it is a set portion. A few days ago we made chicken poblano panini’s that came out excellent!

Today I have some food wallpapers for all of your computers. You sit at your desk looking at so called food-porn, scour the web for recipes and images of your favorite dishes, and read about food all day, so why not pimp out your desktop a bit to show your foodie pride? The bottom 2 images do not have dual monitor versions because they didn’t look right, but the other pepper dual monitor wallpaper has both peppers in it, one for each screen! For dual monitor people- remember to set as ‘tile’ to allow it to span both screens, if you just right click and say set as desktop background it will be set to ‘center’ and will not look right. You need to go under display properties to change it.

I am really happy with the way this set of wallpapers came out, but if you don’t like any of these, be sure to click on the wallpaper tag on the left to look at some previous ones I’ve posted. Please comment if you use any of these on your computer!

 
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The word gyro actually refers to the way the meat is cooked on the vertical rotisserie and sliced into thin strips. In most places in the US however, it refers to the pita rollup the meat is served to you on, and the other fillings inside. This sandwich can’t traditionally be called a gyro because it is made with chicken, but I just love how the mild flavor of the chicken contrasts with the sharpness of the cheese and olives. We decided to make these when Mandi was craving olives and feta, but didn’t know what she wanted them with. We had just made naan and loved it and wanted to make it again, and that’s when I realized the naan is very similar to the Greek flatbread the gyro is served on. I loved the way these came out and the taste instantly reminded me of my first taste of a gyro not too long ago. At my last job, Mike, Bill and I would start looking forward to lunch at 9:15 AM. When we finally got lunch we would eat so much that we would often be in a food coma from 12:45 – 3 (I always wonder why that job didn’t work out in the end…) One of our favorite stops was Steve’s Greek on Newbury St. in Boston where I would get a gyro and onion rings.

Vindaloo is one of the more authentic dishes at your local Americanized curry house. It was brought to Goa by the Portuguese. One common ingredient that is actually not traditional is potatoes. The confusion came about because aloo is the hindi word for potato! When making curry, or generally any eastern or middle eastern dish, I think it is VERY IMPORTANT to get whole spices. The key to curry is the intensity of flavor and you aren’t going to get that from curry powder. You aren’t even going to get that from ground cardamom or cumin, you have to grind them yourself! The blender works fine for this. It is fun to me tasting and smelling all of these exotic spices! Go on a vacation with your senses. Travel to the market in Goa and pick through the cloves and cardamom pods, rip a piece of cinnamon bark off the larger stick. Watch out for the camel droppings. I guess all I am saying is what I say every day. Have fun cooking and take pride in what you make. The more “scratch” you start from, the better your food will taste!! If you are going through the effort of cooking, why not add the extra 10 minutes of using the whole spices? It will cost more in the beginning, but the spices will keep their flavor for a long time because they are not already ground. Ok enough ranting.

Since it has been awhile since her last post, I wanted to write a quick introduction. Mandoline’s slice is a monthly column here on The Food in my Beard (She took the summer off). If you are fairly new to the site, you can click the category on the left and check out her other articles. Thanks Mandi! Glad to have you back!

Mandi and I try to be healthy most weekdays. This often includes a salad for dinner and a mile or 2 jog. Sometimes when one of us is having a rough day, or needs something to make them happy, they casually mention delicious food in a hypothetical conversation about that night. Most of the time, this food is tacos. A few hours ago Mandi planted a taco seed in my head. Most days when I am feeling strong, I can stomp on this seed, ignore it or leave it unfertilized to die in my brain. Today, this seed is stubborn and has grown into a full on taco tree.

In Bermuda, it is customary to paint your apartment when you move out. In the US (or at least where I have lived) paint is covered under the “normal wear and tear” of an apartment, but not here. We got together some friends to help us paint and get everything out of the place. Food seemed appropriate for a nights work and we were going to order pizza, but decided to use what we had in the freezer. I am happy to post this recipe, because it was always a favorite appetizer my mom would bring to parties when I was growing up. Now I tell my friends to make this when they ask me what to make that’s easy to bring to someone’s party or when they are having people over for a sporting event.

Today I am pleased to present a guest post. This past weekend was 2 members of the TFIMB family's birthdays, the design team! since I was all the way across the ocean, I was unable to celebrate so I had to give posting dutys to someone who could. This post is all about kim, but rich, happy birthday to you as well. The rest of this post will be written by my good friend steph, but i may leave a comment in italics. Happy birthday guys! leave some love for them in the comments.

For those of you that may not know...I love Birthdays...in fact I love any reason to celebrate at all. Kim's Birthday this Saturday was perfect timing to get my baking skills back up to par. I'm a huge fan of cupcakes instead of cakes for birthday desserts for two reasons. One being that you have the opportunity to have various designs and colors without looking over done. Second, in my personal opinion I feel that people are more likely to grab a cupcake then to grab a piece of cake that has to be on a plate and ate with a fork. Cupcakes are low maintenance and fun to eat. That being said....I have been hearing lots about Amy Sedaris' cupcakes, and wanted to give them a shot. If you don't know who she is, I'd suggest watching some Strangers with Candy. I decided to stick with the vanilla cupcake recipe and add a special touch of stuffing them with some chocolate frosting.

We hadn’t made pasta in some time, and for some reason I was craving manicotti. As a kid, this was my favorite meal and I hadn’t had it in years! we decided to have a nice night in and watch the opening ceremonies and spend time making this meal great. We started with some drinks and apps as you can see here. Some would call this cannelloni, where manicotti would be pre formed tubes, but this is what I grew up knowing as manicotti.

Last Friday, Mandi, Amy, and I decided to forgo the usually Bermuda Friday night activities to stay in and cook and watch the opening ceremonies. The meal we were set on was going to take at least 3 hours, so we knew we would need plenty of drinks and an appetizer while we were waiting for the meal. Amy found some cool drinks we could try, and our tomatoes were bursting off the vine, so we decided on a simple bruschetta.

“If you could have any pasta in the world right now, what would it be?” Overtired and hungry, Mandi hoped that I could make a decision better than she could. We had just packed our lives into a big truck, and hauled it across the island. Our theory when it comes to moving is different from most; it is better to suffer greatly for one day, than to suffer mildly for 10. The whole evening was crazy, trying to get things done quickly since the moving truck charges per hour... but as the truck drove away, our minds drifted to our empty stomachs. We had planned to get take out from one of our new neighborhood restaurants, but at times like this when we have waited too long to eat, a decision sometimes can't be made. “If you could have any pasta in the world right now, what would it be?” There were only 2 options on the take out menu, a “sampling” of their full menu it said. Mandi hoped that whatever came out of my mouth at this moment, she would relay to the man on the other end of the phone, and they would miraculously serve it. “Orecchiette…..orecchiette with sausage…and cherry tomatoes, and maybe some arugula and mozzarella.” Maybe it was because we were standing in front of our new stove, or maybe because we knew that whatever we got from the restaurant wouldn't be exactly what we wanted anyway, but we decided that it was a pretty easy dish to make for ourselves. So we pulled our pans from our suitcases and headed to the grocery store. Click below to read more and see a few pictures.

When I see discussions of my website over the internet, I have noticed that one topic that often comes up is the smallness of my kitchen and the fact that I chop on my coffee table. It is true that I have an extremely small kitchen so I decided to make an interactive tour. People can use this as a guide if they have a small kitchen. I feel like we use the space well. Things do look a bit cluttered, but this is as clean as it gets really since we do not have much cabinet space. I am happy to be finally putting this post up, because I am moving to a new apartment tonight! This is a good way to say goodbye to the old place. DIRECTIONS: to navigate, click arrow buttons and objects on screen, if an object has green dots when the mouse is over it, you can click to inspect further. Move your mouse over things to read a description. Click and explore!! PS. if you see white spots, wait a bit, it hasn't fully loaded. Click below to start the tour after the jump.

I am marking this vegetarian, even though we used pancetta. The pancetta isn’t necessary, but it added a nice flavor. You could just use olive oil instead, and maybe a dash of red wine or balsamic vinegar. This idea came to Mandi in our usual 3pm what do you want for dinner email discussion. She said she wanted to make vegetable lasagna, but use the veggies as the pasta and even as the sauce. We brainstormed for a bit and this is what we came up with. I love giving you guy’s original recipes, so PLEASE let me know if you like this and if you ever cook it!

Secret beach is not so secret anymore. Mandi and I are moving across the island, so we decided to let all our friends know exactly where secret beach was since we wouldn’t be going as much anymore! We did this by having a party there and inviting everyone. I sent out a treasure map with an X on secret beach, and anyone who could find it was welcome to come and party. As usual, the grill was fired up and people brought things to cook.

Nooshin was up this past weekend so we decided to cook Persian food again for her. For one, cause we liked it last time but weren’t 100% satisfied with the outcome, and two, because Mandi never ended up cooking it when she went out to visit Noosh in LA. This meal was awesome despite the fact that we did not have 2 major Persian ingredients; dried limes, and fenugreek. If you have access to these things, you should use them to make this dish even more authentic! Another great thing about this meal is that it is easy. It does take a bit of time, but it isn’t hard and you are greatly rewarded for your time.