Dead of the Dead - Happy Halloween!

Happy All-Hallows-Eve, as they called it back in 1556, it wasn’t referred Halloween until the 16th century.

Can’t say I am a big fan of Halloween, I was a kid but now, not so much. I would much rather sit back, without kids knocking on the front door and sip a really good red wine and nibble on some great treats while watching some classic scary movies…oh wait that is what I am going to be doing with the exception of the kids, they will be at knocking at the door!

Warm Spiced Wine

1 cup sugar

4 cups water

spiral peel of lemon

18 whole cloves

2 750 ml red dinner wine

2 cinnamon sticks

Dissolve sugar in water in large saucepan. Add slices of lemon peel, cloves and cinnamon. Boil (toil and trouble) 15 minutes; then strain out peel and spices. Add wine and heat gently. Do not boil. Serve in stemmed mug. (Makes 20 servings

"Spider Dip”

1 package taco seasoning mix
1 can refried beans
1 package cream cheese, softened

1 container sour cream

1 jar salsa
1 large tomato, chopped
4 jalapenos, sliced
1 bunch chopped green onions
1 small head iceberg lettuce, shredded
1 can sliced black olives, drained
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

In a medium bowl, blend the taco seasoning mix and refried beans. Spread the mixture onto a large serving platter. Mix the sour cream and cream cheese in a medium bowl. Spread over the refried beans, top the layers with salsa and cheese. Circle the whole thing with the tomato, jalapenos, green onions and lettuce over the salsa, and make a “web” with the some of the sour cream and garnish with olive spiders. Serve with chips and or crackers

Ah the "Spooky" Legends…

Bloody Mary is my favorite! I have actually done this a couple times and I am here to say Mary did not appear!

Who is Bloody Mary, no one really knows some think she's a woman named Mary Worth who was disfigured in a horrifying car crash and some believe Mary was a witch who was burned at the stake and others believe Mary is the devil in disguise who has come for your soul.

However the legend goes if you stand in a dark room only lit by candle light and chant “Bloody Mary” 13 times in a mirror she will appear and then scratch your eyes out then death is too follow.  So are you going to try this?

Flashing Headlights

Never flash your lights at another car who has their car headlights out, if you do the crazed killer will then turn his car around and come after you and chase you down and then of course you will die of a horrifying death only after you have begged him not to hurt you and let you go. What about this one, gonna try this one too?

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Unusal Costume Ideas

Santa on Vacation: Wear a Santa beard, wig and hat, with an XL Hawaiian shirt stuffed with a pillow, shorts, and sandals. Carry a tropical drink with an umbrella and wear sunglasses.

Jail House Lindsay Lohan: Buy or make an orange jail jumpsuit. Add handcuffs, a long blond wig, lots of cheap spray tan, eyeliner, and browliner. Go heavy on the bottom lip liner and draw freckles if you don't have them. Optional: carry a ziplock baggie with aspirin and a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels.

Running With the Bulls: Wear white clothes, sneakers, a red bandana around your neck, and a red sash around your waist. Buy or make a fake bull's horn. Attach the horn so it looks like you were gored, with fake blood coming from the "wound."

Castaway: Take an old pair of khaki pants and tear off the legs to create shorts. Wear a dirty white T-shirt, beard and long hair. Carry a volleyball with red handprint and face

Taco Belle:  Wear a Southern Belle outfit complete with a hoop skirt. Top it off with a sombrero. Speak Spanish with a southern drawl!

Dr. Pepper:  Get a white lab coat or some surgical scrubs, and pin some chili peppers all over yourself.

Death on Vacation / Death Takes a Holiday: Wear a grim reaper costume (hooded cape, black cape, white make-up with black around the eyes). Then over this, wear a loud flowered shirt, goofy hat, Hawaiian lei, camera around your neck, etc

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Halloween knowledge … Did you KNOW??

Halloween has several names: All Hallows Eve, Samhain, All Hollowtide, Haloween, All Saints Eve and El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead)

Carving of jack-o'-lanterns comes from the souling custom of carving pumpkins into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory.

Pumpkin comes from the same family of the cucumber

People use to dress in costumes so the spirits could not tell the living from the dead (now we do it to get candy!, or as my friend said it is the one day of the year we can dress like a total slut and no one will judge you)

Halloween colors…orange and black: orange is connected with fall and black is associated with darkness and death

Black cats were once believed to watch over and protect witches

Signs of a werewolf are a unibrow, hair on the palms, tattoos, and a long middle finger. (Sounds like a couple guys I knew in high school!)

Vampires are mythical beings who defy death by sucking the blood of humans. But we know they are drinking “Tru Blood” or animal blood like the Cullens Family. (Duh, Twilight)

Ok on another note...top VAMPS of all times....not in any order...David (Keifer Sutherland, Lost Boys) Queen Akasha (Aaliyah, Queen of the Damned) Lestat (Tom Cruise, Interview with a Vampire, would have picked Brad Pitt, but his vampy ass was not bad enough) Dracula (Gary Oldman, Bram's Stoker's Dracula) Sanatanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek, Dusk to Dawn) Eric (Alexander Skaragard, True Blood)

There really are vampire bats, they are in Central and South America and feed on cattle, horses and birds.

Gargoyles were created by stone carvers to ward off evil spirits

If you see a spider on Halloween, it is the spirit of a loved one watching over you.

The Ouija Board ended up outselling the game of Monopoly in its first full year at Salem. Over two million copies of the Ouija Board were shipped

Halloween Capital of the WORLD is Anoka, Minnesota…really it is, I‘ve been there! Check it out http://www.anokahalloween.com/

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Some Great Classic Halloween Movies

The Omen
Psycho
The Amityville Horror
Rosemary’s Baby
Carrie
The Exorcist
Poltergeist
Friday the 13th
Nightmare of Elm Street Series…yes I do have every single film
The Shinning (heressssssss Johnny!)
The Fog!
The Thing
Night of the Living Dead…1968

Now go out and scare up some fun or stay in if you are too scared!

Have a Horrifying Halloween my Goblins and Ghouls
And as Always....
Peace Love and Pork!

Party at the Kitchen...In the Kitchen!

WOW what a ANOTHER CRAZY Saturday at THE TRIBE ROAD KITCHEN!


It started out like any other Saturday... in the kitchen about 7.30 AM to get ready for the breakfast rush and prep a menu for Brunch…we LOVE Brunch at TRK!

So our morning goes smoothly, I send Kar out of the kitchen to spend some time with her family that is visiting and I will finish Brunch and start prepping for the party for later that night. My exact words, “Kar, Trust me, I have your back and your kitchen…go spend some time with your family.”

Well no one seen what was coming next; about an hour after sending her off, something happened that if you had to put money on it you would so lose!

While searching the refrigerator for some freshly made hummus spread (to make a vegetarian sandwich for a regular customer) I opened the door with a bit too much force and the very large can of pumpkin with the lid still on it came down and hit my leg. At first I thought “well that is going to bruise” and started to carry on with what I was doing…until I felt something warm pooling in my shoe and my co-workers yelling at me.

Apparently the lid did in fact slice my leg right about my foot. Well needless to say all work stopped and the next task at hand was to get the bleeding to stop and totally clean the kitchen and rid of any food that was “exposed”, of course we had to stop service all together, there was only one hour left anyway and we were slowing down not to mention we had to clean and prep for the party...so really no biggie.

Anyway off the Emergency room for me, not bad for King Edwards Hospital, I was in and out in 90 minutes, of course I said to Doctor to hurry it up I had get back to work, in which she said you should really rest your leg tonight, yeah, not good timing I had people depending on me and things that had to get done!

So after all said and done I received 7 stitches and a tetanus shot and back to the kitchen I went!
The shot sucked the most!

So off to the party! YAY!

Truffle Lobster Mac and Cheese

Regular Mac and Cheese

Traditional Chicken Wings with hot sauce and house made blue cheese sauce, you can not beat a traditional Buffalo Hot Wing!

Pulled pork sliders with some amazing sauces and cole slaw

Hummus spread with veggies and baked pita chips

Cuban Black Bean soup with fresh salsa and crème fresh

I made sure food was flowing all night and it was such a delight to see the people’s faces when I brought something new out, their faces would light up and when they tasted it their smiles of satisfaction was approval. I did something right and I did it well!

And as any great party, towards the end of the evening…the party ended up in the, where else…the kitchen! Of course I made them all help clean up since they were in there...

All in all it was a great day and evening, the party was a success and we all learned on important lesson….TAKE THE LIDS OFF THE CANS!

And a BIG GIANT THANK YOU for the regular customer who bought me the big bottle of vodka! You know the way to my heart...that and food! What else more is there?

Peace, Love and Pork
Bermuda Gourmet Goddess

Tribe Road Kitchen!! Steak, Yes and A Girl, a 6 pack and a smoker

WOW what a Saturday at THE TRIBE ROAD KITCHEN!

For those who don’t know, I did work in restaurants in Florida and I was always happiest in the kitchen. So now Tribe Road Kitchen is where you will find me on my weekends off, even thought they are closed on Sundays, we sometimes will still get together and talk about menus and what we can do and what they will do once the Pizza Oven gets installed!!


A bit history on TRK, it is owned and ran by Karsten (aka the Barefoot Baker) and Russ (her husband), and they are there pretty much 8 days a week (not really but you get the drift)


I am lucky enough to work on Saturdays (work the rat race during the week)…but know that will change with the pizza oven is installed. It is an eclectic place, very much artisanal food, everything is prepared fresh, and nothing sits around. In the mornings you can find homemade cinnamon buns, banana bread, vanilla cream cheese pound cake, fresh scones (sometimes its peaches and buttermilk, or vanilla strawberry with white chocolate, possibilities are endless) maple bacon donuts, breakfast sandwiches, bagels, best coffee on the island, cappuccinos, espresso…I could go on for hours. Lunch sandwiches change daily, some include homemade pastrami, homemade brisket, house smoked chicken, fresh Bermuda Fish and so much more, at Tribe Road we are NOT afraid of FLAVOR… you will see this saying again and you will hear it if you ever come in for some delectable food.
”We love what we do, if we won’t eat it, we won’t serve it.”

Anyway back to Saturday. Of course there is always TRK Egg’s Benny on the Saturday menu, which someone asked me why TRK’s are the best in Bermuda; I can’t give away our secret! If I tell you I’ll have to kill you, just joking…what makes Tribe Road’s the Best in Bermuda is simple…we love what we do, and it shows in our food, if we won’t eat it we won’t serve it! And chives, chives make the hollandaise sauce.

Pumpkin Spiced Waffles topped with maple syrup, whipped maple butter and a side of bacon. Yes, REAL Maple syrup!

Tour De France – Foley's Smoked Salmon served with all the favorites, peppered cream cheese, capers, house pickled red onions, egg and some peppery arugula on the side, what more is needed? OH, we top with the arugula with some truffle oil, just a bit not too much! Is that too much?

Low Rider – Now this was work of love…Fresh Black beans (no canned crap here) served with hash brown potatoes, jack cheese, a soft poached egg, topped with fresh salsa and crispy tortilla. Did I mention that the TRK has a chef’s garden and that is where most of the herbs come from…included the jalapenos for the salsa!

ABLT – Avocado, Apple wood smoked bacon, beefsteak tomato and arugula served on ciabatta roll with caramelized onion mayo…a BLT with a little something extra!

Even with the weather we still had a very busy Saturday and we thanks everyone for coming out to see us, did we see you there? Maybe we will this Saturday? Why haven’t you been yet? But be forewarned if you want to come to a place that is fun, funky, friendly with scrumptious fresh food with flava prepared by people who love what they do and have a good time doing it, this might not be the place for you. ;)

REMEMBER....Saturday's Menu CHANGES (but Eggs Benny are always on the menu, I think people would be mad if they were taken off the menu)
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Steak? Yes!

You would think that after all day in the kitchen that I would go home and crash, wrong…Off grocery shopping and home to whip a meal that John Besh, Hubert Keller or Tim Love would be proud of. Two inch Chairman’s Reserve Sirloin centre cut with wild mushroom ravioli with white wine cream sauce with peas (needed the greens to make it a healthy meal;)

I get a lot of questions about steak sauce …Do I or Don’t I? I have one simple rule when it comes to steak sauce…Good steak don’t need it and bad steak, well it doesn’t deserve it! Olive oil, kosher salt (or smoke salt) and fresh cracked pepper…hot grill and charred to rare to medium rare, I know that’s not for everyone but if you eat a steak well done…well you shouldn’t be wasting your money, cooked medium at the very most!

A girl, a 6 pack and a smoker
(how can you smoke meats without beer?  You can't!!)

I had this crazy idea to turn a gas grill that stopped working into a smoker…WOW, it worked and it worked very well! So playing around I smoked a whole chicken, chicken wings, 1 rack of ribs and 3 think cut country ribs. I used the same dry rub on everything, yes the rub is homemade…smoked paprika, paprika, brown sugar, cumin, chipotle powder, dry mustard, onion and garlic powder, smoked salt. Once all is well mixed, rub all over the meats and let sit on refrigerator for 24 hours. I also made a BBQ sauce just to accompany the smoked meats, I like to make 2 sauces, one tomato base and the other, vinegar, I particularly like the Carolina vinegar sauce! BBQ sauce….Crushed tomatoes, onions, olive oil, brown sugar, what’s-this-here-sauce, smoked seasoning, smoked paprika, southern comfort, cumin, chipotle powder, salt and smoked salt, onion and garlic powder, let that cook on low for 20 minutes then turn heat off place a lid on it and let sit for a couple of hours, then place in a blender and blend well.

Of course now we have to have some sides, I was wanting for home with all this BBQ so went for the traditional potato salad and salad “bar”.

I placed hickory coals in the on the bottom of the grill and got glowing, then placed a foil pan with the hickory chips on a rack on top of the coals, of course you need to soak the chips in water before hand, and then placed foil with holes poked out over the coals, then another rack with the meats. This worked perfect, the grill stayed at a temp of 250° and the chips never flared up because they were covered. We had the meat cook for 3 hrs (give or take).  The smells were amazing...the food even better

Matter of fact it worked so well that I am planning to smoke some Salmon this weekend! I will let you know how that goes ;)

Peace Love and Pork!
Bermuda Gourmet Goddess
Live Wild * Live Free * Live More