Hi! We are Jack & Eveline. We love toasties, toasted sandwiches, paninis, jaffles, waffles, etc.
We also love to experiment. Hence, the Toastie Lab. Join us as we discover what is, and is not, possible in the world of toasted sandwiches.
Because when you got things between bread in your head, you have to toast them…
About Jack
From: Born in New York, USA. While I currently live in The Netherlands, I still consider New York my home. Ireland is a second home in my heart, as well.
Travel Experience: I have lived in 8 different countries for extended periods. They include:
- The USA
- Ireland
- South Korea
- Australia
- Mexico
- Guatemala
- Peru
- The Netherlands.
I have visited 27 countries in total, and all of this travel experience provides me with some unique inspirations for toastie experiments. I can’t wait to try them out.
Most Amazing Travel Experience: I feel very privileged to have made a 12-day expedition to Antarctica! It was a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget. The best highlight among all of the highlights was sea-kayaking around icebergs while Gentoo penguins were jumping out of the water around me. Totally surreal!
Favorite Toastie: This changes often. For now, I have a strong liking for any toasted sandwich made with kimchi, a fermented vegetable dish that I ate daily while living in South Korea.
That being said, my favorite toastie that we have created so far is, without-a-doubt, the Blue Cheese, Date and Walnut-Pesto Toastie. It was soooo good! Click the link to see the recipe, pictures, and video for yourself.
Favorite Food: Beans! Not your typical choice, but they are just soooooo delicious. All of them, every one! Needless to say, there will bean no shortage of bean-inspired toasties coming your way.
Favorite Book: Again, ask me in a week and this might change. At the moment, I would choose the following:
- Non-Fiction Book: Busy by Tony Crabbe – I found it transformative.
- Fiction Book: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – A total page-turner.
Favorite Color: Purple! Is there any other choice?
Favorite Sport: Baseball
Favorite Baseball Team: My Fantasy Baseball Team, obviously. The New York Yankees are a close second.
Hobbies and Interests: They are many:
- Food – Toasted sandwiches are, of course, a personal favorite.
- Fitness – I have lost 110 lbs. And kept them off for about 10 years now. I exercise daily.
- Books – Especially fantasy and personal development books.
- Travel – The more exotic and extreme, the better.
- Music – I play bass, guitar, mandolin, and I dabble with other instruments.
- Chess – I keep at least one correspondence game active at all times.
Where else can you find me? I have combined all of my non-toastie related interests into another website. You can learn more about me by clicking the following links:
- Website: www.fatbrokestupid.com
- YouTube: Fat, Broke and Stupid
About Eveline
From: Born and raised in the Netherlands. I have spent six years living, travelling, dreaming in Latin America (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador & Costa Rica).
Favorite Travel Experience: A 6 hour route from 500 MASL to over 4.000 MASL that took me from the boiling jungle over the peaks of the Peruvian Andes back into the jungle. I was travelling with my brother and we were cramped into this small minivan that was racing through the deadliest curves I have ever seen in my life. A trip that took my breath away in more than one way…
Favorite Toastie: Goat Cheese, Beet and Pistachio-Mint Pesto. The colors, the texture, the flavors…! It’s the perfect toastie. Click the link to get the printable recipe, and to get inspired to make it yourself.
Favorite Food: Parsnip, with its earthly flavors and creamy texture. It’s versatile, warming and one of those Golden oldies that never tire!
Favorite Book: IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION! Definitely something in the Fantasy scene (Game of Thrones, The Name of the Wind, Harry Potter), or Magical Realism (Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez). Just give me a book and I’m happy.
Favorite Game: Settlers of Catan. All versions, all expansions. Jack and I are currently entangled in the two-player Duel Game.
Favorite Cheese: Blue Stilton, Tete de Moine, and nothing but some good old Oude Kaas.
Favorite Things To Do:
- Reading awesome books and forgetting the world around me.
- Cooking delicious foods, like ehm… Toasties!?
- Writing, anything from (travel) stories, to blogposts, to recipe books!
- Traveling, off the beaten track, please!
- Traveling to new places and discovering their local foods.
- Playing games. I don’t necessarily have to win, but I really don’t like losing.
- Fitness has been a relatively new hobby for me, but damn I must say I like to see those weights go up!
Making This World A Better Place: When I came back from Latin America, I was inspired to make this world a better place. Having met such beautiful, humble, hard-working people, I couldn’t sit still and let their efforts be in vain. I started my own brand: Yanantin Alpaca. Hand-knitted alpaca woolen products, in the smashing colors that are so well known in the Andes. And of course, with a very good salary for the women that knit them and only sustainably sourced wool.
Take a look at: www.yanantin-alpaca.com.
