Friday, March 13, 2009

Moroccan flavors


Soufiane Lailani and his partners not only missed the flavors of home, they also didn't really like how Moroccan foods were presented to an American audience. None of them comes from a food background, but they sure know how to run a business, so they started on -- Alili -- and are selling the honeys, olives and oils they they grew up on. Listen in tomorrow.

Whatever floats your boat!


This time, we didn't take the dog with us to canoe in the Everglades -- gator bait! -- just a big basket of delicious picnic food. I made a "pissaladiere," -- basically, a French pizza topped with slow-cooked onion, tomatoes and anchovies -- and a corn and tomato salad. Considering the water was so low in some places that we have to pole our way through because it wasn't deep enough to use the paddles! After that pleasant ordeal, a filling lunch was just what was needed -- the big, fruity Australian meritage -- Quarterback 2006 -- didn't hurt at all, either.

Nancy

Friday, March 6, 2009

Million-Dollar Chicken


Ellie Mathews won the big one -- The Pillsbury Bake-Off -- and won big. Ellie, right, will tell us all about it on our March 7 show. Want the recipe for her easy Moroccan-inspired Salsa Coucous Chicken? Follow this link: elliemathews.com

Stuffed!



Nancy just ate, she didn't fire up any pots. George, still channeling culinary inspiration from the trip to Turkey, hand-chopped leftover grilled lamb, mixed in brown rice, toasted walnuts, ground cumin and fennel, garlic, onion, tomato, candied ginger, raisins and a little grated grapefruit zest.* He hollowed out yellow peppers, artfully preserving the stem, piled in the lamb mixture, put on the little stem cap and roasted them. Delicious!

*Grapefruit because there there were no oranges. There were no lemons, either -- in fact, earlier in the week Nancy ended up making strawberry mojitos with grapefruit, too. Given that rum is the main event, it all worked out just fine. Recipe coming next week after one more experiment -- with lemons this time!