Curried Couscous

1TB olive oil
1TB butter
1 chopped onion
1tsp salt
1/2c dried cranberries
1TB curry powder
1c vegetable broth
1c couscous
2c fresh baby spinach

Melt butter & oil. Saute onion. Add salt, cranberries & curry. Stir until onion is softened. Add broth & bring to a boil. Stir in couscous. Remove from heat. Cover & let stand 4 minutes. Stir in spinach. Cover & let stand another 2 minutes. This warms the spinach but doesn't cook it. Barely even wilts it. Stir & enjoy. Serves 4.

1st attempt

No recipe yet because it isn't quite right. DH said the texture of the mousse was 'slimy' which is obviously NOT good. He made a suggestion, I made a different suggestion. Guess who wins that one? LOL. But here's some pics. Kinda cute, eh?

OH! I made the most excellent dessert this weekend.

It was almost perfect. Fire & Ice Pineapple? Roast a whole pineapple: snap off the leaves, put it in a brownie pan w/a bit of water & roast at 375F for an hour or so. Trim the top, bottom, & outside. Quarter & core then cut into bite sized pieces. Serve with...are you ready?? Serve with PINEAPPLE ICE!!! The Italian ices shop just reopened for the season...I love roasted pinapple - makes a fab dessert - and put the two together. Nifty, eh? Fat free, fruit, fibericious. What more could you want??? But it *did* need a bit more. A drizzle of melted dark chocolate w/a bit of mint extract or oil. Garnish w/fancy pineapple mint leaves if you can (hahaha) find them. Perfect.

Hmmm....

I feel the need to mention that my mom is a cardiac rehab nurse who developed & runs Heartwise at the local hospital in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine (YAY MOM!) & I often help feed her patients. I do my best to conform to AHA rules for this meal. The next group that comes through camp are Kiwanians & it's a free for all. The next group is the ACLS instructors of which one is the aforementioned lactose intolerant friend who I would like to WOW with an array of recipes created especially for him so he doesn't have to bring his own food. How embarrassing. Enough rambling for now. Gotta think up some good food ideas.

Not vegetarian, but...

It sounds good. Pesto Shrimp: shrimp, mushrooms & cherry tomatoes on skewers, basted w/pesto & grilled. I'm not going near it with shrimp AND fungus but I'll serve it. What do YOU think?

ARE there any original recipes left? All the food shows mention 'signature dishes'. The people on Top Chef & So You Want to Be a Food Network Star or whatever it's called make up dishes. I must be a total idiot because I find it rather difficult to come up with a truly original idea. Bah.

First ideas

Asparagus Mousse stuffed cherry tomatoes
Roasted red pepper dip

I'm still developing the recipes. It seems that by removing dairy, the food is often vegan. Interesting.

A new adventure

Ok, so I have watched too much Food Network. I've seen too many episodes of Top Chef. I need to stop collecting (well, not really) but start creating recipes. This blog was designed as a place to log ideas/potential recipes. The story behind it is last summer, I was asked to come up with some recipes because a houseguest is lactose intolerant. I thought, "hey, that's easy." Except every dip, hors d'eouvre, etc. had some kind of dairy product in it. I think I came up with something but I was not terribly impressed with myself. Fortunately, he brought some goat cheese with him. DUH. I am not lactose intolerant, allergic to anything, or have any *real* issues with food (won't eat seafood - just don't like the stuff), so I'm not familiar with tricks of that trade. The trickiest I can get is make food lower fat but usually refuse because I'd much rather have the 'real thing' vs. 'fake' fat free food products. (Sorry, mom) Sooo...away I go. Hopefully, someone will stumble across this blog, take an interest, try some recipes & report back if they survived the experience. And by all means, if I've gone way off base & seem lost, TELL ME!