Ras El Hanout

The other day John came home with something he said that he's wanted for a while now. A tagine. Who knew? He's an excellent cook and is always trying something new. Moroccan cooking was new to both of us, so I hit the books and internet.
We thought we'd try something simple, so we made a chicken dish. It called for Ras El Hanout, which is a spice blend native to Morocco. It can vary from person to person and be as simple or complex as you wish.
I made a blend with the herbs and spices that we had on hand; all of which are being used in the ground state. This made 1 cup.

2 T. each: granulated garlic or garlic powder, salt, cumin, ginger, turmeric
4 1/2 t. black pepper
1 T. each: cinnamon, white pepper, coriander, cayenne, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom
1 1/2 t. cloves

We needed a shaker because our other ones were being used, so I drilled holes in the top of a canning lid. Put a new lid on top of the drilled one and screw on when you're ready to store the mix.

I'll be back with pictures of our chicken dish later in the week.
Until next time.....

The Ravioli Experiment

Last Sunday, we decided to pull out our much neglected pasta machine and learn how to make ravioli. Equipped with a handful of recipes that I found online and a head full of ideas, we prepared the dough and fillings and began what turned out to be a 5 hour process.
We made three different sizes. Small. Medium. Large. Why not? After all, it is was the Ravioli Experiment. After each batch was finished, we sat down, ate them and judged them. Think Iron Chef.
Number 2, the medium size ravs won the taste test.
We took two of the large ones and dropped them in the fryer. I read about them online, the fryer was out from the night before and we thought "why not"? They were OK, but I won't be making them again. I felt like I was at a carnival, where it seems that they now fry everything under the sun.
We had some leftover pasta strips, so we formed them into bow ties, dried them out a bit and popped them in the freezer.
Turns out that ravioli is a lot easier to make than we thought. I can see more Ravioli Experiments in our future.

It's Sunday. What's Cooking?

~Chocolate Microwave Cake in a Mug~

Yep, I did it. I tried the recipe that was floating around on Etsy. How could I not? I love chocolate cake, but it's not one of those things that I can bake on the spur of the moment. Even a cake snob like me found it to be surprisingly good. Not the kind of thing that I'd eat regularly; just look at the ingredients to see why, but for those late night, gotta have something sweet, it's a keeper.

Give it a try:

4 tablespoons all purpose flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

You can add ingredients, or so I've read. Next time, I may throw in some nut. Or chocolate chips. Or both.

Mix it all up in the mug. Pop in the microwave for 3 minutes. At this point, I let it sit in the microwave for 2 minutes while it settled back down. It rises real high; about 1 inch above the rim of the mug. It's now ready to eat ~ straight from the mug or slid out onto a plate.

Until next time.....