Curried Couscous with Grilled Chicken Breast

It's bikini season, oh yes it is! Lately I have not been eating the best foods in the world so it was a nice surprise when Ina of all ladies, came up with this bikini inspiring curried couscous. We just tossed in some grilled chicken and it made a superb dinner for three... and uh, lunch, and ummm dinner, lunch, dinner. Yes, it's the couscous that keeps on giving.

Ian and I switched out the carrots and extra onion for some blanched green beans, finely chopped red bell pepper, chick peas, and a small grilled chicken breast. Plus we figured that the oil could be cut down to half, considering it is a Barefoot Contessa recipe!

It was so delicious we are going to make this again tonight with quinoa (the trendy grain) and eat it for another week!

Thanks to Ellyn of Recipe Collector and Tester for restoring my faith in Ina.


Curried Couscous with Grilled Chicken Breast
adapted from The Barefoot Contessa
this is our version of the recipe here

1-1/2 cups couscous
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1-1/2 cups boiling water
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/8 cup good olive oil
3 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
1/8 tsp. cyanne pepper (optional, if you like spice)
1-1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup dried currants
1/4 cup blanched, sliced almonds
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 cup blanched green beans, cut to one inch
1 cup drained chickpeas


Place the couscous in a medium bowl. Melt the butter in the boiling water and pour over the couscous. Cover tightly and allow the couscous to soak for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Grill and cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces. Whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, curry, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Pour over the fluffed couscous, and mix well with a fork. Add the grilled chicken,green beans, parsley, currants, almonds, scallions, red pepper,and chickpeas, mix well, and season to taste. Serve at room temperature

Rum-soaked Current Coconut Cookies

I just got this wonderful call from my grandma all the way from Victoria BC. Yesterday I sent her a bunch of these cookies through the mail, all perfectly wrapped in super cute paper with little pink polka-dot bows and placed gently in a tiny square box.

I wasn't sure if it was worth the trouble to send 20 cookies all the way across Canada ( they wanted 30 dollars at first for the tiny box but I haggled them down in price and crammed them into a flimsy ugly brown envelope) but when I got that phone call I knew it was worth it.

I blindly assumed that I wouldn’t like this cookie mainly because the only food on this planet that I hate is coconut. Also I am not a big fan of the taste of booze in my sweets, but these scrumptious cookies didn't taste like either.

They did however have so many different depths of flavour that I couldn't stop eating them and I really did not think that there would be enough left for the picture.

The cookies in the picture that you see here were the last ones, and at the time of this post...well... they are gone.


Rum-soaked Current Coconut Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookie’s Book

1/2 cup dark rum
1 cup dried currants
16 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
finely grated orange zest from one orange
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely shredded (powder)unsweetened coconut
1 teaspoon coarse salt

Combine rum and currants; cover, and let stand at room temperature overnight. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons rum. Whisk butter, sugar, and orange zest until white, creamy and smooth. Add vanilla and reserved rum, and beat until combined. Add flour, coconut, and salt, and stir to combine. Stir in currants. Form dough into 2-3 logs, each about 1 1/2 inches in diameter; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour Preheat oven to 300. Remove plastic. Slice logs into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, and space about 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until pale golden, about 12-14 minutes