Mediterranean Couscous & Lentil Salad

Every month I get together with friends to swap meals. We'll make a large batch of a dish, portion them out in containers and give everyone a container of our dish to enjoy. This month I prepared a couscous salad since it was something that I could make with limited ingredients and tools, since everything was packed up for our move.

This couscous salad is light, refreshing. I really like preparing couscous because it is a cinch to make and really has a nice fluffy texture that can also absorb whatever flavors you wish to combine it with. I made the recipe as written and added some additional ingredients such as bell peppers and roasted pork to make it a more filling dish.

Mediterranean Couscous & Lentil Salad
adapted recipe from Epicurious

1 cup lentilles du Puy* (French green lentils) or brown lentils
3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup couscous
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
1 large garlic clove, minced and mashed to a paste with 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1 bunch arugula, stems discarded and leaves washed well, spun dry, and chopped
2 cups vine-ripened cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 pound feta, crumbled (about 1 cup)
1 pound roasted pork, chopped
1/2 cup finely diced sweet mini bell peppers (red, orange, yellow & green)

In a small saucepan simmer lentils in water to cover by 2 inches until tender but not falling apart, 15 to 20 minutes, and drain well. Transfer hot lentils to a bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Cool lentils completely, stirring occasionally.

In a saucepan bring water to a boil and add couscous and salt. Remove pan from heat and let couscous stand, covered, 5 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon oil and cool completely, stirring occasionally.

In a small bowl whisk together garlic paste, remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar, remaining 3 tablespoons oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir lentils and dressing into couscous. Add the bell peppers and pork. Chill salad, covered, at least 3 hours and up to 24.

Just before serving, stir in remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper.

Foodie Freebie Friday: Foodie Fight Boardgame

Welcome back from the weekend! Hope you enjoyed the weekend and are ready for a new week. I'm most definitely ready and hope this week goes by faster than last. We're coming down to the last couple days before our move... which is in 2 days! I'm looking forward to unpacking and setting up my kitchen once again, as well as getting some good use out my stove and oven.

As I look around our home now, it's extremely empty and rather lonely. I can't help but think about all the wonderful memories we've created here and all the people who we welcomed over for meals. It's only natural that a part of me is sad to say goodbye to the place that's been a popular gathering spot every weekend for the past 2 years.

One of the things we enjoyed whenever friends came over was playing food & drink inspired boardgames. I have a decent sized collection of food & drink inspired boardgames, with my favorite being Foodie Fight. When you get my friends and I together playing this game, we can get pretty serious with a lot of fun trash talk! In tribute to all the fun times we've had playing Foodie Fight, a lucky reader will be receiving the boardgame for this week's Foodie Freebie Friday!

Calling all food lovers! This addictive trivia game allows players to strut their culinary stuff and prove who is the smartest foodie of them all. With over 1,000 questions on topics ranging from culinary science and celebrity chefs to food history and exotic cuisine, each player is bound to get a full serving of food knowledge. But think fast, because the first player or team to fill in their game board wins! Includes:

- Deck of trivia cards
- Six game boards
- Color die

This game will not only test your food knowledge but you'll also have a chance to learn quite a few things as well! Interested in getting your hands on the game? Read on!...

Some guidelines:
- Giveaway is only for those who live in the United States. My apologies to my international readers!
- You must have a valid email address so that you can be contacted if you win.


To enter the giveaway, leave a comment answering:
- What was your favorite childhood game/boardgame?

Deadline: Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 12 midnight CST.

One Winner will be randomly chosen by Random.Org's Interger Generator based on the number of your comment and will be announced on Friday, April 3, 2009. Good luck!

2009 International Home & Housewares Show

Because I couldn't stand being without my camera cord for a whole week, I went and picked up a device that downloads data from my camera into my laptop. As a result, I'm able to share with you pictures and post about the last few dishes I've made in my extremely lacking kitchen.

Here are pictures from the recent International Home & Housewares Show I attended exactly a week ago today. For those that missed my earlier post, the International Home & Housewares Show is a wonderful 3 day trade show (not open to the public) hosted by the International Housewares Association (IHA) that focuses on promoting the sales and marketing of housewares.

Attending the show is one of my yearly highlights because I network with various companies dedicated to specialty gourmet food and culinary related products as well as area restaurants to work with for my blog and my culinary event planning with What's Cookin Chicago. I've made quite a few connections and there will be a lot of great giveaways in store for our weekly Foodie Freebie Fridays as well as some amazing culinary events planned for What's Cookin Chicago. I hope you stay tuned because there is some great fun in store for both my blog readers and fellow Chicagoans!

Another perk to attending the Home & Housewares show is the opportunity to meet some celebrity chefs. Celebrity Chefs attend this trade show in support of the various housewares they sponsor and usually have a cooking demo for attendees. Kitchenaid is a big sponsor for the cooking demo kitchen:

This year I couldn't stay as long as I wanted due to some outside appointments I had in the afternoon, however I did get the chance to meet chefs and received autographed cookbooks from:

Tyler Florence







George Duran




Takashi Yagihashi

Gale Gand

I also got to attend cooking demos of:

Todd English

Nirmala Narine

Iron Chef Morimoto

Southwest Chicken Roll Up

Stuffed chicken is always an elegant dish to serve... but rolling flavors in is just as fun and elegant! This was so super easy and not to mention, healthy!

Southwest Chicken Roll Up
recipe from Cooking Light/MyRecipes

6 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
6 tablespoons (about 3 ounces) low-fat cream cheese
6 tablespoons picante sauce
6 cilantro sprigs
6 tablespoons Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Top each breast half with 1 tablespoon cheese, 1 tablespoon picante sauce, and 1 cilantro sprig. Roll up jelly-roll fashion, beginning at narrow end.

Dredge chicken rolls in breadcrumbs. Place rolls, seam sides down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; lightly coat rolls with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until chicken is done.

Greek Stuffed Flank Steak

Because my husband doesn't eat beef, I don't normally buy it to prepare at home. But I've made an exception, considering my husband works evenings often, leaving me solo for dinner. So tonight's dinner was just for me to enjoy with leftovers to throw into a salad.

I really missed working with beef and flank steak is great to stuff with various ingredients for different flavors. Tonight I stuffed it with Greek flavors in mind, using roasted red peppers, feta cheese, spinach, seasoning salt, pepper and oregano. (I normally don't like red peppers but I'm trying to give them another try.)

Greek Stuffed Flank Steak
recipe adapted from Everyday Health

1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
10 ounces spinach, frozen chopped, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
1/3 cup cheese, feta, crumbled,
2 tablespoon bread crumbs, fine, dry
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds beef, flank steak, trimmed
1/2 teaspoon pepper, black ground, freshly ground

Preheat oven to 425° degrees.

Place a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat; add onion. Coat onion with cooking spray, and sauté 5 minutes. Add garlic, and sauté 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Stir in spinach and next 4 ingredients.

Place steak between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; flatten to an even thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Spread spinach mixture over beef, leaving a 1/2-inch margin around outside edges. Roll up beef, jelly-roll fashion, starting with 1 short side. Secure roll at 2-inch intervals with heavy string.

Place beef on broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle beef with pepper; coat with cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, at 425° for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375°. Bake 25 minutes or to desired degree of doneness. Let stand 10 minutes. Remove string, and cut beef into 6 slices.

Winner of Foodie Freebie Friday: Pampered Chef

Happy Foodie Freebie Friday! I'm not sure about you, but this week has been dragging for me. I guess the countdown towards our move makes me a bit anxious! This past week I've been sharing some product reviews of items I learned about from last weekend's International Home & Housewares show.


There are so many various kinds of housewares and kitchen gadgets out there that it's sometimes tempting to buy them... and from this week's Foodie Freebie Friday question, many of us have one (or more) that we just don't use enough. This week I asked:

What's a kitchen gadget or tool you have but never use? Is there a story behind how you ended up with the gadget/tool? (Late night informercial perhaps?)

I loved reading through the 135 responses and the clear front runner for the kitchen gadget/tool that tends to gather the most dust among readers is the crockpot! I'm going to have to dedicate some crockpot love in a future post so that readers can pull theirs from the cabinet and put it to use. I also liked that some have mentioned having a garage sale soon after realizing how many unused and unneeded items they have in the kitchen. It's a great time to get a head start on spring cleaning and for garage sales!

But this week one lucky reader is going to make room for some new housewares because I'm giving away a $150 Pampered Chef shopping spree! I hope you got your shopping list ready because this is a major Foodie Freebie Friday for....

Random Integer Generator

Here is your random number:

99

Timestamp: 2009-03-27 12:31:24 UTC

Comment #99 comes from TheCynicalChef who said:

Another vote for a mandolin. It is just sitting collecting dust waiting for Thanksgiving when the potato gratin will finally give it the chance to see daylight. :)

March 24, 2009 8:00 AM

Congratulations Denise of The Cynical Chef! I look forward to pampering you with some new housewares that you can truly get some use from. Please email me at itsjoelen@gmail.com so I can provide you a catalog and can begin shopping on me!

Thanks again to all those that commented and stay tuned to the next Foodie Freebie announcement on Monday,March 30, 2009! Don't feel discouraged if you haven't won yet - I have a whole year's worth of freebies ahead and next week is one that you won't want to miss!

Product Review: Grill Charms

Because my kitchen is currently in boxes for the next 6 days, I figured I would use this time to share some fun foodie finds from the recent trade show I attended. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these reviews so please feel free to comment on whether you could see yourself using the products, what you like/don't like, etc!


So it's officially spring... and that means in some parts of the country, grilling season will soon be here! I remember when I hosted a grilling cooking class last year where folks got to season their chicken and pork however they wanted. We were all so excited to bring our meats to the grill that by the time they were all cooked and shuffled about, we were unsure about what meats were seasoned with what and which pieces belonged to who. Well, I don't think I'd have that problem for this summer, especially with this new product called Grill Charms.

Grill Charms™ are dime-sized solid stainless steel charms that are placed in your food BEFORE grilling. The serrated stem holds the Grill Charm™ securely in place while flipping, moving and grilling as normal. Grill Charm™ your food PRIOR to cooking to distinguish spices and flavors, steak temperatures, or to avoid health or allergy issues. When dinner comes off the grill everyone knows which one is theirs! Grill Charms™ are the perfect gift for any occasion.

• No more cutting into 5 steaks to try to find the rare one
• No more offering only mild BBQ because too few guests like it spicy
• No more confusion with health or allergy concerns
• Serrated to stay in securely while grilling, flipping and moving
• Made of high quality heat conducting stainless steel
• Stress free grilling for grill master and guests
• Works with Burgers, Chicken, Steak, Pork, Fish and more!

I had the pleasure to meet Leslie Haywood, founder and president of Charmed Life LLC, who introduced me to her Grill Charms. She shared with me how she came up with the product:

While sitting down to eat at a dinner party I was hosting, my husband served me an extra hot Jamaican Jerk piece of chicken instead of a mild one because he had forgotten which pieces were which. After this very memorable and very spicy light bulb moment in April 2006 I have felt what I can only describe as a compulsion to insure every American gets what they want - how they want it - hot off the grill.

Her Grill Charms definitely made me think to myself, "Hey... why didn't I think of that?!" These are a great thing to use during those upcoming grilling parties and cookouts and makes so much sense! Leslie has a few different sets of Grill Charms available including:

• Steak Collection - These charms have the letters R (for rare) MR (for Medium Rare) etc…These are inserted into steaks or burgers before grilling so that both the grill master and guests can find the perfect temperature meat without cutting into several to find the one you want.
  
  
• Spicy Collection - These 6 charms have designs of peppers representing varying degrees of heat (Mild, Medium and Spicy) allowing you to now offer your guests a wide variety of OPTIONS simply and easily, with little to no effort on the part of the grill master.
  
  
• Charmed Life Collection - This collection has 6 individual and unique designs such as a sailboat, a tropical vacation and other items associated with living a "Charmed Life". Use your individual Grill Charm to personalize your food before you grill to indicate your favorite sauces or flavors, avoid health or allergy issues or any reason you can dream up!
  
  
• Pink Collection - This collection has 6 individual designs. Use your individual Grill Charm to personalize your food before you grill to indicate your favorite sauces or flavors, avoid health or allergy issues or have a "season your own" party! 10% of the proceeds goes towards finding a cure for Breast Cancer.

How do you currently keep track of what you're grilling when dealing with different types of doneness and seasonings? Would you use something like this to keep track of what's what on your grill?

Product Review: Blue Avocado Grocery System

Because my kitchen is currently in boxes for the next 7 days, I figured I would use this time to share some fun foodie finds from the recent trade show I attended. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these reviews so please feel free to comment on whether you could see yourself using the products, what you like/don't like, etc!


Do you have a drawer or cabinet full of plastic grocery bags? Are you like me that forgets to bring bags to the grocery store to reuse? Tired of how flimsy plastic and paper bags can be to carry groceries? Read on about a great new company and grocery system that makes grocery shopping easier for you and better for the environment!

BlueAvocado is the love child of style and sustainability. It was founded in Austin, Texas, by a couple of mompreneurs and a hip little green maven who got tired of having to choose between what was convenient (and cute) — and what was right.

A lifestyle products company, BlueAvocado was created to help people to take their first step on the "green" journey. Our mission is to make it easy to do good and get it done — and just maybe find a little joy in the process.

With our debut, BlueAvocado introduces the gro-pak™, an eco—chic system of sustainable and reusable grocery bags (patent-pending). All bags are responsibly manufactured with recycled material and a carbon footprint label. By carrying our system, an average shopper can replace up to 1,000 plastic bags every year.

This is BlueAvocado's first step toward achieving its vision of making the planet millions of pounds lighter (CO2 emissions) and hundreds of communities stronger (1% of income invested in hundreds of micro—entrepreneurs around the world).

I had the pleasure of meeting Amy George, founder and chief ozone officer of Blue Avocado. Her company has taken off with such a great response that I have no doubt that you'll hear more about Blue Avocado in the future. These days, folks are starting to make a bigger effort in sustainability and Blue Avocado supports that mindset with their grocery system. I'm guilty of having cabinets and drawers overflowing with plastic grocery bags which I often try to reuse as garbage bags. However I think eliminating them all together and using reusable bags would be more effective and reduce clutter.

Blue Avocado does exactly that and it's no wonder they were recently featured in Real Simple magazine as the 'Best Reusable Bags.' They are not only stylish and come in a variety of fun colors, but also make grocery shopping easier. With 5 different kinds of reuseable shopping bags, you're elimating your carbon footprint and reducing waste!

The Blue Avocado grocery kits are said to replace 6-15 plastic bags per trip as well as:

• meets all your shopping needs: hauling, ventilation, insulation
• entire system fits into main PAK for easy storage at home or in the car
• made from recycled material with audited carbon label
• Check out the various Blue Avocado grocery kits here!
  

So let's hear it! Are you into the 'green movement'? What do you think about Blue Avocado's grocery bag system? Would this be something you'd use? Why or why not?