Cous Cous

Cuckoo for Cous-Cous

Cous Cous with Spaghetti Sauce & Toasted Almonds

Attention Monkey Nation, Cous-Cous has the versatility of rice, but takes even less effort and time to make.  This truly is a dish that 'anymonkeycan' cook.  After you make the actual cous-cous, you can use your creativity to take it down many different avenues.  Here's how!

The Basics:

2-3 T unsalted butter or Oil (OPTIONAL)

2 c Cous Cous

3 c Boiling Water/Chicken Broth

Salt and Pepper to taste

The Doing:

1.  Pour Cous Cous in Bowl or Storage container
2.  (OPTIONAL) Heat Butter/Oil in Medium Saucepan over Medium Heat
3.  (OPTIONAL) Drizzle Butter/Oil over the Cous Cous & Stir Well

4.  In the same Medium Saucepan bring 3 1/2 c Water/Broth to a Boil
5.  Measure out THREE cups and pour onto Cous-Cous & Stir
6.  Cover the Cous Cous and let rest 5-7 min.
7.  Fluff with Fork, Salt and Pepper to taste

The Audibles:

1.  Serve with leftover Spaghetti Sauce or;
2.  Drizzle with Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar and/or;
3.  Saute Garlic/Onions/Peppers in Step 2 and/or;
4.  Use or Saute your favorite Nut & Berry Trail Mix or;
5.  Dried Cranberries or Raisins with Walnuts/Sunflower Seeds/Pecans/Almonds etc. and/or;


Cous Cous with Salmon

6.  Add Cheese and/or;

7.  Add Chicken/Fish/Shrimp/etc.













Cous Cous with Shrimp

There you go!  'Anymonkeycan' make Cous-Cous because 'This monkey' just did!!

The Hard Boiled Egg (easy to peel)

Ok, monkey nation. Why bother with a hard boiled egg post, you ask? It seems like everyone has a trick to make the eggs easy to peel. I guess I do, too!

Here are my 3 (and a 4th for me) reasons:

1.  It's a nutritional snack

2.  They are easy to make

3.  Hard boiled eggs taste good with breakfast

4.  I need the calcium from the shells for my composting

Here's what works best for me:

What you need:

1 large pot

1 small, shallow bowl

Enough water to cover the eggs by an inch

1/2 c. White Vinegar

Eggs (6-18 depending on the size of your pot)

How you do it:

1.  Pour the Vinegar in a small, shallow bowl

2.  Place 1 Egg into the Vinegar and turn & twist it so it is coated with vinegar

3.  Carefully place it in the bottom of the large pot; Repeat for all of the eggs

4.  Pour enough water into the pot so the top of the eggs are covered by an inch of water

5.  Bring to a full boil (about 10-12 min),

6.  Turn off the heat, BUT leave the pot, eggs, &water on the burner for 10 min.

7.  Carefully remove the eggs with tongs into another bowl and let cool to touch at room temp.

8.  Place the bowl of eggs in your refrigerator over night and enjoy the next day!

See, anymonkeycan make an easy to peel hard boiled egg because THIS monkey just did!

Video Contest

Well, our local paper here in the FW had a cooking demo video contest to win Tix to the "Taste of the Super Bowl" fundraiser. I found out about the contest Thursday morning and the deadline was the next day. The irony is that the day before I ordered a small mobile camera from Amazon.com because I thought it would be fun to post cooking videos. So, armed with my cell phone, I thought what the heck, 'anymonkeycan' make a 3 min cooking video with a cell phone in 24 hours!

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I shot 8 clips that afternoon of "this monkey" making my new favorite 'Roasted Cauliflower Arugula Salad' And I thought, 'Wow, the hard part is over.' Little did I know...

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Because the video format from the cell phone wasn't recognized by the Microsoft Movie Maker. So I asked Google what I should do. And google answered, 'Download a free file converter.' So I did.

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The first one worked for the audio only, but the screen was dark. Since I was doing video, not radio, I asked the mighty Google again, 'What should I do.' And google answered, 'Try a different free file converter.' So I did.

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This one gave me audio and video, the audio was good but...the video was in fast motion. It was comical, especially the cauliflower chopping part, but this wasn't what I was shooting for. It was now after midnight, so I called it a day.

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The next day, Google had another answer ready and...It worked!! So with knuckles bloodied, but my spirit strong I pushed forward and finally, through the steep learning curve, I persevered!

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So, here it is. The world premiere of:

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"Roasted Cauliflower Arugula Salad" (a 3 min Short)

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I'm here to say, I'm sure there was an easier way to do it and I wish I would have found it!!

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www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4-FYeFljoE&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

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Enjoy and it's always fun to laugh at yourself!!

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Oh, and BTW, the Amazon video camera arrived Friday evening! Ha!!