My humblest of apologies for no recipe/pics, but I recently got a spice blend called "Bed Of Roses", and it's a Moroccan spice blend. Here's the blend:

ginger
roasted garlic
sea salt
caraway seeds
sugar
roasted sesame seeds
cumin
paprika
cassia
chilies
coriander
black pepper
turmeric
mint
nutmeg
grains of paradise (don't know what that is)
rose petals
saffron

I was looking at how to use this wonderful blend and it said Tangine. I was wondering what a Tangine was. I also do not know anything about grains of paradise. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

x-posted to my LJ

I went to Ecuador for 2 weeks over semester break. I like to eat. I like to take pictures. And I really like to take pictures of what I eat.

I'll go ahead and say that I wasn't entirely impressed with the food there, but I think it's because I had high expectations. My last world traveling experience (China) turned up some pretty amazing meals, so I was hoping for the same. Don't get me wrong, the food wasn't bad at all, just a little unexciting at times. However, I was told that Ecuadorian cuisine is typically very simple (I guess with 80% of the population poor, you can't really go all out). We did have some amazing fruits however (their consistent year round climate is perfect for produce), and there were a few meals that I really enjoyed. I also have no doubt that some people would have been in heaven with some of this food, I just have some picky tendencies.

ALSO, this is not meant to really be representative of Ecuadorian cuisine, nor do I claim to be any kind of expert on that arena. It is simply pictures of all the food from my trip.

( porn del alimento )

Occasionally my other half and I will get ahold of a special ingredient - an unusual spice or some kind of fancy imported meat or cheese or a hard-to-find bit of fresh produce - that we're not terribly familiar with or don't get to use often. In these circumstances, we will generally try to plan a meal around that particular ingredient, one that will strongly feature its flavor/texture/other-unique-quality.

In the past few weeks we've acquired a handful of things that would fall into this category, and last night we made a special salad to feature a very simple vinaigrette made from some 18-year aged balsamic and imported Spanish olive oil that I bought on a recent foray to Fig & Olive in NYC's meatpacking district.

It was, quite simply, the best salad I've ever had.

( No photos this time, we ate it up too quickly, but here's the recipe (more of a construction method, really). )

I've been planning on making a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I was going to use 2 9 inch round pans and stack the cakes on top of each other with frosting in between the two layers. Then I started thinking about adding cherries in there somewhere. I saw a recipe that involves mixing a can of cherry pie filling with a box cake mix. Does anyone have any experience with something like this? Would the cherry flavor over power the chocolate flavor too much? Do you think it would work with a cake made from scratch? Or might it be better to stick with my original idea of a chocolate cake and maybe put cherry pie filling between the layers? Any other ideas?

All suggestions are appreciated. Thank you!

Here's the dessert we had with our cappuccino and hot chocolate last Sunday night:



It's strawberry, cream and ice-cream topped warm half-baked peanut butter walnut cookie.  It was divine!

My boyfriend and I have had this type of dessert at different restaurants and we've also made it with just plain peanut butter cookie and vanilla bean ice cream (hmmm...maybe time to make it again).  This one on the photo is from a place called Cafepino has been the best so far from the ones we've had outside our kitchen  (hehehehe...proud of our cooking much?).  The slightly salty taste from the peanut butter cookie really puts the combination of ice cream and cookies to a whole different level.  In my opinion peanut butter cookie taste much better than chocolate chip cookie for this type of dessert.  We've had chocolate chip cookie w/ ice cream at two establishments, but the peanut butter one was so much better.

I've been having some camera issues, so I haven't posted my recent culinary exploits in a while. So here is one long post, lots of pictures, several different projects. Sorry if a few of the pictures are a little blurry. Behind this ( cut. )

My apt has been in a state so heinous that I have been too embarrassed to throw dinners.  To celebrate the return of a saner and cleaner apt I had my nearest and dearest over for a game inspired dinner.   There was smoked salmon,  roasted venison loin racks, seared duck breast, and a Guinness Cheesecake.

Apologies for the poor quality of the porn - it was taken with a cellphone camera.  Thank you to everyone who offered great suggestions about my dilemma looking for a chocolate substitute (http://community.livejournal.com/food_porn/4324949.html).   I sadly couldn't find powdered carob near me but I look forward to playing with it.  I remember nibbling on carobs in Peru and not realizing what they were at the time.  I am excited about using carob as a new ingredient (less as a chocolate sub).

I intend on making risotto later this week, but my local grocery store doesn't carry arborio rice. In my pantry I have baby basmati and mahatma rice. Can I use either of these in place of arborio?

And just so that this isn't an entry with just a question... here's some foooooood I made!



Ravioli with Balsamic Brown Butter & a Vodka Greyhound.

I took this:


And turned it into this:
 

Hey everyone!

I've been hoping to make fresh cherry pie for a pretty, homey dessert. But there's a slight catch: one of our dinner guests is diabetic, and I do not want to add ANY sugar to the pie beyond the natural sweetness of the fruit.

I'm not sure just throwing a bunch of pitted cherries in a pie crust is going to do it. What should I add to enhance the cherry flavor that doesn't involve the full cup of sugar I've been constantly reading in cherry pie recipes online?



Thanks in advance! :D

Oddly, the hubby wanted pizza tonight, so in lieu of Chili (which I will make and post soon), we had ( PIZZA NIGHT! )



Before Baking
Strawberry Salad
Baked!
Jalapeno Slices w/ Bruschetta
Bell Pepper Slices w/ Bruschetta 1
Bell Pepper Slices w/ Bruschetta 2
Walnut Fudge Brownie w/ Peanut Butter Icing