Chez Nous

Moroccan Salad Course, part 2

The day of my Moroccan feast has finally arrived! As always, I serve three courses and I wanted my first course to be a traditional Moroccan salad course. For this salad course, I created 7 salads full of beautiful colors and flavors. Generally, for a group of 10, at least a dozen little salads are…

Homemade Herbed Ricotta and Tomato Salad

This is my first year growing tomatoes, and I have been patiently waiting while my first three tomatoes ripen. Today was the day, they smelled delicious and their skin was a perfect red, we decided to harvest our first tomatoes! How do you do your first tomatoes justice though? I didn’t want to cook them…

Matcha Macaron with Lemon or Matcha Buttercream

There is something so charming about a batch of colorful macaron in one of those delightful, custom boxes, but whenever I make my own, I can never seem to accept reality and add food coloring to mine to achieve the same results. I am always searching for something natural to augment the color. This…

Bastilla of Fez with Chicken

There is some strange thrill that goes along with creating complex recipes, I tend to include at least one for every country I explore. The Bastilla is an intricate savory (and yet still sweet) pastry that is generally served during wedding feasts in Fez. The dish is served between the Moroccan Salad Course and the…

Moroccan Salad Course, part 1

Moroccan meals are epic, every meal I read about feels like a wedding feast! That is how I like to cook, I am always told I make way too much food, but you never know how many people will come in the end! I invite upwards of 40 people every time, and like a university,…

Hobz – Moroccan Tagine Bread

Every time I make a big meal from a new culture, I always make a bread to go along with it. Hobz is a traditional bread in Morocco that is sold everywhere, yet it is still the most commonly made bread at home. Almost every family makes these at home everyday for daily use. In…

Lamb, Onion, and Apricot Tagine with Tomatoes and Almonds

In preparation for my Moroccan Dinner coming up in two weeks, I ordered a beautiful, hand molded, unglazed cooking tagine. I looked at many many options! There are gorgeous serving tagines with intricate patterns and glazes, and perfectly molded wheel-thrown tagines, but for me, there was something really appealing about this slightly awkward, not quite…

Seared Duck Breast with Peach Confiture and Arugula Salad with Asparagus

I had a whole duck in my freezer for the past few months. I used most of that duck for my Lamb and Duck Couscous earlier this week, but I decided to keep the breasts for something special later in the week! I still had a bit of Peach Confiture left from our cookout, and…