Staple Foods

Last night we had some people over from the “Fac” (Faculte de Theologie, where Josh studies). We made our staple “big crowd” dish, the Kraut Family Cous Cous. It’s really easy: chop up a few onions and drop them into a few tablespoons of hot olive oil in the bottom of a large pot over high heat. As they start to get fragrant, add a few chopped carrots. When something starts to burn, add a few cups of chicken broth, stir it all around, and throw in a few handfuls of pitted prunes. Flavor with couscous spice mix (paprika, ginger, cumin, garlic, coriander, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom), and when it all looks reasonably cooked, add a chopped and de-boned rotisserie chicken. Mix it around so the chicken is covered with the juice from the veggies. Serve over instant couscous. Easier than a Rachael Ray recipe.

I’m starting to get embarrassed by serving “company” such a simple dish, but we had an easy crowd last night. One of our French guests told me at the end of the meal, “You know, everyone says that Americans don’t know how to cook, but I’ll have to tell my wife it isn’t true.” If this is all it takes for a French person to have a raised opinion of American cuisine, what was he imagining that our food tasted like?!? Although, we may have hurt our cause by offering our French guests Hershey’s “The-Great-American-Chocolate-Bar” kisses to sample. One guest looked at us sympathetically and said, “You know, we have bad food in France some times, too.”