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Fun From Around the Web
I am often given information about programs, giveaways, and other interesting opportunities from various websites and bloggers. Sometimes I dedicate a full post to a single opportunity. Recently I thought that it would make sense to group them all together and share the post. It won’t be every week, it might not be every month but when I get a handful of good opportunities to share I’ll dedicate a post to it. Make sure you’re following me on Facebook and Twitter where I tend to share much more.
AppSmitten
“Mobile apps can keep you organized, entertained, productive and more…IF you have the right ones. With over 1 million of them out there, finding a good app is like finding a diamond in the rough. That’s where appSmitten comes in. We hand-select apps the best apps. With appSmitten’s weekly or daily recommendations, your smartphone or iPad will become something you never dreamed possible.”
I’ve been using this for a few weeks now and have been really happy with the suggestions I was given. I am not one to surf through the app store to find something but if it’s given to me I’ll check it out! This is totally free – worth a try!
As a huge travel junkie who can’t afford to take a trip every few months I love travel magazines! Wild Junket is a digital magazine focused on outdoor adventures and sustainable travel. The current issue has an Africa focus. Each issue has over 100 pages of articles and information. Each issue is only $2.95 or a year for $14.95 and comes out bi-monthly.
Click here to visit WildJunket.
Travel Philanthropy at BlogHer
My friend Tracey has submitted a proposal to have a panel for Travel Philanthropy at BlogHer ’12. As you know I’m a huge proponent of this! If you’re a BlogHer member I highly encourage you to vote for this fantastic panel!! Just follow the link, log into your account and vote you would attend.
Finally, I signed up for the Pinterest Challenge from SITS Girls. I’m a Pinterest junkie already but thought it might be helpful to learn some new tips and tricks! It’s a free course that has daily posts and “homework”. If you’re a pinner join us!
If you have an interesting post, site, or opportunity to share with me and other readers please leave it in the comments!
Read MoreAsian Style Beef Tacos
One of the best things I have found to supplement the lack of bread since moving to a more gluten-free existence (we’re about 80% GF – 20% no) are corn tortillas. Amazingly these guys have so many different uses! While we love a good taco bar as much as the next family – tacos every week would be a stretch. I came across a recipe on A Year of Slow Cooking for Korean Tacos and thought I’d try it out with a few tweaks. I’ve found that I need to hide the beginning stages of preparing meals because I’m met with grumbles of “Seriously? Why are you doing that? It’s not going to taste good…” I won’t tell you who is grumbling… Suffice to say once bites are taken, 9 times out of 10 there is no more complaining. This would be one of those recipes.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef roast (I used an arm roast)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup gluten free soy sauce
- 3 tbsp hoisin sauce
- 4-5 cloves of garlic chopped or crushed
- 2 tbsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp ginger powder
- 2 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
Instructions
- Trim off any visible fat from the meat and throw everything into the slow cooker. Mix so that everything combines. Turn the slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours. Once the meat is tender and falling apart, remove from the crock pot and shred it. Return to the pot so that the juices keep the meat juicy.
- To serve place into toasted corn tortillas (or regular tortillas if you're not gluten-free). Top with shredded cabbage and carrots. We used Greek Yogurt as well.
The Mothers’ Meal: Rfisa
I have two very dear Moroccan friends who have been some of my closest friends as an adult. When we lived in Washington DC one of them prepared this dish one evening. I had never eaten it in Morocco and later learned my husband doesn’t like it so my mother in law never made it when we were there. For a long time I never even attempted to make rfisa because I thought it was very time intensive and I knew that MarocBaba wouldn’t eat it, and I certainly didn’t need to eat an entire platter myself.
The boys had been bothering me to make msemmen for them for weeks and finally I broke down and made a huge batch. As I was cooking them I thought it would be the perfect time to take on rfisa. I am so glad I did because it was enjoyed by everyone! I omitted the one ingredient that is the characteristic spice of this dish – fenugreek. I was sure that was the culprit of previous bad experiences. This dish is customarily served to women to help push labor along or to post-partum mothers to increase milk production. It is the fenugreek that helps with those things, but since no one in our house was looking for that effect I felt safe leaving it out!
You do need to make msemmen to go along with this but my recipe is easy to follow. I even have a video available to show you step by step.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts or any other cuts of chicken
- 1 medium onion chopped finely
- 1 tsp saffron threads crumbled slightly and soaked in warm water
- palm size bunch of flat-leaf parsley or cilantro (or both)
- 1 tsp each salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp minced ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp ras al hanout
- 1/4 cup uncooked lentils (soak overnight)
- 3 cups water
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 6-10 cooked msemmen (depends on size)
Instructions
- Add chicken, onions, oil, ginger, salt, pepper, and ras al hanout to a large pan or into a slow cooker and mix. Allow to marinate covered for 30+ minutes (can leave overnight)
- Once marinated either turn the slow cooker on low heat or pan on the stove on medium heat. You will want to watch and stir occasionally if you are cooking on the stove top. The chicken will start to cook and a sauce will be created within 20-30 minutes. If cooking in a slow cooker this process will take longer. Check after 2 hours and leave longer if needed.
- If you are using a slow cooker, transfer the contents to a large pot at this time. Drain the lentils and add to the pot along with the saffron, parsley, cilantro and water. Cook on medium until the lentils are tender and chicken is falling apart. You should still have sauce left. Test and adjust seasoning if needed.
- To serve rfisa, heat up the msemmen and shred them onto a large platter. Don't be stingy with the amount of msemmen used (it's the best part!) You shouldn't be able to see the plate underneath the msemmen. Scoop the chicken, lentils and sauce and pour on top of the msemmen. This dish is meant to be saucy - the msemmen will soak up the sauce and when it mixes with the buttery flaky msemmen the taste is amazing!
- Serve hot and eat by using msemmen as a utensil to scoop and sop up the chicken and sauce.
I am entering the m’semmen photograph in this post into the Feastie contest for a trip to Eat, Write, Retreat. I had a blast last year and hope this year will be even better!
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Philanthropy and a Giving Heart {Members Unite}
I am no stranger to philanthropy, in fact it’s my day job! All day I write grants and raise money to fund a literacy non-profit. Being in such a front line role I have learned about all kinds of community based organizations who work tirelessly daily to help others in need. I also know and understand how difficult it is to get funding to run an organization. This past fall I undertook a small project to bring some comforts to orphans in Morocco. As a family we also donate regularly to charity and make it a point to talk to our children about the gifts we have been given and how important it is to help others in need in our community and around the world.
MarocMama Grows {a little}
A few months ago I offered a poll to my readers to see where you stood on the types of posts I was doing. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated the responses. I have been working to tweak things here and there to make MarocMama the best and most useful site it can be.
But, there’s so much more I want to share.
I started this blog to create a space to share recipes. Recipes only. I had no illusions of including pictures or anything else for that matter. Time has changed and so has my idea of this small space in the world. I have played with adding more lifestyle posts, more about how we live in a bi-cultural family, the places we go, the things that we see and do. But when sharing those posts I feel like I am violating why you are here.
That means there must be some changes.
In a very good way. Soon, I will be launching two other sites of MarocMama. You will be able to come here and find great food, food related talk, food reviews, food giveaways – if it’s food it will be here. I will also keep sharing the things that are related to Morocco on this main page.
Connected to this site you will also find “MarocMama at Home” devoted to all things domestic. It’s there where I will be sharing more family related themes. Information and experiences in raising our children bi-culturally, our religious traditions and celebrations, lifestyle posts, organizing, decorating, entertaining and maybe even some posts about marriage. I’m hoping to get American Grandmato do a few posts a month. She is a fantastic decorator!
The other exciting new channel is “MarocMama On The Road” where any and everything relating to travel will be. My hope is to focus on one place, be it a city, country, or destination each week and break it apart. I haven’t been to everyplace on earth (yet) so I will be including guest posts and inspirations from friends and bloggers. I am really excited about this section because I’m a travel-bug by nature and there is nothing I love more (well than actually going places) than talking about it.
While these will be three separate websites, they will all be linked together and it will always be easy to navigate. I don’t have a launch date for these new pages yet, but it shouldn’t be too long.
In the meantime I hope you’ll leave me some comments about your thoughts on this new approach. What would you like to see included (or not)?
Read MoreVegetarian Meatballs and Trapanese Sauce
It has been awhile since I have posted a Meatless Monday recipe but we haven’t fallen back into the meat wagon. With MarocBaba’s celiac diagnosis we have been eating even less meat, actually we’ve been eating better all around. It’s a great thing when no one asks what is in a dish (specifically if there is meat or not) and they just eat to enjoy. I have been having a lot of fun creating new vegetarian, vegan and even raw meals. It always seemed much more difficult but I’ve found it has opened up so many new creative doors in the kitchen. I’ve even got a little sous chef backing me up many nights!
One of my favorite ingredients in the kitchen are olives, but if you would have asked me a few years ago to find a way to use an olive other than eating it as is – I would have been at a loss. Last week I had an idea for dinner that was swirling around my head all day at work. I wasn’t sure if it would work but it sounded great. I rushed home that night and started to pull together the ingredients to make vegetarian “meat”balls with olives as a secret ingredient. I knew that the contents of the meatballs warranted a special sauce too so I dug into my Sicilian routes to make this dish. I wouldn’t be surprised if my great-great-great grandma would have created something similar in her kitchen. You won’t need to buy anything special to make this and chances are you have everything in your pantry right now. Here’s my modern day salute to Sicily.
Ingredients for “Meat” balls:
- 1/2 c almonds (or almond flour)
- 1/2 c oatmeal (you can use any binder here such as bread crumbs/day old bread)
- 1 can black olives (Lindsay are my favorite)
- 1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 egg
- 1/4 onion chopped roughly
- 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil + oil for the pan
Directions
- In a food processor blend the almonds, oatmeal, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper until the almonds are very fine – nearly powder. You can use almond flour or any other kind of nut as well. Pour into a large mixing bowl.
- Next add a full can of drained black olives, garlic and onion to the food processor and pulse until the olives, garlic and onions resemble a paste. If this mix is dry stream some of the olive oil so that it blends well.
- Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and add the egg. Continue to mix with your hands until everything is well combined. Begin rolling small palm-size balls.
- In a skillet preheat olive oil on medium-high heat and add the “meat”balls, making sure to leave enough space to turn them. Watch closely and rotate the meatballs so that all the sides are brown but not burnt. Remove from the heat when all sides are brown. Repeat until all meatballs are cooked.
Trapanese Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 large roma tomatoes, skin peeled
- 1/4 c crushed almonds or almond flour
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp each salt and pepper
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1/4 c onions diced finely
- small handful of basil or spinach chopped
- red pepper flakes (optional)
- 2 tsp olive oil
Directions
Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and blend until the tomatoes are blended well, the almonds are fine and the basil or spinach are mixed into the sauce. Add the olive oil to a pot along with the blended tomato sauce. Heat on Medium-Low heat until it comes to a bubble. Test the seasoning and add more salt or pepper if needed. Red pepper flakes can also be used to bring up the heat.
This dish can be served with any type of pasta on hand, or as the main dish with another vegetable on the side. I’ve never met an Italian -American who didn’t have parmesan or asiago on the table to shave over a pasta dish so do include this as well! A nice rustic bread also adds to the dish.
I am entering this recipe to Lindsay Olives’ blogger contest for Eat, Write, Retreat in Washington D.C. All recipes, images, opinions, and ideas are my own.
Keeping Boys Busy – Fort Magic {Review}
My boys have hit an age (5 and nearly 8 ) where they would rather spend a few hours punching each other and rolling around wrestling on the floor. It seems that the days of coloring books and building blocks are just distant memories. Even more frustrating the toys that once kept them entertained for hours have been cast aside for video games and expectations of hours of TV watching. A few months ago I gained a new Twitter follower – @FortMagic and was intrigued. I checked out their website and thought they had a really cool product that would keep my kids interested and busy.
It’s a fort kit! I spent so many hours when I was a kid building forts out of blankets, chairs and tables and knew that my boys would just eat up something like this. When we got the package in the mail they immediately hauled it to the basement and started to rifle through the box. Soon there were cries for mom and dad. Right out of the box I think they were a little overwhelmed. From the Fort Magic website;
Fort Magic Contains A Whopping 349 Pieces!
A single Fort Magic kit includes 142 straight and curved sticks – in seven different sizes that can build anything kids can think of! Each kit has 77 Connector Pieces in 5 varieties of shapes and sizes for unlimited kid-building fun!
Fort Magic also contains 130 Fabric and Accessory Clips! Securely fasten accessories or fabric covers to any fort design with NO SEWING!
349 pieces left them not sure where to start. So we picked one of the designs out of the instruction book that came with and started putting pieces together. MarocBaba has limited patience with projects like this and lacks the fort-wonder effect that I have so there was some grumbling.
With the help of mom and dad we were able to assemble a fun fort (though not the most creative if you ask me!) I think that my older son and some friends would be able to put this together quite easily and on their own. However for my younger son – he was more interested in tossing around the pieces and actually playing in it after it was built. Overall I have a mixed review.
Pros:
Cons:
I see this as a great gift for a major holiday or for grandparents and/or caregivers. As mentioned, I think kids 7 and up would enjoy and be able to play constructively with this kit. Fort Magic has a really cool website with videos that show different designs for building. The kit normally sells for $279 but right now you can get it for $199.
Check them out on Facebook and Twitter too! Read More
Wordless Wednesday: Beyond The Sea
It’s far beyond the star
It’s near beyond the moon
I know beyond a doubt
My heart will lead me there soon
We’ll meet beyond the shore
We’ll kiss just as before
Happy we’ll be, beyond the sea
And never again I’ll go sailin’
~Frank Sinatra “Somewhere Beyond the Sea”
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