Something a little different. Okay, a lot different.

This morning as I was looking up recipes for our dinners this week, I came across a very unusual, intriguing recipe.  It is called "Curried Apple Couscous" and the recipe can be found on 101cookbooks.com.  I LOVE this website and all the delicious recipes the author comes up with.  She can put ingredients together I would never even consider putting together.  I will admit that Matt only likes about half of the recipes I make from this website.  However, I love them all just because of the odd mesh of ingredients and her beautiful pictures.  Anyway, I decided for multiple reasons that I would try to make this "Curried Apple Couscous" recipe this morning. Matt was still sleeping. I didn't want to commit an entire dinner to this recipe. I had most of the ingredients (or at least ones that might work as substitutes). I had already had about 3 cups of coffee by 9am.  There was clearly nothing holding me back from starting this cooking adventure!

Here is the link to the recipe:  http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001509.html

          ...............

Curried Apple Couscous Recipe
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 medium apple, cored and chopped
3 green onions, washed, trimmed, and thinly sliced
1 cup whole wheat couscous (or regular)
1 3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
Small handful of mint, chopped

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat add 3 tablespoons of the butter, the curry powder, and a couple generous pinches of salt, and cook for a minute or until the spices are fragrant.  Stir in the chopped apples and cook for about 3 minutes, enough time for the apples to soften up a bit and absorb some of the curry.  Scoop the apples from the pan and set aside in a separate bowl.

In the same pan, again over medium-high heat, add the remaining tablespoon of butter.  Stir in the green onions, let them soften up a bit and then add the water and salt.  Bring to a boil, stir in the couscous, cover and remove from heat.  Steam for 5 to 10 minutes and then use a fork to fluff up the couscous.  Stir in the apples, pine nuts, and chopped mint.  Season with more salt and curry powder to taste.

          ...............

Like I mentioned before, I didn't have all the ingredients for this recipe so I left out the green onions, pine nuts, and mint.  (Holly, I am now seeing the pattern with the overlooked onions too.)  When reading over the reviews on the website, one person suggested adding raisins to the dish.  In thinking about that addition and the fact that I didn't have any sort of nut to add, I remembered that my mom had given us some candied pecans last time we were in Ohio.  With using that as a possibility, I decided to not add raisins but instead to chop up the candied pecans as a raisin/pine nut substitute. 

Here are the photos from the process, along with the final results:

I am not sure about this recipe or at the very least, the way I ended up making this recipe.  Would anyone be up for trying to make this on your own and then letting us know how it went?  All morning long I have been walking by the curried apple couscous, trying a bite, and then walking away thinking about whether or not I like it.  I think right now at 1pm, I like it.  Or maybe I just need to eat lunch.  Matt, however, is not torn in his opinion and is not a fan of this recipe.  He gave it 1/16th of a chicken wing.  Just for clarification's sake, that is not very good.  Hopefully one of the other recipes I make this week for dinner will be a super success since this one definitely wouldn't be considered that way.