And then ... there was a party

The month of May is a month of parties for the Curl Up family. Papa and moeke got a year older again and the youngest family addition got a lemon meringue pie with his very first candle.

So … we threw a party. A party, that means drinks, and drinks that means ice, and to keep drinks cold when its 40°C outside you need a lot of ice.

But we ordered more ice than we had cool boxes, so 50 kg ice was used to cool down our overheated little ones. They were super happy; as it’s the first time they saw snow in our garden.

  

The whole family helped cutting, baking, and decorating; and we were happy with the result. Especially the couscous seemed to be liked by the party gang.

Nina gave us the most beautiful and tasty cupcakes we have ever seen/tasted, made be a friend of her.

 

Blue selection

  

Colourful selection

Festive couscous

Curl Up its favourite party dish is couscous with dried fruits and nuts. A great side dish for a wide range of main courses, such as quiche, wine & cheese, but also to accompany for example grilled meat. The advantage is that you can quickly make a big quantity of it with a minimum of effort. This is how we like our couscous, but of course you are free to experiment:

Ingredients

150g normal couscous

75g unsalted pistachio nuts

1 small red onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

25g flat-leaf parsley, chopped

15g mint, chopped

juice of 1 lemon

a handful ready-to-eat prunes, apricots, raisins, figs (chopped in small pieces)

4 tablespoons of olive oil

salt and pepper

fresh seeds of a pomegranate

Preparation

Prepare the couscous according to the preparation details on the packaging, or follow these instructions: measure the amount of couscous and pour the couscous in a glass dish. Add some butter over the couscous and then measure the same amount of water as the amount of couscous you measured earlier. Add some chicken/vegetable stock to the water, heat the water in the microwave till boiling. Pour the boiling water over the couscous. Set aside to cool.

Mix all the other ingredients: the nuts, onion, garlic, parsley, mint, lemon juice, and dried fruits in a large bowl. Add the oil and the cooled couscous. You can add as much dried fruits as you wish, making your couscous even richer. Finish by decorating the couscous with some pieces of pomegranate.