Some Call it "Fusion," I Call it Cleaning out the Fridge

Cooking this Week -- Saturday Dessert for Friends and Doro Wat on Mac 'N Cha

Saturday I cooked and I didn't. I promise to write about the cooking class I finished this week, but I thought I'd dash this off first. We made an Orange Souffle dessert on the last day. It was not baked, but frozen with the usual eggs, whipped cream, but Grand Marnier for the orange flavor. It is a little fussy, the difficult part is converting oranges into serving cups. Some friends invited us over for an ice cream social, so I thought -- what the hell? I've made it in class, we had the Grand Marnier. So I did and it was a hit. What I didn't do was pipe the whipped cream, but the taste was good. Although this was my only real cooking of the day, I'd rather talk about an accidental discovery.

I've been haunted by the leftover Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken Stew). It was too time consuming and delicious to throw out, but it didn't seem right to serve without injera. I haven't figured out making injera. Lunch was going to be Mac n' cheese, then I realized -- we didn't have any chili in the house. Cheap Hormel Chili is my favorite method for livening up the Mini Chef's bland favorite. Would the Doro Wat might make a good substitute? I missed the absence of beans, but the incredible richness of flavor made up of it. Consider "seasoning" macaroni and cheese with: spiced butter, onions, garlic, ginger, berbere, fenugreek, dry mustard, cumin, basil, turmeric and the Mekellesha spice mixture (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, allspice). Oh, and a dash of salt. It's a little absurd, but was very tasty.