Israeli Couscous with Dried Cranberries, Celery and Scallions ~

I love watching Anne Burrell's show, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef.  I like her style, her boldness, heck I even like her "man grunts".  She's unique and her recipes are wonderful.

This recipe is wonderful, either warm or cold.  I served it with simple slices of grilled chicken, even in the dead of winter.  Although, this day was warm, sunny and a wonderful 60 degrees farenheit.  In Boston and in January no less.

The way she cooks the couscous in salted water, bay leaves and blood orange peels was so interesting.  She inticed me to try it and I had most everything in the house.  I didn't have green onions, but chopped a half of yellow onion small and put it in with the cranberries and vinegar to sit for about 1/2 hour on the counter.  I think it took the bite out of the plain onion and made it work well.   I did doubt her love for plain celery here, but it was a fabulous addition, so nice and crisp.  I added julienned red leaf lettuce, because I didn't have any parsley either..... and it worked wonderfully.

So do give this dish a try, you won't be disappointed, I promise.

Here's the link to her recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/israeli-couscous-with-celery-scallions-and-cranberries-recipe/index.html