Around the World in the Hetzel Kitchen

Location : Western Africa, north of Ghana Size : Almost 275,00 sq km; 74th largest in the world         Slightly larger than Colorado Population : Over 16.75 million; 61st largest in the world Birth rate : Almost 44 births/1000 population; 5th largest in the world Capital : Ouagadougou Infant mortality rate : About 81 deaths/1000 live births; 10th highest in the world Former name : Republic of Upper Volta Borders : Unresolved boundary alignments with Mali, Niger, and Benin Source: CIA Factbook Sorry for the rarity of posts lately.  Summer is going to be a sporadic time with weddings and vacations and such.  Luckily I have still been cooking so far. Often, when searching for recipes, I narrow it to a few and then send them to Kevin for his opinion.  In this case, it was down to  Munyu Caf Couscous  and Riz Au Gras .  I mention this specifically to point out that my husband got to choose between these,...

(Originally posted here. ) No last minute runs to Whole Foods this time.  Hah!  I win! Algeria Gained independence from France in 1962. Borders the Mediterranean Sea. 11th biggest country for land area, second largest in Africa. Only 3.17% of their land is arable and .28% is permanent crops. 34.5 million in population. 99% Sunni Muslim There are 90,000 refugees from Western Sahara in Algeria. Cuisine : Fusion of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences. National Dish : Couscous Sources: CIA Factbook and Algeria.com I was really hoping that my international cookbook would have a recipe for Algeria, since it has "Northern Africa" as an area for recipes.  Nothing there, though.  I'll let you know how the cookbook works when I can use it. Instead, I decided that wanted to make something with couscous since that was the Algerian national dish.  So I started looking.  I ran into some of the same problems as last time: I would find the exact...