Moroccan lamb from my Namibian cookbook

I can't say that I really enjoyed picking this cookbook up at the beginning of my trip in Namibia and then had to lug it Namibia, South Africa, and then gave it to my husband to take home with him while I continued on my way.  

I am glad though that I got it because I didn't see it anywhere else.  Anyways I started with making the Moroccan lamb.  An interesting choice from a Namibian cookbook but I needed to use the lamb meat up we had and I already had all the spices and ingredients.  

I have this recipe 4 stars - my husband gave it 3 stars. This is the closest recipe I have found to make Lamb Tangine that comes remotely close to what the Moroccan restaurant serves.  Of course I made several changes to the recipe.  First off I doubled all of the spices and honey.  The reason my husband gave it three was because I doubled the cinnamon which was not necessary.

The other change I made was adding in the dates during the initial simmer process.  I then doubled the amount of dates and added them in at the correct time.  I added the same amount of dried apricots as dates (the recipe doesn't call for them at all).  

I forgot to take a photo of it, so here's a photo from the cookbook.  Mine turned out more yellowish but that was probably due to the increase in spices.  

Kale and Bacon Pie

I'm back!  I had a cooking blog several years ago but I decided to merge it with my photography site (which also needed a major overhaul) and bring both together in one place.  

Today's recipe comes from "On the Flavour Trail."  I got this one on coming back from a road trip on Vancouver Island.  We stopped at a place that makes cider and I saw it in the corner.  I quickly looked through and knew it was coming home.  I paid for it before my husband even realized what was going on and would have been able to sneak it home without his knowledge except I pulled it out while waiting in the US customs line.  He smiled and rolled his eyes when he saw it.

Since the weather has been chilly (for the PNW standards), I had decided to make this filling recipe.  It won 5 stars from both of us.  

Of course my lactose intolerance required a few changes.  First off for the dough itself I used a vegan butter instead of normal butter.  Still comes out quite good.  I had a little problem getting the dough to the top of the tin and was stretching in places.

The second change of course was the filling itself.  Again I cannot have heavy cream so I swapped out 1 cup of heavy cream with 3/4 cup of lactose free milk and 1/4 cup of vegan butter.  This actually made it quite light and didn't sit heavy.  

The recipe also calls for Natural Pastures aged farmhouse cheddar.  I've never had this cheese and image it would be difficult to find in the states so I went with Beecher's flagship aged cheese.  It did not give it as much flavor as I would have hoped for.  I would suggested either adding in more or using a cheese with more flavor to it such as Beecher's smoked flagship cheese.

Overall we gave it 5 stars and we will be making it again.