Whatever Happened to the Harissa?

'Member a while back when I said I bought green chorizo and planned to cook it up with harissa? Lest you thought I had forgotten...

There she blows! A little Northern African inspiration mixed garbanzo beans with some leftover grape tomatoes I had lying around, plus collard greens and, of course, harissa. There were some potatoes fried up in some sausage rendered fat, too.

Turns out harissa is kind of ridiculously spicy. I got through half my bowl before I had to save my tongue and save the rest for lunch the next day.

A Birthday Bowl

The lovely Cate and Nadav gave me the most gorgeous, thoughtful, original gift for my birthday: a perfect large glass mixing bowl lined with cheesecloth and tied with a dishrag bow, heaped with artisanal foodstuffs that they foraged out of NYC's sundry supermarkets. THANK YOU, you two, for all of the following. To everyone else, please leave comments for ideas on what to concoct with these ingredients!!

• A portly brick of Semi-sweet French vanilla chocolate
• A pretty, slender bottle of Mymoune Rose Water
• A foreign-looking jar of kumquats in syrup
• An even more foreign-looking stout can of harissa
• A thrilling jar of whole preserved lemons
• A completely adorable package of Zoo animal-shapes pasta
• An entire candied orange
• a kitschy box of Red & Black Licorice Piglets
• A stunningly aromatic tray of whole green cardamom pods
• A dainty box of chive crackers
• A sunshiny marigold-hued bottle of mustard seed oil
• An authentic, stamped box of Campanini Carnaroli rice
• A neatly folded baggie of Sahadi's Turkish ground coffee

Ideas swirl!! Please share!