When I was a child, my family was living in Portugal and, on my seventh birthday, we took a boat trip to Morocco. My favorite part of the trip was when my family sang "Happy Birthday" to me at dinner, and my younger sister approached all of the passengers who weren't singing and shamed them into joining in. My least favorite part of the trip was when we arrived in the port and some of the merchants offered to trade me for a toy camel. My parents thought it was funny, but I was afraid they'd accept. <br /> <br />Fast forward to last April when my husband and I traveled with our kids on our first trans-Atlantic trip to Paris. My husband ordered this Moroccan couscous for lunch one day and, much to my surprise, all of the kids loved it. I think the plethora of carrots and potatoes made it more palatable. When we got home, I hurried to recreate the dish before they forgot that they liked it. <br /> <br />If you can get ras-el-hanout, use it; otherwise, it is easy to make your own spice blend. The spices in my version are intensly flavorful, which is a nice complement to the mild couscous. <br />

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