Many apologies for the lack in blog updates. One friend suggested a blog is like a baby book. You start it with the best of intentions...but keeping it up gets too overwhelming. Not entirely, but it can be hard to have time to upload pictures, and avoid my lazy tendencies. We have been on the road quite a bit and busy with a round of visitors and final exam preparations.
Let's catch everyone up to speed by starting where I left off....
We were lucky enough to have friends and family visit around the holidays...and they all came at or around the same time so there was merry overlap and barely enough time to wash towels for the next batch of friends.
Here we are dining out with a friend visiting from Spain. After a couple days in Agadir, we all boarded the bus to Marrakech to meet R's brother and Sarah for some Marrakech Madness and a surprise experiential gift of a Moroccan Cuisine cooking class!
Grading essays on the road to Marrakech....oh, final count: 323 essay students. Argh!
Showing off our bargained purchases in the cool sitting area of our Riyad. Many vendors would tell me: "Ok, you are a Berber woman, you are a bargainer." I actually hate negotiating prices, but when it is game-on...I can play....and yes, I know calling me a 'Berber woman' is a great sales technique!
Pastilla and Moroccan Salad...
A very Alice in Wonderland hotel where you step down into the bathroom, making me look like a giant.
Here is the courtyard with a rooftop terrace with tables for a sunny breakfast, taking in the Marrakech mosques and Atlas mountains...
I heart doorways and arches and tile...
Our cooking class began with a souk shopping treasure hunt for our ingredients. I could dive into these mounds of olives a la Scrooge McDuck into his gold coins.
Stop at the spice market where we got 'the real Saffron!'
Exploring the treasures of the souk...
We got a tutorial on the most common Moroccan spices and how they are used in cuisine.
Lovely corners in the Souk...
Negotiating the vegetables section...
Oven fresh bread...
Cooking Class Time...I loved the set up in an open air courtyard. We all had a different recipe to prepare depending on which table we chose. When we finished we collectively worked on the most labor-intesenive ones and then after a wait, we reaped the delicious benefits of our labor.
We enjoyed the meal on the rooftop terrace and lingered in the late afternoon sun, very full and extremely happy. Everyone got a recipe booklet with directions for all of the dishes we prepared.
It was another perfect afternoon in Morocco.