Tajine for dinner

After translating the recipe last night I was in the mood for a good tajine, so today when I got home from work I went to the market and stopped at one stall for the lamb, another stall for the prunes, almonds, saffron and cinnamon sticks, then a stop at the bakery for some bread. My roommates both arrived home hungry - so we enjoyed dinner together.

@ plus!

The Yummy Tajine Recipe

I followed my friend Lamyia around one night as she made a DELICIOUS tajine. When she told me she was making a tajine with beef and prunes I wasn't sure what to think. Prunes are OK, but making a meal out of them is a little bit odd to my American sense of cuisine. She is a fabulous cook though, so I'll try anything she makes. She didn't let us down that night either. It was one of the best meals I've had here. She served a delicious platter of tender meat topped with prunes that had been soaking in cinnamon and ginger. The dish was covered in a delicious sauce - a mix of parsley, garlic, onions, saffron, ginger and cinnamon. It was sprinkled with toasted almonds that added the perfect touch of crunch, and served with delicious bakery fresh bread to soak up all the sauce. Mmm.. I am making myself hungry! I described the dish to Dan one night when we went to this great local restaurant, and we both ordered it. Their version added apricots, dates, figs and sultanas (golden raisins) to make a scrumptious fruit medley with the prunes.

So for those of you who have already asked for the recipe, here it is! This is the version that Lamyia made - you'll have to guess on amounts if you want to add in the other fruits.

MEAT:
3 onions finely chopped
½ to 1 kilo (1-2 lbs) beef or lamb
parsley
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
½ tsp pepper
salt
1 tsp ginger
saffron (if available)
saffron coloring
cinnamon sticks
olive oil (3 Tbsp)
vegetable oil (a little)

FRUIT:
300 g prunes
4 sugar cubes
3 sticks of cinnamon
1 Tbsp ginger
1tsp pepper

DECORATION:
100 g almonds (sautéed or toasted)
1 Tbsp sesame seeds (optional)


1. Over low heat, brown the meat with the oil, the onions, salt, spices & minced garlic.
Add enough water to almost completely cover the meat (about 1 ¼ liters) and let simmer until the meat is cooked (about 40 minutes) and the water is reduced to the consistency of a sauce.

2. Put the prunes, sugar, cinnamon sticks, ginger and pepper in a second pot and add water to just cover the prunes. Cook over low heat until water is reduced and prunes are re-hydrated.

3. To serve, put the meat & sauce on a serving dish, cover with the prunes and top with the almonds and sesame seeds.

Happy Cooking!

A face from home :)

I moved on Saturday, November 12 (by the way – I don’t have a Vonage phone anymore), and on Monday my friend Dan flew in for a visit. He had a little break from his European tour, so he popped down to Africa for a few days. Being so close to Europe has some advantages :) My goal is that he would have such a good time that he gets "home" he’d convince the rest of my Greenville friends to come for a visit! The day he arrived the King declared that all the schools – public & private – would be closed Wednesday through Friday in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Independence. Woohoo! Great timing!

The first day he was here we visited the most important monument in the country – the biggest mosque in Africa. It was really interesting to take the tour and see the great hall, the ablution rooms and the hammam. It was incredible to imagine how many men could fit into the hall for prayers. There were balconies above for the women. The ablution room was full of fountains – I think the guide said there were 40 of them. She explained the process of washing 3 times in order to be clean for prayer. The hammam is not yet in use, but eventually will be open as a public hammam.

The Grand Mosque

Some Tourists & The Men's Ablution Room

Dan offered to do a house concert while he was here (if you don’t know Dan – check out his website link on the right & you see what he’s all about and hear samples of his music). It was a really encouraging night for all of us that got together. Thanks, Dan!

House Concert @ Elissa & Melissa's

We couldn’t miss walking through the medina and poking into a few shops here and there. I have NEVER been offered hashish (marijuana) before, but walking around with this blond guy the offers never ceased. You’d think that was the only reason we were visiting the medina! We had the usual assortment of “guides” that wanted to help us find whatever we were looking for. After saying “lah, chokran” (no thank you) a few times they normally give up, but one was particularly insistent. He kept asking me in various languages what language I spoke. Finally he said, “You do speak French, right?” I said yes, and he started asking me if I was from France or this country or that one, but I wasn’t answering. Finally he asked me “where are you coming from?” and I answered him with the name of the city in Arabic. “Oooo-oh,” he answered and laughed with me and smiled and waved and turned to find another tourist. Wow! That was easy! I have to remember that.

The Medina

Before Dan arrived I asked him if there was anything he knew he didn’t want to miss out on while he was here. His answer was the Hammam Experience. Since the men’s and women’s hammams are separate, I recruited some fellow hammam lovers to go with us – Mary & Abdul Muhib. Abdul Muhib TRIED to convince Dan that we should go to the traditional hammam where I had my first hammam experience, but I put my foot down and insisted that we go to a nice hammam since Dan would only get to go once while he was here. We spent three hours getting scrubbed and massaged. This time the scrubbing girls even remembered me and Mary and welcomed us back. Wow! Every time I go I am amazed at how relaxing it is. You feel so incredibly clean walking out of there.

Afterwards we stopped and tried some panachés and pastillas. Unfortunately we forgot to take a picture until after we had finished eating. A panaché is a type of drink they make here by blending fresh fruit with either milk or orange juice. They are kind of like smoothies without the ice – my favorite is mango-nectarine, although mango-avocado is pretty good too. A pastilla is a round pastry wrapped in what looks like phyllo dough with powdered sugar & cinnamon on top. Inside is a mixture of chicken, almonds cinnamon and I’m not sure what else all ground together. It is delish! It’s my favorite “fast food” here. Dan loved it too – he kept saying he was going to have to have one everyday until he left. But we were too busy trying other delicious local cuisine to fit those in again.

On our way down to the beach one afternoon (yeah – the beach in November! You guys all need to come visit! I won’t post the pictures for fear of false advertising when you see my turtleneck ;) ) we had to stop to sample the chwarma. You can find it pretty much anywhere in the city, but my favorite place so far is in a traditional neighborhood where they speak almost exclusively Arabic. Pitta House in Greenville still holds the record though for the best chwarma (although a place up in Tangier is a close second)! Anyway, the traditional neighborhood afforded another occasion for some picture taking – a portable fruit stand and little hanout.

Fruit Cart & Hanout

Of course THE most important thing to check out in any city is the good coffee! Dan is probably pickier than I am about coffee (yes that IS possible!), so while he was here we stopped at my favorite café for mochaccinos one afternoon.

Mochaccinos at Cafe L'Estranot

OK - I have spent a 1/2 hour trying to upload pictures! It is so frustrating! I keep getting the "done" button popping up on the picture upload screen, but when I hit done & get flipped back over to the posting page, the pix never show up. Aaah! I can't even email them to myself & upload them from work because since the office is moving locations this week I won't have internet access from there until December 5th. I am calling about DSL tomorrow (if we have phone service in the office - they turned it off on Wednesday b/c they received the request to turn it off on Dec 3rd)! Eventually I'll post them - Dan's a great photographer & I stole a few good ones.

New Roommates Again!

I’ve been trying to write about my life in order and it’s been a challenge because my life seems to be happening faster than I can write about it. When I lived in France, I discovered that I felt like I had only observed my life if I hadn’t written about it. Once I’d written about it, it felt more like I had lived it. That’s bizarre, but I guess I connect with my emotions more when I have a pen in my hand.

So… where am I in my blogging? Right after fall break, I think. I had a week to pack up my apartment and move once again. I HATE packing and moving, but at least this time there is a little more stability involved since I know that this is my permanent apartment – at least until June! My new roommates – Karen & Lauren – are both from Georgia and have been here for a couple of years already. I LOVE them!

Here’s our first roommate picture:

The Rest of the Trip...

The week that I got back from my Spain & Portugal break I had the best intentions of posting pictures right away. I blocked out a night to spend working on catching up on email and updating my blog. However, I got home and found out that our internet connection wasn’t working. Apparently someone had brought in an internet bill and it got mixed in with their mail from school and never made it to the bills to get paid pile next to our telephone… So I went with plan B and spent time organizing pictures & burning CDs for the three girls that went on the trip with me. Then last Saturday I moved (AGAIN) and Sunday I spent (besides church) unpacking, grocery shopping and cooking. Monday my friend Dan arrived to spend a few days and finally this past weekend I found time to get set up my internet connection at the new apartment only to discover that dial up internet doesn’t do so well uploading pictures! So, here I am on my lunch break at work finally sharing the rest of my trip…

Monte Gordo, Portugal
After our time in San Lucar we took off for Portugal. We took a bus to a border town in Spain and then found a taxi. Lisa had found pictures of a hotel in Monte Gordo, Portugal that looked inviting and the price was unbelievable, so when we got to the little beach town and had no idea where the hotel was, the taxi driver pulled up to a little restaurant along the beach and got directions and dropped us off at the hotel door with instructions on where to find the best bar in town. We passed on that suggestion! Our plan was to spend time relaxing in Portugal, and it turned out to be just the perfect town for that. It catered to tourists, so everyone spoke English, although we saw more Portuguese snowbirds than anyone else since we were there during off-season. It was great to take a break from our normally hectic schedules. I enjoyed spending some unhurried time in the Word. We also had some great seafood, rode bikes on trails in the woods, did a little shopping and spent some time on the beach.

We spent a couple of hours waiting at a bus station for a bus to Seville, and noticed that the front yard outside of the bus station was filled with orange trees. We assumed they were probably sour oranges, but were in the mood for some fruit so I went out and climbed one of the trees to reach some of the more ripe pieces of fruit. They were still a little tart, but not sour. So we picked a bag of oranges and ate them at various points throughout the rest of the trip.

Sevilla, Spain

Starbucks in Seville!!!
After a few days of catching our breath in Portugal we headed back to Spain. As we were researching for our trip I found out that there was an H&M in Seville, so I brought up that city as a possible stop in our itinerary. When I discovered there was also a Starbucks there, Victoria was excited and we didn’t have too much trouble talking Lisa and Bethany into it. So after finding Pension St Estaban, our first mission was to find a Starbucks (there were 4 of them in Seville). I had been saving up my mocha Frappuccino craving since July, so I had no trouble deciding what to order on that first visit. Highlights in Spain included introducing Victoria, Lisa & Bethany to the wonders of H&M, many delicious stops at Starbucks, Tapa hunting, watching a flamenco show, finding a perfect lamppost picture, and visiting the castle Real Alcazar. All too soon our vacation time was up and we headed back to ferry in Tarifa and our 8 hour train ride back home.

Cathedral in Seville

In Seville I found my favorite lampost in a town square by the Cathedral. The tower seen with the lampost was once the minaret of a mosque, but when the Spaniards won the city back from the Moors, they tore down the mosque and incorporated the minaret as the bell tower of their new cathedral.

Lampost by Day

Lampost by Night

Tapas in Seville

We tried several Tapas places before we decided on our favorite which was located near La Giralda. Lisa was happy since it was the one she fell in love with on her last visit to Seville.

Tapas Menu

Tapas Server

Dial Up Internet!!!

The week that I got back from my Spain & Portugal break I had the best intentions of posting pictures right away. I blocked out a night to spend working on catching up on email and updating my blog. However, I got home and found out that our internet connection wasn’t working. Apparently someone had brought in an internet bill and it got mixed in with their mail from school and never made it to the bills to get paid pile next to our telephone… So I went with plan B and spent time organizing pictures & burning CDs for the three girls that went on the trip with me. Then on Saturday I moved (AGAIN) and Sunday I spent (besides church) unpacking, grocery shopping and cooking. Monday my friend Dan arrived to spend a few days and finally today I have found time to get on-line again! So, finally, here’s the rest of my trip…

HA! I thought I was uploading pix from the rest of my trip. The girls I just moved in with last week still have DIAL UP INTERNET!!! So, I can't get my pictures to upload despite the fact that I have reduced them to less than 150 KB. I guess I will load them onto my flash drive & post them from work on Monday. How crazy!

Vi Feria de la Tapa

After our naps and showers we felt human again (I sound like my dad!) and wandered around the town...

... until we found the square where every restaurant in town must have set up a Tapas booth!

When we first arrived, not many people were eating yet. 7:30 is a little early for dinner in Spain! We tried reading the menus that were marked on white boards or hung on poster board at the backs of the booths, but my rememberances of high school spanish only got me as far as "gambas" (shrimp) and "marisco" (seafood). So when we saw "gambas" that's what we ordered, and at other times we asked for the waiter to "recommende" something (I am not sure if that is really spanish or just french with a spanish accent, but they seemed to understand that we wanted a recommendation). When Spaniards started eating around us we began pointing and asking for "el mismo por favor" - the same thing please!

One of our favorites was a dish of squid in garlic butter sauce:

Another favorite was a fish dish that came with asparagus. After ordering 2 platefuls of that we asked if we could order another plate of just asparagus. The waiter told us no, that was impossible. After joking and smiling a lot and telling him a few more times how delicious his food was he turned around and said something to the cook and eventually a plate of asparagus came thru the window... I learned a few things from my dad in his single days, like the power of smiling at the waiter ;)

After trying something from just about every appetizing booth (good thing an order was only 4 bites!) we sat down on a bench to people watch. Wow - it seemed like just about everyone had stepped out of a fashion magazine. Europeans really know how to dress! After a few minutes we had observed that not only are Eighties clothes coming back into style, but THE MULLET IS BACK!!! Unbelievable!

Eventually we headed back towards our pension, in search of coffee on the way, but not before taking a last night shot of the Feria:

Day One: Spain by Ferry & San Lucar de Barrameda

For fall break I took off for the southern coast of Spain and Portugal with friends who teach at the school where I'm working. Our journey started minutes before midnight on Friday night with a LOOOOONG train ride up to the coast where we caught the Saturday morning ferry to Tarifa, Spain.

Bethany, Lisa & Me, Victoria & Naomi

Despite the lack of sleep on the train (the couchettes were full - so we were sitting up all night!), excitement was inescapable as we anticipated the next leg of our journey. We really weren't sure how we were going to make it to SanLucar de Barrameda, but we arrived in Tarifa in the early afternoon and headed directly to the Officina de Turisma. The woman in the office was quite helpful and explained that we couldn't take a bus directly to SanLucar, but pointed us in the direction of the taxis. We said goodbye to Naomi who was headed in the opposite direction up the coast and then managed to find the taxi stand. Communicating was a challange, but Bethany and I pulled some high school spanish out of the back corners of our brains and we were soon loading our luggage into the back of a white mercedes taxi. The ride to San Lucar de Barrameda took about 2 and 1/2 hours, so we arrived just before 3pm. We had the taxi drop us off at the Officina de Turisma, which of course closed at 2pm. They did have a map tacked up to the window and a list of pensions and hotels. We located a couple of addresses on the map and headed towards the little town center to find a few beds.

Not too far past this little square we came to another filled with fruit stands and trinket sellers, and that's where we found Pension San Roque. The man who answered the door was a jolly Spaniard in his fifties. He spoke no English, so we were back to broken high school Spanish, but he was forgiving and we followed him up a narrow winding staircase where he showed us a couple of rooms to choose from. By this time we were exhausted from our million hours of travelling (how in the world did pilgrims spend months crossing the ocean on the Nina, Pinta & Santa Maria???) so we enjoyed hot showers and a siesta before discovering what we had come to see - the annual Feria de Tapas of San Lucar de Barrameda.

A few more Ramadan pictures...

The typical Ramadan f'tor table with dates, hard boiled eggs, m'simmon farci, shebekia and plenty of other additions was always shared with generosity whenever I was in the vacinity of Manal and Lamiae's apartment at the evening call to prayer during the month of Ramadan.

Manal, Lamiae and myself - getting ready to break the fast!

I'm wearing a jellaba that I bought at Ramadan Nights - a fair set up during the month of Ramadan where you can find any sort of thing you could possibly be looking for. My other great finds of the fair were peanut butter and a crepe pan :)

Lamiae's offering the traditional cup of mint tea. It is almost delicious enough to convert me from being a coffee drinker. Almost...