this is what a moroccan cappuccino looks like

Hello world and followers who are miraculously still visiting my much-neglected blog.

I have been cooking, just not blogging. But photographs have been taken. They are coming. Soon. In addition to cooking and taking pictures I have been writing, swimming, looking for pirates, reorganizing my closet, reviewing films, and some other things. I will soon take a break from all this mess to start sharing recipes again.

In the meantime, I was reminded last week of the particular delights of the Moroccan cappuccino. In Morocco, “cappuccino,” a friend and I discovered, is actually code for a qahwa nos-nos (that is, half steamed milk and half espresso) with an unjustifiable amount of good whipped cream on top and also chocolate syrup. They are delightful. And challenging.

fortunately i am always up for this particular challenge

If only cappuccinos in the U.S. were this exciting.

shall i imbibe thee on a summer’s day? a moroccan g&t

It happened while I was cooking a Moroccan lemon chicken (forthcoming) for some friends and searching for something cool to drink. There was no chilled wine and no beer but there was tonic water and gin. The rest is history.

intercultural alchemy

black friday brew

So instead of battling the masses at Target this morning (even though I really could use an inexpensive toaster, as my cute vintage 1970′s toaster recently went down in a cloud of smoke) I opted to sleep in and help my brother with his latest homebrew. This one should be ready in time for Christmas…in the meantime I enjoyed a bit of his latest batch, which is a delicious Irish stout that makes you think of coffee, crisp mornings, and…history lessons?

The point is, my brother is about a million times cooler than I ever will be, and I’m ok with that, as long as I’m allowed to help him make delicious beer.

Last year I spent Thanksgiving surrounded by a family of friends met abroad – it was a meal made up of dozens of traditions coming together, gathered from the markets of Barcelona and fueled by a sense of nostalgia at leaving a special place, excitement for our collective homecoming, and a heavy dose of Cava Mimosas. This Thanksgiving couldn’t look more different: I’m surrounded by close family and friends and the traditions I grew up with, nestled in a cozy rural place about as different from Barcelona as I can imagine. But the feeling is the same: a day isn’t enough to fit all the thanks I owe for what I have, but sharing a beautiful meal with loved ones is the best way I can think of to try.

what do ramadan in morocco and wine in morocco have in common?

…really not much at all, to tell the truth. Alcohol is of course forbidden in Islam, so Moroccan liquor stores (which technically are there to serve non-Muslims) close down completely during the month of fasting. However, I recently wrote a little something on both topics here (though not at the same time)!

A little shameless self-promotion: part of what’s kept me busy lately is that I’ve been writing things elsewhere. See, I’m still around! In any case, HeyMorocco.com has lots of great travel information for anyone interested in visiting Morocco (that should be everyone! Really! Go!). You can find my own contributions here, in an essay about the joy of experiencing Muslim holidays as a non-Muslim American – especially relevant right now, since Ramadan is drawing to a close this week! – and here, where I wax poetic about the Moroccan wines I came to know and love so well.

making moroccan tea when you can’t find chinese gunpowder tea in the grocery store

Sometimes you want a Moroccan-ish cup of tea, but there’s no gunpowder tea around, black tea tastes like it’s from England and green tea tastes like it’s from China. And don’t get me started on that herbal mint tea nonsense.

This is as close to a Moroccan tea experience as I could get, using a combination of ordinary teabags that were already in the house. It’s served the way they do it in Tangiers – in a tall drinking glass with the mint leaves in the glass and not in the teapot.

beets: an update

rosy drinks all around

For an even prettier pink smoothie (and a way to take the edge of beet juice, which, while delicious, does still smell faintly of beets, which some people just don’t like no matter what), try taking the original beet juice recipe I wrote about earlier (below and here) and swirl it into a smoothie of blended vanilla yogurt, orange juice, three strawberries and a banana.

beets can be tasty after all

If you are like me, and pretty much everyone else in my family, you are not really a beet person.

The secrets of beets, however, are two, and I learned them both in Morocco: first is its incredible color. Its juice is more raspberry than raspberries. It’s stunning.

The second is that you can puree beets with a little sugar and orange juice and produce a beautiful tasty nutritious smoothie drink in the middle of winter, when there are no strawberries to be found…

see how pretty? i mean it practically radiates beauty.