Green Jello

Oh the notorious green jello with shredded carrots!  My aunt Mary Jo responded to my facebook page inviting people to share memories of Utah.  I think she summed it up rather well.

"Green Jello! Funeral Potatoes! Canned Peaches! Homemade Bread! Majestic Mountains! Good People! Home! Family!"

For my non-LDS friends the green jello thing is a bite (literally) of Mormon culture. When I was growing up anytime there was a potluck of any kind (and there are a lot of pot-luck oriented activities in the church) at least one person would ALWAYS bring green jello with shredded carrots. My own mother was guilty of this on more than one occasion.  I don't know why it was such a staple, but the jello showed up as faithfully as manna in the wilderness.  Alas, it became such a staple that everybody began to laugh about it and it became such a joke that nobody dares to bring green jello anymore. I haven't seen it in years.  I know!  In honor of the travel envelope, I really will bring the jello--there's sure to be a Thanksgiving dinner this month!

As to the rest, it makes me feel right at home---the funeral potatoes still arrive at all funerals--for good reason, they're really delicious (think cheese and sourcream).  My mom and all my friends moms were always canning peaches and tomatoes. The mountains really are majestic and the people really are warm and wonderful.

A couple other comments were:

Hiking in the mountains!
Chapped lips--very true, especially if you're coming from a humid state.
Sleeping on my best buddies floor---Kaitlyn you're welcome back anytime.  Your comment made me remember some good floors that I slept on too.

Alpine Pizza

Something new to try!  Thanks Anna Marie for clueing me in. 

A quaint restaurant that serves German food is in the same room and building as "Alpine Pizza" in Eden, Utah. It is close to the Red Moose Lodge in Eden. The owners of the restaurant won a lottery and American visas in Germany so have settled in Eden. They are a charming couple and are wonderful cooks. The restaurant is small but homey.

UTAH!!!

We reached into our travel envelope and pulled out, of all boring places--Utah.  My first instinct was blah.  I grew up in Salt Lake, I live in Ogden now, surely ANY PLACE else would be more exciting.  However, on second thought...it's difficult to imagine a more beautiful place than Ogden, Utah.  Right now we have the most gorgeous fall weather.  I've taken to eating my lunch by the duck pond at Weber State and all I could think today was that lots of people would pay thousands to take a special vacation to stroll around a place so lovely.

So, the goal for this month for me is to see my beautiful state through the eyes of a tourist and thank my lucky stars that I get to live here.

Food

Ah---my favorite part of traveling--the food. Morocco is a great place to travel if you like good food. Also a good place if you like adventurous food.  Being the myopic Americans that we are we opted to pass on the lamb brains and had instead Beef Kefta which is basically ground beef with spices.

The beef had some spices we don't ordinarly put together in the US.  Cinnamon and chili powder for example.  There was also cilantro and cumin in the meat--very tasty.  To go with it we had couscous of course, and sweet potatoes and raisins also with cinnamon, chili powder and cumin--also garlic--VERY good. And some beans that should have been fava beans but oh well.  Again the cinnamon and chili powder.  The Moroccan desserts can get pretty elaborate with nut fillings and fillo dough.  For once we went simple and made a sauce with the juice from one orange with a little sugar and cinnamon with is cooked until thick and then served over orange slices with a little powdered sugar and mint.  Elegant looking.
It's easy to find Moroccan recipies online.  These happened to come from a book called Taste of Morocco.

Souks

I've been fascinated by the souks (shops) of Marrakech. Here are just a few examples.

The Basket Souk--featuring baskets woven from palm fiber.

Clothing Souk--where I would find 100 must-have items that I would never wear in the states.

 

The Dyer's Souk--this is where leather is dyed with natural dyes before going to the leather makers.  These vats have been in use for centuries. 

 

The metal souk---I would buy a gong.  No idea why, but I must have one. 

Slippers and belts and it looks like a whole lot of other stuff too. 

Wool souk---bestill my knitter's heart.

Old Square---Near the former slave market--where people come to sell fruits and vegetables.  According to the DK Eyewitness Travel guide--magicians and healers buy their supplies here too.  I can understand the healers buying herbs, but the magicians?  I bet they perform in the streets.  If they have a shop here it will be the first place I visit.

What a Trip

Well what do you know??  Pot--as in marijuana has been traditionally used in Moroccan cooking. This, according to a web search and a dimly remembered passage from the last African cookbook I checked out. This might be more of a trip than I bargained for!

MOROCCO

Visiting Morocco has been great already. I like visiting countries where there is a lot of information to be found at the library.  In this case two cookbooks among other wonders.  I made the "country bread" which is basically normal bread but with a little cornmeal and formed into flat circles.  The bread must have known what it was supposed to do, because even though it was made with the same yeast as the Serbian bread which rose like crazy, this stayed relatively flat.  Like all bread--very yummy.  A traditional Berber breakfast is this bread with the local fruity olive oil.

Morocco to me is lavish--a decadent feast of the eye.  Pictures like the above water fountain in Rabat are everywhere.  It's wonderful to browse through the travel guides.

Also, I'm looking forward to showing Catherine one of my all time favorite movies--Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" which begins in Morocco--Doris Day--Jimmy Stewart--adventure, just doesn't get better than that!  Also, she's never seen Casablanca. At the risk of offending the great gods of film--I confess I didn't care for it all that much when I saw it many years ago, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood. I think it deserves another chance, and everyone should see it at least once.