Fun With the Siblings

Have I mentioned that I love my Moroccan siblings? They have a lot in common with my biological siblings: they're funny, they love to laugh, and they love me! :)

So, when I busted out Photo Booth on my laptop, it was an instant success.

The four of us had a great time getting into wacky poses and making ourselves look as silly as possible.

The two-headed monster was a pretty popular pose.

As was the "we're-getting-sucked-into-a-wind-tunnel."

Note to readers: I do wear makeup sometimes. I promise.

We started laughing so hard that Brahim scolded us. I guess there are neighbors or something.

Our quietness lasted about fifteen seconds because Karim convinced Zourikha to get in on the act.

And that was pretty funny all by itself.

I showed these pictures to Khadija later, and she laughed hysterically. Then she created the above gem.

I love these guys.

My Moroccan Family Eats Fajitas

As a pitiful attempt to say thank you for all of the food that's been prepared for me, I made one of my favorite dishes for my Moroccan family: fajitas!!! In the great tradition of blogging cooking shows, I thought I would share the experience with you.

This culinary exercise was an adventure in substitutions. I wanted to make homemade tortillas to go along with the fajitas (Steve and I are sort of famous for our homemade tortillas), but I couldn't find shortening anywhere. Or lard. Or anybody who knew what either of those things were... So, I had to use butter.

(You will be happy to know that I even bought this butter all by myself with my mad Arabic skills. "Nuss kilo zebda." That means, "Half kilo butter.")

I mixed the butter with flour, salt, and baking powder (trying to describe baking powder in the grocery store was another adventure...).

Brahim provided this picture (and most of the other ones). This shot is to prove that I, in fact, was the one preparing the food.

Note to readers interested in making tortillas: using butter is slightly more difficult than using shortening. The shortening is softer and easier to mix with the other ingredients (I even left the butter out overnight, to no avail).

While the tortilla dough sat (they taste better if the dough is allowed to rest for a while), I chopped yellow peppers...

and red peppers...

and green ones.

I did the onions last because they make me cry.

I peeled the outer layers of the onions off with my hands. Brahim thought that was hilarious. I'm not sure why. He was really intent on taking a picture of it. (It's kind of relaxing to have somebody else take pictures of you cooking. Usually I have to stop cooking, wipe my hands, take a shot, set the camera somewhere safe, and resume cooking. I wonder if my budget would allow for a full time cooking photographer...)

Fresh garlic!!!!! Usually I have to use the stuff out of a jar. This time I got to mince it myself.

Sara helped me shape the tortillas.

That was really nice, especially since there was no tortilla press or rolling pin, and I had to press all the tortillas by hand...

We used some of the dough to make this adorable crocodile, complete with scales down his back. We're awesome.

Another picture demonstrating the difficulty of making tortillas by hand. (Hey Steve! I missed your mad skills with the tortillas press!)

We cooked the tortillas on a skillet on the gas stove. They turned out pretty well.

We covered the tortillas to keep them warm and then prepared to sautee the vegetables. The only oil we could find was olive oil, and I wasn't quite sure that was the flavor I wanted. So, we used butter.

Onions first so they get nice and tender.

Then we added the peppers and let them steam while we cooked the chicken. I was lucky enough to find a bottle of "Mexican Seasoning" at a supermarket in Marrakesh. I'm not exactly sure what was in it, but it was sufficiently fajita-ish.

We let the chicken steam to finish, and we added cilantro to the vegetables.

The final dish looked like this. The serving platter is typically used for couscous, but I took a few cultural culinary liberties...

I showed the family how to assemble the fajitas Alston style. (Steve's family spreads the sour cream on the tortilla first before adding the rest of the filling/topping.)

Note to readers: I couldn't find sour cream, so we used plain yogurt mixed with salt. I think I liked it better than sour cream.

The set up. Loubna is pretending that she doesn't notice I am taking a picture.

This is kind of a lame picture, but I wanted to show the homemade salso I made. It's in the blue tupperware tub on the left. I used canned corn, fresh tomatoes, fresh onions, cilantro, and lemon juice. Ordinarily I would have used lime juice and added black beans, but...I couldn't find them. It was still yummy.

This is Sara assembling her fajita. In addition to the "sour cream" and salsa, we also had cheese. It wasn't cheddar cheese. It was an orange hardish cheese. In fact, it was the only orange hardish cheese in the Marrakesh supermarket.

The verdict: two thumbs up from EVERY SINGLE family member, even though Brahim preferred to eat the filling with Moroccan bread instead of the tortillas. :) Wahoo!!!

Loubna in Marrakech

Brahim's classes are over by 11:00am on Saturdays, and we don't teach on Sundays. So, we generally leave Tahnaoute on Saturday afternoon and spend some time in Marrakech for the weekend.

On our most recent trip, Loubna came with us! Highlights:


-Loubna helping me find and select a skirt for one of my sisters (Hey Sena! I think you're going to like it!)

-Walking down the streets of Marrakech desperately looking for a store that sells ice cream (apparently it's winter or something).

-Going to a flea market to buy shoes for Loubna. Digging through piles of random shoes in hopes of finding something suitable.

-Wandering around a gigantic grocery store looking for ingredients for me to make fajitas for the family. (How do you explain shortening to somebody who doesn't have any idea what it is?)

-Sleeping in the same room and talking as we fell asleep. Neither of us woke up until 10:00 am the next morning. Teasing Loubna because she usually wakes up much earlier, and hearing her say, "Oh no! I don't want to be a lazy girl!" (That was kind of a jab at me. I typically get up later than the rest of the family. In my defense, when I don't eat dinner until after 10:00 pm, it throws my whole biological clock off.)

-Looking for an Internet cafe so that we could check our e-mail, watch YouTube videos, etc. Every cafe we came to was either closed or full. It was devastating. We finally found one tucked away several blocks from the house.

It's nice to have sisters, even in Morocco.

Family Trip to Oukaimeden

Last weekend the whole family took a day trip to Oukaimden.

The car ride took about an hour. It was relatively uneventful except for watching Karim rock out to Sara's I-pod.

This was Karim's face when he realized I was taking pictures of his car dancing.

But, he didn't let it faze him, and he went back to enjoying the music.

At one point during the ride, Loubna, Sara, and I were all listening to our I-pods. We switched earphones so that I was listening to one of mine and one of Loubna's. Loubna was listening to one of hers and one of Sara's. Sara was listening to one of hers and one of mine. It is kind of trippy to listen to different songs at the same time. We thought it was pretty funny and laughed a lot. Pretty much your basic family road trip (minus the fighting and frequent threats to "turn this car around and go back home").

According to my Lonely Planet book, Oukaimden is home to Africa's highest ski lift. That's right, you can ski in Morocco. Due to an extremely unfortunate incident trying to ski in Girdwood a couple of years ago, I didn't really feel like trying my hand (feet?) at African downhill skiing, but Loubna and I rode up the ski lift anyway.

This is Brahim watching us go up. He was hollering at Loubna to put her hat on (dads are the same the world over).

This is Loubna not wearing her hat (daughters are also the same the world over).

This is me. I didn't have a hat, but I wore my hood most of the way up. I just took it off for the picture. (Hey Loubna! Thanks for taking the picture!)

The Oukaimden ski lift is substantially less scary than many other ski lifts because it has a bar that can be pulled down in front of you. Nice to have because Brahim made me promise not to let his daughter fall out of the lift chair. It also let us relax and enjoy the scenery.

This is what greeted us when we got to the top. It was gorgeous. Incidentally, it may have produced the most stunning picture I have ever taken.

I took a picture of Loubna in front of the gorgeousness, even though she didn't want me to.

Then she took a picture of me...

and another one....

and another one...

I used this opportunity to act like my usual dramatic self and pose in front of the camera.

In order to establish a history of myself as the ultimate cheeseball and poser, I dug this old picture out. This picture was taken when I was about ten years old. It is a picture of my Grandma Slaughter with many (but not all) of her grandchildren. Our family had just experienced a baby burst (thanks in large part to my twin brothers). I am the oldest child in the picture.

Several interesting things are happening in this picture. Mandy is wearing tie-dyed stretch pants (Hey Mandy! Was it the nineties or something?). The baby on my lap is screaming. The next baby is throwing up. Joe (the baby in the middle) is about to fall off of Grandma's lap and is probably beginning to cry or at least grunt loudly. Baby Tom loooks like he either died or fell asleep.

As you can tell from the photo, I am oblivious to ALL OF THIS. I am posing and smiling for the camera despite the screaming, vomit, and babies in potentially dangerous situations. It's a talent I've had all my life. So, when you think about mocking me for my fake smiles and poses, consider that there is a lot of history to this behavior, and it's not something I'm going to be able to kick overnight. Thank you.

The ride down offered similarly stunning views.

It was about at this point in the ride that Loubna said, "Pleeeeeaaaaaaase stop taking pictures." So I did. For a few minutes.

We returned safely to the ground to find Brahim and Karim enjoying a donkey ride.

We also got to walk past these cute little mud houses by a creek on a hill!

I convinced the family to stand together for a picture. Unfortunately, The snow in the back got totally overexposed. Oops. I would have taken another shot, but Brahim decided he had enough of picture taking. ~~Shrug~~

We stopped at a little outdoor restaurant and shared a tajine.

And headed home into a beautiful sunset..

that just kept getting better. (Hey Loubna and Sara! Thanks for letting me lay across you in the car to take this picture out of the car window!)

It was a perfect family trip.