Nut Your Chipical Banana Muffin
I can hear you grumbling already. “I know my banana muffins,” you say. “There’s absolutely nothing special about a banana muffin. Banana muffins are the ones that you find sitting untouched amid blueberry and lemon poppyseed crumbs when you arrive late for your motel’s continental breakfast. Nobody really wants banana muffins.” WRONG! Oh, dear muffin grumbler, you haven’t had these banana muffins. These are not garden-variety,...
read more ->Peeking at Peaks in Py
The next stop on our European odyssey was Py, a tiny village1 in the Pyrenees. First, though, we had to get to France! After saying goodbye to our hosts in Girona, we hopped on the bus to Perpignan, on the French side of the mountains. The driver chatted away to me as he hauled our bags into the belly of the bus. (He quickly figured out that my command of Spanish is only slightly better than my command of North Baffin Inuktitut, and proceeded in French.)2 When I explained that I grew up in the US but currently live in Morocco, he immediately...
read more ->Morocco, Week Fourteen
Week fourteen began with Austrians and ended with Germans. I had two delightful Austrian house guests, Sabine and Hans-Peter, who kept me entertained on Monday and Tuesday. Both of them had quit their jobs, bought motorcycles, and embarked on an around-the-world journey. (They took crash courses in motorcycle repair before leaving.) Next up: traveling down the western coast of Africa. Their trip ends, I suppose, when they get tired of traveling and move on to the next thing in their lives. We ate delectable Moroccan food, played with Loki, and...
read more ->Morocco, Week Eleven
Another slow week, which means a short blog post this time.1 After a long work day on Monday, I took a spontaneous trip to the school swimming pool with a couple kids in tow.2 We practiced swimming, splashed, and even had a spirited game of marco polo, then headed to Wafae’s house for soup and Moroccan pastries.3 On Tuesday evening, I accompanied a couple of friends to an informal basketball game with their buddies, where–for lack of proper footwear–I sat and snickered at their warmup hijinks. Ten minutes of utter chaos, with...
read more ->How to Cook a Tagine in the Woods
I suppose this post should, logically, be preceded with another titled “How to Cook a Tagine”. But you know me- I don’t do anything half-assed. I’d never cooked a tagine before, so naturally I made my first one in the woods over twigs and stones.1 Mustapha and I surprised his sisters by whisking them away last Sunday for a picnic in a forested glen by the ocean. After arriving, we spread out a big carpet to sit on, piled up the containers of ingredients, turned on some music, and got to work.2 Step 1: Find twigs. Step...
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Writer, illustrator, musician, rogue librarian, explorer, ill-fated baker.