Focus and Expressiveness

As an early birthday present to myself, I attended a marvelous cooking class this evening at Ciao Thyme -- "Moroccan Nights with Olaiya Land," my favorite guest instructor.

I love Olaiya's energy, creative recipes and delicious recipes, and her ability to both listen attentively, as seen here, and also explain clearly to about 40 eager students at a time.

It's very late, so I'll cut my paeans of praise short, but I do want to list what Olaiya cooked tonight, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed:

Appetizer: Salad of three types of oranges, shaved radishes, orange flower water, olive oil, fresh mint

Main course: Lamb kefta (delicate spiced meatballs) with lemon and fresh herbs, and a spicy sauce that included onion, garlic, fresh ginger, turmeric, hot red chili, cilantro, lemon, and fresh mint, served over couscous with toasted almonds

Side dishes: (1) Roasted winter squash, turnips, and shallots with Moroccan spices and a delicious yogurt sauce; (2) Spicy Swiss chard with black olives

Dessert: M'hanncha (Serpent Cake) -- a traditional pastry made of filo dough stuffed with a homemade almond paste flavored with cinnamon and orange flower water, and shaped in a circle to look like a coiled snake (see an image here)

Earlier today I made a "British marmalade [loaf] cake" from a recent New York Times recipe -- we'll have a small slice each tomorrow morning with coffee before going out for my birthday breakfast!