{moroccan mint tea}

As I mentioned in yesterday's Marrakech itinerary, we drank a lot of mint tea during our time in Morocco and it turned out to be one of my favorite ways to end a meal or wind down in the afternoon. Moroccans take a lot of pride in their own individual way of preparing mint tea and no two places served it quite the same.  After trying mint tea about 6 or 7 times throughout our 4 days in Marrakech, I have found I prefer the ones that are prepared a little more on the sweet side and are garnished with fresh mint.  I enjoyed the traditional tea so much I made sure to pick up a set of 6 gold rimmed Moroccan tea glasses from the souks.  Read below for the recipe on the correct way to prepare Moroccan mint tea- perfect for your next lazy Sunday afternoon!

 {moroccan tea glasses I brought home from Marrakech- find similar ones here or here}

Traditional Moroccan Mint Tea

what you need:

• 1 bunch fresh mint leaves
• 6 teaspoons gunpowder black tea - I used this one since I couldn't get a hold of gunpowder black tea. 
• boiling water: 6oz per serving of tea
• 1/4 cup cane sugar

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Add 1 teaspoon of loose tea to teapot for every 6oz of water (6oz = 1 serving of tea) you plan to make. 
3. Pour in about a cup or two of boiling water and let the loose tea steep for 1 minute.  Pour out water, but leave steeped loose tea in teapot. 
4. Add a healthy handful of fresh mint leaves and the 1/4 cup of sugar to the tea pot.  
5. Pour in boiling water - 6 oz for every serving of tea.
6. Leave tea to steep for 5 minutes.
7. Pour out one cup of tea into a glass and then immediately pour it back into the teapot.  This will help dissolve the last of the sugar. 
8. Garnish tea glasses with a sprig of fresh mint and pour tea into each glass until it is about halfway full.  Not filling the glass all the way to the top allows for the mint aroma to build in the top of the glass.
9. Enjoy!

{a little recent shopping}

 This season I made a little list of things I want to buy so that I can stay focused and not get distracted by sparkly little things to decorate our house or more party dresses which I don't need.  This year I am on the hunt for a new pair of flat brown boots in a soft cognac leather, jewel tone silk blouses and long sleeve dresses I can wear to work.  Did I buy any of these things recently when I did a little shopping?  Nope.  So clearly the making a list and staying focused thing isn't working out so great this season. But I did pick up some fun things to share with you...

Vintage cocktail glasses I picked up last weekend at the Rose Bowl Flea market for a few bucks a piece. I plan to use these to spice up the Friday Cocktail posts!

 Studded and jeweled peep toe d'orsay pumps by Sam Edelman.  I have been eyeing these for a long time; they are super high, a great neutral color and a little edgy, but girly at the same time.  I scored these ones on ebay last week and they finally arrived.  I can't wait for a reason to wear them!

While I will pretty much buy any fashion or interior design related book there is, Chris and I tend to be pretty conservative about buying cookbooks despite how much we cook.  My main criteria is that there absolutely needs to be gorgeous imagery in the book.  We spontaneously ordered these two books from Amazon and they definitely do not disappoint in the imagery department.  The one on the left is "The Family Meal" by Ferran Adria and it outlines 31 four course meals to make for family get togethers.  It even multiplies the servings for 2, 6, 20 or 75 people (when am I going to need to multiply a recipe for 75?!?!). The book on the right is "Bite by Bite" by Peter Callahan which includes 100 recipes for "stylish little plates" for parties.  I think this book was actually written specifically for me and my love of regular food in mini form. 

 

I am sure this isn't the last time you will see these two books on the blog- they will definitely be used for recipes in the near future!