My Marrakesh

Sweet dreams of Marrakesh...

The morning of the day that our land was to be signed, sealed and delivered, the phone rang.   It was our realtor. The conversation went like this:

Realtor:  I just had a call from the land owner.

Us:  Great! 

Realtor:  Well, there’s a small problem.

Us:  What?

Realtor:  The land owner says that he wants $80,000 more for the land than what you agreed to.

Us:  What?

Realtor: He says either you agree to this new price or he won’t bother to show up to sign the papers today.

Us:  What?

Realtor:  I’m really sorry.  This happens sometimes. The land owner won’t budge – I have already tried.  Maybe he has another buyer.  But in any event, we can start to look for some other pieces of land. 

Us:  What?

Realtor:  Listen, I’ll call you later this week, and we can set up a time. I’ll get cracking looking for other land for you.  But you’re going to have to be patient.  You’ve already seen most of what’s out there.

Us: What?

Realtor:  (Click.)

Us:  What?

Bliss on line....

Isn’t the internet amazing? Don’t just answer, yeah, yeah, like that. I am mean really – REALLY – think about it; hasn’t it changed your life? I think of my life as pre- and post-internet. I’m serious.

Shopping for an imaginary house and a hoped-for guest house is very time consuming, as you can imagine (decorating all those imaginary rooms can be just exhausting …). One night I was surfing the web looking at art, and I came across an award winning artist named Maria Noma Bliss.  I found her work to be haunting and meaningful, and there was one painting, in particular, that I was drawn to – an abstract portrait of a woman entitled Me. I didn’t think I could afford the painting (although, in retrospect, the price was quite reasonable) but I was so taken with it that I emailed Maria to tell her how lovely I thought it was.  And just like that, a friendship was struck up. Online.

Around the time I first contacted Maria, I was doing some volunteer work for Operation Smile in Morocco. Maria, without ever having met me in person and knowing very little about the organization, offered to do 100 small watercolor portraits and to sell them on Ebay to benefit Operation Smile. She then traveled to Morocco for an Operation Smile mission where she did art therapy with children before they went in for their surgeries to correct their cleft lips.  Lucky for me, Maria also spent several days with us after we had moved into our new house in Marrakesh. The portrait of my family on the sidebar of this blog was her gift to us.

In addition to the Me painting, we now own four of Maria’s other paintings. I adore each and every one.

This blog entry is dedicated to my friend, Maria. A woman as equally endowed with talent as she is with generosity of the heart.

You can see Maria’s art here.  She takes commissions and will work with you to create something you will love.  Contact her at noma@nomaartist.com if you are interested in something.  You can also visit Maria and Jim's ebay store for less expensive offerings.    (Jim's stuff is amazing, too.  Yeesh, so much talent in one family....)

Morocco: Hoping for Barakah

We love it, we love it not.  We love it, we love it not.  But no matter - ever since we had seen that last piece of land in Marrakesh, we hadn’t stopped whipping out the calculator and punching in the numbers.  If we pinched, and scraped, and saved, was there any chance?  We talked to the owner – he was prepared to come down on the price.  But we still couldn’t afford it. 

Then, my very generous parents jumped in – they were ready to help us.  It seemed (could it be?) that we could afford it. 

Should we, should we not?  Should we?  We decided we should.  We cut a deal that wouldn’t permit the owner to sell to anyone else, and we agreed on a price. It was all notarized with much shaking of hands.  But we would need to wait six weeks to seal the deal.  Something about a signature needed on a dotted line somewhere.  Nothing important – just pro-forma. The search was over but we would need to sit it out. On the sidelines. 

Waiting, anticipating…. And hoping for barakah.

Morocco: Calling all gourmet lovers

Yes, yes, I KNOW that this is a house/decorating blog but aren't houses just something you have in order to create that restaurant atmosphere at home?  (Can you guess what the most important room is in my house?) So with that in mind, I offer you a Moroccan recipe.  I warn you however, that you might need a bit longer for meal prep since this dish requires that you paint your dining room walls a deep rich red to create the necessary Moroccan ambiance...(You say that you think that is a bit of an extreme measure, just in order to enjoy one meal?  I would like to remind you that if you prepare your dish in adequate quantities,there will be leftovers in which to partake the following day.  And so you need not roll up your sleeves until the third day to paint your way back to your dining room's original tasteful eggshell color.) 

You might not know that Moroccan cuisine is legendary in the region where I live, and some think that it is rated among the best in the world.  Aromatic and rich in spices, dishes often include cumin, coriander, saffron, chili, ginger, cinnamon, and paprika.  Also harissa is a staple in the kitchen - harissa is a paste made of of garlic, chili, olive oil, and salt, and makes for fiery dishes that stand out among the milder recipes that are more the norm in the Mediterranean. 

In any event, Moroccan cuisine is nothing short of delicious -- my waistline is proof;-)

This Moroccan Braised Chicken recipe from Williams Sonoma is as good as what you what you might eat in my home in Marrakesh.  And perhaps you might even serve it on this lovely, glimmering Marrakech dinnerware from Crate&Barrel. 

So what are you waiting for?

Image from Williams Sonoma, image from Crate&Barrel