Maybe next time.....

After finishing our first week of school I had semi-high hopes for the weekend.  I'm not really sure what I had hoped for but none the less, I woke up Saturday morning with semi-high hopes.  Looking back, we did a lot. Andy and I tackled the market and prepped food for the week (he is my hero for pulling the heads off of 2 kilos of prawns), met with the gardener, worked on the never ending pile of laundry (still no dryer), cleaned the house and managed to spend a little time with friends.

Sunday morning we planned to venture out to downtown Tunis and go to church. We were going with another teacher we met here at school. We picked her up and with a fairly good, bordering on vague, idea of where we were headed, we set off.  We were aiming for here:

But that's not where we ended up. We missed an exit, and had to drive about 20 minutes until we could turn around. We made our way back to downtown Tunis and found our way to the general location of the church. As luck would have it,  the right hand turn we thought we could take was a one way. The traffic was crazy, the pedestrian traffic even more so.  We eventually arrived here:

That would be the 7th circle of hell, otherwise known as the Medina. I'll spare you the story but suffice it to say it involved wanting to throw up, a crazy man jumping out and banging on our car, and an overwhelming need to lock the doors and compulsively check that they were still locked. It took a long time to wind our way out of the back alleys to where we could make heads or tails of where we were.

Since by now we were 45 minutes late to church we decided that trip would just be a recon mission. If we could figure out how to find the church we could attempt a visit another day.

I arrived home feeling fragile and cranky and overwhelmed. I was very grateful for a friends invitation to meet for lunch in a little town about a 10 minute drive from Carthage. Sidi Bou Said is adorable. All white washed with blue shutters, cobbled lanes, and sweeping views of the Mediterranean Sea.

Lunch, ocean breezes, good conversation and gelato were very restorative to my soul.  Never underestimate the power of good gelato.

After a brief walk around the town we drove home, the girls had homework and we needed to put some finishing touches on things for the week. I had planned to make some bread for lunches, I had found a recipe for a toasted oat bread but just didn't have it in me. Maybe next time.

I made this instead.

Olive Oil Zucchini Bread

adapted from here and there

Makes 2 loaves

3 eggs


1 cup olive 
oil

1 3/4 cups sugar


2 cups grated zucchini


2 teaspoons vanilla extract


3 cups all-purpose flour


3 teaspoons cinnamon


1/4 teaspoon ground ginger


1 teaspoon baking soda


1/2 teaspoon baking powder


1 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until light and fluffy. Stir in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.

Combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Stir this into the egg mixture. Divide the batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake much quicker, approximately 20 to 25 minutes.