Domesticated life

Top of 43 degrees today. I've closed all the blinds and windows to keep out the stifling hot air outside. The perfect day for food poisoning, heat stroke and renal colic (kidney stones).

Thursday - 43 degrees

Friday - 40 degrees

Saturday - 40 degrees

The good thing? I'm working nights this week so I don't have to go out in the heat. The bad thing is that I have to sleep in this heat after my shifts.

This is the life. Go to work. Come home from work not having to think about work at all. Spend a whole day reading. Spend a whole day baking and cooking Moroccan recipes. Exams? What exams? References? Who cares. Nothing beats the emergency rotation. With so many days off in between (most of us get three to four days off in between a string of shifts), it almost feels like a holiday.

Of course this will not resemble my working life when I do traipse off to the country to do my surgical rotation next where I may only get a day off some weeks. In the meantime, let's just sip mint tea and enjoy the days off watching tennis. Maybe finish Wuthering Heights. Maybe sleep a little. Maybe bake a little. Maybe clean a little. Maybe just sip mint tea.

Mint tea

One teaspoon of Chinese gunpowder green tea into a small kettle. Pour a bit of boiling water. Swirl the kettle to clear the tea dust. Leave for a minute. Then carefully pour out water to remove tea dust. Pour boiling water again into kettle to fill it halfway. Add sprigs of crushed fresh mint leaves until pot is three-quaters full. Add two teaspoons of sugar. Top it off with more hot water. Then replace the lid and leave to brew for several minutes.

Pour tea into cup. Pour back the tea from cup to kettle to mix sugar and repeat 3 times. Then finally pour into tea cup to drink. Add a few uncrushed mint leaves into teacup.

And there you have the perfect mint tea. Which goes very nicely with semolina biscuits or almond macaroons.

Source for recipe: The food of Morocco- a journey for food lovers by Tess Mallos