No quilting

I did no quilting yesterday because I spent all day cleaning the house for the Book Club meeting.  We read Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi.  Amazing book. She tells her story about being in Iran as the Revolution was changing the way they lived.  For the first time in over 50 years women were again required to wear burka and cover themselves.  She talks about things we never hear of here like when one of her students is on holiday with her girl friends.  A male cousin of one of the girls comes by and talks to them briefly and the girls are all thrown in prison for for years, raped and tortured.  One even dies.  Then released.  She comes back to the book club like she was never gone.  It is a way of life there. 

I served Lebonese food because it was a close to Iran as I could get.  In between cleaning and polishing I whipped up a batch of baklava that was amazingly incredible.  I had gyros and chicken shwarma with pita wraps.

Here is the baklava just coming out of the oven.  Then you pour the honey and lemon rose water over it.  Man, they were incredible!

I also went to the International Store and found the most wonderful dates and olives. 

And of course we had to have fine chocolates becase in the book Nafisi meets with the man she calls her magician and he always had chocolates for her.  It is an incredible thing to have in the middle of the Revolution in Iran.  It is decadent and Western.  And wonderful.

We had wine with our chocolate!