Veil of Roses

This is a story of a young women (Tami) from Iran whose parents get her a visa and tickets to America to stay with her sister. Her sister lives in Tuscon, Arizona with her husband. Tami's parents and sister hope for a better life in America for Tami where there is freedom for women. They hope she can find a man to marry to stay in America permanently.

Tami loves the freedom to be able to take pictures and not have to wear a hijab when she is in public. Freedom to talk to friends including male friends. Sometimes Tami has to get used of the freedoms since she is so used to living under Iranian rules. Her sister is so insistent on wanting Tami's freedom that in the process of it she seems to take of Tami's freedom away. I think this was a quick read and I liked learning about another culture.

Mom's Zucchini Bread

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com.

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 1\4 cups white sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Grease and flour two 8 by 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan and completely cool.

I didn't use walnuts because I didn't have any on hand. I used pure sugar instead of white. I was going to replace the vegetable oil with olive oil but I wanted to use up what I had on hand.