Cooking attempts

On my days off last week, I was in a cooking mood so I tried a few new things. I wanted to use the cookbook that was given to me so I tried a soup and a sort of sweet and sour chicken. Apparently in the Ottoman times the sweet and sour taste was common, although it isn't common at all now. I don't know if it was influence from other countries or what, but I'll try to read some more and find out. The soup wasn't exactly pretty looking so I think people had a hard time eating it. I cooked green lentils and then added some pieces of homemade dough (way too thick), onions, and some odd things like vinegar, butter, and honey. It actually didn't taste that bad, but I'm not a huge fan of lentils. Then I made some sort of fried chicken (egg and flour coating) and then a "sauce" of butter, onions, vinegar, honey, and cinnamon. Again, kind of odd. But fun! To have something normal, I made kisir which I think is one of my favorite Turkish foods. It's better for a summer salad - add boiling water, tomato, and pepper paste to bulgur, then add onions, spring onions, parsley, pomegranate sauce, and lemon sauce. So good!



The pieces of dough I later added to the soup



It's supposed to be a soup but as you can see it's not very soup-like...



Chicken



Kisir

The next day I felt like doing something even Turkish women don't do...making manti! Manti is like a tortellini or a dumpling. Dough is rolled out and cut into little squares and then a meat mixture (ground beef, or whatever you want, with grated onions and salt and pepper) is put onto each little square. Then you have to seal each little square. I had two problems. First, my dough was too sticky and it was a DISASTER. I can't even describe it. The dough was sticking to the table then ripping apart because it stretched but it wouldn't hold the meat in...Anyway, I added more flour and it got better. The second problem was that I only had a small water glass to roll the dough out, so it was very very thick and doughy tasting. But, the end problem you coat with garlicy yogurt and an olive oil and red pepper sauce so you don't notice it that much.



This is the first batch, I think I made two.



Little little bits of meat.



I didn't take a picture of them being rolled up because mine were not good examples of what it should look like! But here is the final product. Mmm it was quite good if I can say so myself.



A feast!

Christmas/New Years party at work

Last week we had a Christmas/New Years party at work (same holiday according to the Turks...). A couple of weeks ago we pulled names out of a hat to do a Secret Santa gift exchange; the day of the party we revealed ourselves and gave our gift. I gave a pretty straightforward gift to my person, one of the Turkish teachers - just an orchid (but quite pretty). The gift given to me was PERFECT - it is a cookbook titled "500 Years of Ottoman Cuisine" How perfect is that? There is a lot of history and also artwork and interesting recipes - I can't wait to try it.



Many of the people I work with - all very nice and helpful.



Me with Nazim, the clever guy who gave me the book. He's a great guy to work with too, we all love him.



Now we're at the party for the students. They can be a little awkward for everyone so we all had to bring games. My idea was limbo but only about 3 people did it. I should have gotten them to make a line, then make them do the limbo. They enjoyed watching it though.



This is Tara, another native teacher, from Portland, Oregon. Her game contribution was to be a fortune teller so the students have to ask her questions and she predicts their future.



Students looking on with curiosity.



Gavin, instructing a student on how to play the classic game, pin the nose on Rudolph.



Pretty good picture of Rudolph, drawn by Gavin.

It was my idea to have an area where people could do some coloring, to sort of escape the awkward mingling and also to have a place where you can talk, but also be busy with your hands. They really liked it and it was very cute to walk into the room because it felt like walking into a preschool, with everyone hard at work on their coloring.








A couple of days ago I felt like doing some cooking, so I tried to make one of the Turkish mezes (appetizer or dip) which has fried eggplants and potatoes with a tomato sauce on it. It didn't turn out like in the restaurants but it made a nice snack. For some reason I felt like making deviled eggs, because I've started to like hardboiled eggs and I wanted to try them. Pretty good!

Christmas and New Years (New Year's or just singular??)

Hi all,

I lost my camera cable thing to upload pictures so sorry I haven't updated earlier. I can't imagine where it is because I had it after I moved, but anyway, I'm just sticking the camera card into the computer. Christmas came and went without much happening, which is fine. The day before I experimented with Sinan's oven, which they just had fixed, and the first oven I've had in months. I made some banana bread and chicken, and I had hopes to do sugar cookies, and other such goodies but then it broke again! So Sinan saved Christmas by buying cookies and we just decorated those.









Another teacher, a couple of students and I went to the new aquarium that opened in Istanbul (farrrr away though) on Christmas. It was expensive and a little small but this really awesome long tunnel you walk through where sharks and fish swim all around and above you.



Not a great picture but gives you an idea of the tunnel.





Ok I have some more pictures of the Christmas/New Year's Party at work and some food stuff but I need to get going. A few teachers are gathering for New Years and I have a feeling traffic is going to be pretty bad. Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have a safe and fun new years!

Apartment and students

Here are some pictures of my new room which is overflowing with STUFF. So much stuff has accumulated, it's a little embarrassing.



At first I was excited because the room had a queen sized bed, but it's actually weird to sleep in (not as cozy) and it's taking up valuable space in my room. It's not bad, and I don't think trading beds with the other room is very feasible so I'll just enjoy my roomy bed!



Cute little Christmas tree. I should have turned the lights on.



If you look at the other pictures carefully, you can see I have an extra little room. It's not too big but I keep my wardrobe out there, shoes, laundry, a fan, plants, and things like boxes, bags, and magazines that I don't need everyday. It's a little cold and wet out there now but it's nice to have that little space to store extra things. I can open windows out there in the summer and get a breeze too.

A couple of weekends ago one of our students had a birthday party-



Obviously that's me on the left, then Semra and Semra (both speak pretty well, Semra #2 lived in England for a while), Gavin (teacher from England), and Umit, our beloved student who finished his course but he still comes to hang out with us.



That's Serkan on the left and Aylin, the girl whose birthday it is, on the right. Aylin is the one who made me a necklace and she makes beautiful scarves and puzzles etc. Serkan is going to Australia in a couple of months - I think you can tell just by looking at him it will be a good fit for him!

More pictures from home

Another one of my favorite Christmas time activities is cutting out and decorating cookies.









Some of the final products.

Since I've returned from the US, I've been surprised to see how much Christmas stuff there is in stores. Not too junky (actually I did see a dancing Santa toy), but trees, ornaments, wrapping paper, bags, candles, napkins, plates and so forth. But apparently the Turks celebrate Christmas on New Years Eve; they don't realize/decide to celebrate it on December 25. Fine with me - it's nice to spread the Christmas spirit out. I bought a 3 foot tree (first fake tree of my life) for only 8 dollars, I got some little ornaments and lights. It's not as good as the real thing but it will do!

Back!

Hi all-

Sorry I didn't update while I was on vacation in the states but I was too busy eating, sitting by the fire and talking to family and friends. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We had a gathering of 63 people - it's so special to get so many people together, even if only for a few hours one day out of the year. Because I'm not able to go home for Christmas, my family was kind enough to let us cram Christmas activities into the few days after Thanksgiving - chopping down the Christmas tree, decorating it, making gum drop cookies, and decorating sugar cookies. While the visit was too brief, it was a wonderful time and I'm so happy we all got to be together! Here are some pictures I took while I was at home, but they haven't all been loaded up yet. I'll add the rest later.




Not the typical Thanksgiving food but at our gatherings, it's tradition. A Mexican layer dip.




Another classic at Thanksgiving - goldfish.



And another popular appetizer - crab claws. Oysters (or clams?? - both gross to me) are also popular. Can you tell we're from the seaside?



I guess something a little more normal - veggies and dip.



Thanksgiving food. A similar shade but not bad, considering enough is made to feed 63 people (and lots of leftovers).



A photo of all of us.



Family photo plus Veronica



Not a site you see very much - Turkish tea and bacon being cooked on the same stove.



Going for a walk in the woods, looking for a tree.



Dad about to chop the tree down. It gets a lot bigger when you put it in the house. A lot bigger. We ended up finding the tree just a few yards from the house, but it was still nice to go for a walk in the woods. As always, our cat Fuzzy came with us, even though he's going on 15 years old.



Decorating the tree



Yes, this is a gorilla on my porch. It's a long story but a long long time ago my parents won this family portrait photo thing, and the guys called them up to take care of it. Those that know us know that we aren't exactly the family portrait type of family, so we were thinking of ways to make it less painful for us. Heath came up with the brilliant idea of having his girlfriend dress up in a gorilla suit and to have her in the background reading a paper (and later fishing). We don't have the actual portraits yet but here's a picture of "her".

Wow!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted! Sorry! Unfortunately there hasn't been much to report. I had bronchitis last week so I've just been taking it easy because of that. I'm feeling better but the antibiotics are making me feel pretty nauseous. Tonight is the last night thankfully!

Next week I'm going to America! There is another bayram here, this time it is called the Kurban bayram which is characterized by animals being slaughtered...Most of the meat is given to poor people, and the families keep a little for themselves. I've heard you can see animals being killed on the streets and you'll see blood everywhere so I'm a little relieved to be leaving the country during this time! I understand it is a religious and cultural thing but it's just a little too much for me.

Anyway I'm going to go lie down and sip some ginger tea. I hope this nausea goes away soon! Sorry again for the lack of updates but hopefully there will be some more in the future. Take care!