aşure (uh?sure?ay!)

this time of year (january), Turks celebrate soooomething. so, they give their neighbors/friends a dessert called aşure. our neighbors brought some over tonight, being our first neighbors to share aşure with us. we have, however, had aşure at least 2 other times this month, and this was the best yet....... maybe it's an aquired taste?

aşure usually consists of 12 ingredients.. the one we got tonight had.... cinnamon, chickpeas, beans, crushed pistachios, crushed almonds, coconut, apricot, peach, pomegranate, raisins, bulgur rice, grapes.........

yum!

some people celebrate in honor of a prophet who died... some say it's just a time to thank God, but the most commonly celebrated is.....

Noah and the ark.... they say Noah made a dish similar to this after the flood because it's all the food he had left and he did it to thank God... so that sounds good to me. Thank you, God for your faithfulness (and aşure, of course).....

oh, and april and i decided we will come up with our own aşure-like dessert....with 12 random ingredients--any suggestions?

cozy cafe & taco bell sauce.

tonight i got to hang out with my friend *natalie. we hang out at least once a week, and she is great to just sit and have çay (hot tea) with... so i always enjoy our time together... she also enjoys filtered coffee, which is rare here... so, ya.... tonight I was excited to be able to hang out with her, since exams keep college students here SUPER busy...

when we met up, she said that she had seen some cafe she was interested in going to, and I was up for something new.. so we walked down this street a while and found this sweet little cafe. definitely reminded me of java or a number of small, chill cafe/coffee shops in america... i was thrilled, because i have been wanting to find places like that! she said "when my friends and I find places we really like, we go back there over and over and we say it's 'our place' so this can be 'our place' and I will show more friends where it is..."

the great thing about it is it's quieter than regular cafes and you would never notice it walking by, since it's upstairs. so, no crowds or obnoxious music. ah, blessing for sure. the father is looking out for me by providing a place like this for me.

on another note, today i microwaved a quesadilla of sorts and it was very small..... and the result was cheesy goodness... but it left me with a rare craving--taco bell mild sauce.... i know... i feel like a pregnant person because that is SOO random, but i really really want it now.... anyone want to send me a letter??! haha.

three months.
a couple of days ago marked three months.. how do i feel?
hmmmmmmmm.......

well, i have missed home a little more recently.
but, not terribly. just ya know..
i miss barbeque. ah! and tortilla chips and salsa.
man, i could go for some central bbq and then mexican food.
yea....

but...... hmm language..
it's coming.. i am understanding a lot more.
i thiiiink my pronunciation is better at times and sometimes i think it's terrible, so who knows.
we are getting into more complex stuff in our class and i am still happy, so that's a good sign. :)

i am ready for a short trip out of the city/country.
oh the possibilities.

oh and one thing that frustrates me to no end is the process of paying bills.
every month i dread it.
i think once i get it sorted out it will become easier.. but ya.
i want to pull my hair out some days.
DO NOT take for granted the luxury of checks and simple online bill payment in the states. ha.

strawberries!!!

Today i went to the pazar to get my groceries, as I do every Friday...

and there were....... STRAWBERRIES! 1 kilo for 2 lira.. or 2.2 pounds for $1.25 us dollars. wow! this makes me excited about spring/summer.

this weekend, i hope to: study, sleep, paint. maybe get out and take more pics. we'll see.

memories.pics.small victories.

small victory this week... i got a few of my favorite pics developed without anyone assisting me. yay. so, in celebration, i will share a couple of my favorites of my favorites. ha. (since blogger takes about a year to upload any pics....)


amos lee best describes my late night ponderings....
"A thousand empty windows
And only half the lights are out
I wonder what these people's lives
What they might be all about.."

do you ever have one of those days when you walk out of your apartment and realize an hour or so later that every piece of clothing you put on that day was a mistake?

that was my day.

but, good news is: i have rain boots now! i ordered some from piperlime in america and i got them today... yay! less of those days, hopefully.

google-helping people cook

today after a somewhat frustrating start to the day, i decided to go chill at starbucks for an hour or so and study and read.... it was nice and i am glad i did it, but i came home just before my tutor showed up for our monday night 1 hour session.

i didn't have time to cook anything before tutoring (and wasn't hungry after starbucks...) so, i tutored til about 630 and decided i would make potato soup.. but then my potatoes were all bad

so i googled broccoli red pepper soups to see if they existed since i had a ton of both..
and i found a recipe that sounded good.. so i decided to try, hoping for a quick, yummy dinner..

yeah.....

i didn't read the part about roasting the red peppers
or the part about PUREEING since we don't have a puree machine

so i googled "can you puree with a hand mixer?"
and found out it IS possible, but not highly recommended
since i was halfway through with the soup i decided i would try..

well, just a hand mixer wasn't enough so i frantically searched the cabinets looking for something to help. ha
so i decided on a potato masher.. and mashed away (the red peppers, then two bowl fulls of the soup mix i mad made..

and almost three hours later, i had broccoli red pepper soup
it was delicious though...just a little more than i bargained for.

so google searches= potato soup recipe, broccoli red pepper soup recipe, how to roast red peppers, how to peel broccoli stems, cooking conversions, how to puree with a hand mixer...and maybe others.

catching up--holidays & 1st visitor

have i mentioned that i love living in sunshine apartment on idea hill?
that's what it translates into in english.
so inspiring--how can you not be creative here?

besides that, my favorite thing about this apartment is that i can always hear the (frequent) rain on my fire escape outside my window.
kind of like having a tin roof.
i think my room is the only one in the apt that has that sound, and i love it.

catching up......

first visitor.
my best friend, who is living in poland, came to visit for christmas!
she was here a week and we had a lot of fun.
it was nice to have a piece of home here for christmas.
it was nice that she's not a "touristy" person since i didn't have much time with christmas cooking and all.
and, we went skiing/snowboarding! (see below).

christmas.
this was my first christmas without my huge, awesome family.
it was sad but it helped to have a big group of friends here to celebrate with here.
we all had a big white elephant christmas eve party.
on christmas day, april and i made a lot of food and sweets and invited a turkish friend over to celebrate.
banana pancakes, socks on the tree, big dinner with close friends...all may be new traditions.

skiing/snowboarding.
i went with a group of people to uludağ.
it was supposed to be 2 or 3 hours outside of the city but it was, in fact, SIX hours.
after riding a city bus, a shuttle bus, a charter bus, a ferry, the same charter bus again, a city bus, 2 cable cars, and a taxi van, we arrived.
the snow was beautiful. the hotel and food were amazing.
i got to hang out with friends and enjoy the Maker's wonderful creation.
good times.
well, except for the fact that turkish men (in general) CAN NOT ski!!!!
i should have known this after my experience ice skating in turkey, but no, i got to experience it firsthand..
in the form of being knocked out by turkish men while skiing TWICE.
the second knock down resulted in a headache, soreness, and a very bent ski pole.
i'm talking at least a 45 degree angle bent. not normal.
i survived though, and it was worth it.
i think next year, i'll learn a way to say "hit me and die" in turkish and tape it to my back.
the guy #2 said "you didn't see me coming!" to which i replied "i usually look IN FRONT of me when i am skiing!"
ah, turkey.

new years.
the rain sometimes never stops here.
like all winter.
so, new years eve consisted of shopping at a mall in the afternoon and then going over to my boss's house to watch movies and eat pancakes with him, his wife, and daughter (around my age).
it was the perfect indoor new years celebration.
we ended the night by standing against a window watching fireworks off in the distance across the water (and some inbetween tall apartment buildings..that's when we closed the window).