an american thanksgiving in Turkey...

So, a Turkey bird is actually called a Hindi in the country of Turkey and it is extremely hard to find one around the end of November. Supposedly they are more popular for New Years...but luckily some of our helpful and dedicated classmates tracked one down to ensure the authenticity of our holiday dinner!!! and just so there is no confusion I was only present to supervise and document the cooking of the turkey, I take no credit for actually cooking it....only for cooking the mashed potatoes, carrots and turnips, and the mulled wine.

defrosting the turkey...

zac is ready to go...

turkey going into the oven

first check

basting

second check

turning it over

how many cooks does it take to cook a turkey?

setting the table for 25 guests

nick is very excited

joan and one of her many delicious treats

everyone is seated...

then the story of thanksgiving for those among us who were foreigners

not enough room on my plate for turkey! oh no!

 Nick's secret time-lapse video taken while we were setting up and schmoozing!

fresh food from the weekly market!

Kurban Bayram / Fall Break wanderings...

hope you enjoy the photos, i'll will try to add info and captions in the near future...

Bayram November 2010

the joys of yogurt...

This past Friday I tagged along with the Byzantine class on their field trip to Thrace, the European part of Turkey which borders Bulgaria, Greece, etc. The object of the journey was to visit an old Byzantine church in Vize, now a mosque, along with the ruins of towers, city walls, a rock-cut monastery, remains of the Byzantine aqueduct and the Anastasian walls of Constantinople (being the defensive walls placed in the rural countryside, meant to protect the water supply and the greater region of the byzantine empire from the northern enemies.) There is much I could say on the trip and pictures which I could share, however, for the moment I just wanted to share one interesting stop and purchase we made in a small turkish village.... buffalo yogurt (manda yoğurdu in turkish).  The shop also sold buffalo cheese, which I sampled, a bit like mozzarella except extremely salty. It was tasty but I decided to go for the yogurt instead. It tastes fairly similar to the yogurt I normally buy though maybe a bit sweeter? It is hard for me to put my finger on the difference exactly...but as I continue consuming I will try to be more specific. But otherwise, I would definitely recommend it if you ever have the chance to purchase some! And of course it came in great ceramic bowls which sealed the deal for me...and it was only 8.50 for the small bowl, about 5-6 USD.  Alas, no buffaloes were spotted along the road, supposedly they live in the forests, hmm...

my classmate in front of the yogurt shop

mmm, tasty yogurt in the ceramic bowl

my homemade nohutlu pilav (rice and chickpeas) with buffalo yogurt
(not as good as at school but still tasty)

Mumford & Sons - The Cave

my absolute new favorite song and video, hope you enjoy if you haven't heard it yet...

Martha Stewart in Istanbul

the martha stewart show in Istanbul

check it out! I think this episode was from earlier this fall.
enjoy

a sunny thursday afternoon...

So, the rain has been gone for about a week now and consequently my initiative and energy levels have increased since last week. Inspired by our potluck for American culture/tv night planned for this evening I actually planned my cooking schedule ahead of time and soaked beans overnight and am currently simmering them on the stove. Last week for our potluck I made mashed potatoes, a dish that I love and have been meaning to cook since I came here a year ago but for whatever reason, whether it was the lack of a potato masher or the lack of a desire to carry a bag of potatoes from the grocery store to my apartment on the top floor, I never got around to making them until last week and were well received by my friends. This week, when attempting to come up with an easy enough dish which I had faith in my abilities to make successfully and which other people would eat and enjoy I decided on a bean/pasta salad. Tomatoes, beans, onions, olives, garlic, a little lemon, salt, pepper, and olive oil - sounds delicious and healthy, right? Oh, and plus some white cheese, similar to feta. I recall making a version of this salad a year and a half ago in NYC, except with orzo instead of beans, and I remember being very impressed with myself and my cooking skills. So hopefully I will be able to recreate the deliciousness...it is the type of salad where as long as the ingredients are good then the whole dish will be good, right? It can't go wrong with such yummy, Mediterranean fresh foods....we will see. 


Another part of my increasing energy levels, at least where food and cooking is concerned, was my use of the leftover mashed potatoes. All weekend I had been thinking about it, researching the different recipes online and finally I got around to making some potato pancakes. It wasn't hard at all and a delicious way to reuse lots of leftover mashed potatoes. I actually had left them on the counter to cool down a bit before I put them away since I had already eaten dinner. But a little while later I heard a knock on my door...it was a couple of my roommates, they then asked if I had made that delicious food that was just sitting on the counter when they came home tired and hungry.  

                                                     potato pancakes with yogurt!

Every time I do get around to cooking I realize how much I like it, especially the part where you have great food to eat afterward. But it is the making time to cook and the planning ahead to have the right ingredients. As a grad student with little money and little energy when I get home in the evenings this is a difficult lifestyle to achieve since I never mastered it before I came. In a way it even reminds me of doing math homework in high school, when I actually sat down and did the homework I did rather enjoy it...but actually getting around to sitting down and doing the work is the most difficult part. There is a farmers market in our neighborhood every Wednesday, which I had never had the opportunity to go to since I either had class or errands to run for my professor. But finally, yesterday morning I tagged along with one of my friends who has been going every week. Of course, forgetting I am still a tourist, I did not bring a camera to take pictures of the fresh veggies and fruit and nuts and cheese and olives and fresh filo dough sheets. Maybe next time I can share pictures of the bazaar, complete with the sock and fake bag sellers next to the pomegranate and lemon sellers. I wasn't completely ready to stock up on vegetables so I only bought some garlic, tomatoes and bananas but after vacation in a couple weeks I'll be ready to fill our kitchen with fresh, local, turkish products...and then I'll be forced to cook even more food...


there is more that i could say on the topic but i will save it for another post...now it is time to go to class...


lots of love.em

Rainy monday morning...

Leo
By Rick Levine
You may feel as if you're in a dream where everything is just as it should be today. Unfortunately, your actual life can be far from ideal once you open your eyes. Naturally, you're tempted to indulge your pleasant fantasies, but avoiding reality isn't a luxury you can afford now. Instead of mind-tripping to a faraway place, concentrate on your home base where you can actually make a positive difference

fall2010 schedule...

Graduate Research seminar: learning time management and getting our thesis projects kicked into gear
Greek III: Audit since I've already taken it once
Turk203: review of 2nd semester Turkish and focusing on speaking skills and more grammar
Late Antique and Byzantine History Writing: Looking at primary sources to see how the Byzantines viewed and wrote about their own history
French: Managed to fuss enough that they are creating a brand new, graduate level, beginners' french class...seeing as it is very pertinent to our research and future internship and career goals:) Just glad I won't have to sit through the alphabet one more time with the undergrad kids

ohh yes, and my thesis!
wish me luck!!