Om Ali- Egyptian Dessert

I know it is been long time but I was so moody and didn't feel to cook or do anything else, but I am back to life. :)
There are too many recipes in my inbox and please forgive me that I don't think I will be able to read all, they are more than 5000. :)
I had this dessert in Dubai and loved it, easy to make, tasty and light dessert which I like.
By the way, Om Ali means "mum of Ali" :)

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Nice Weekend

I know it is been too long but i felt lazy to write something. I had fully busy weekend with friends and relatives. On saturday , my friends came to my home and they were so eager to taste the foods i cooked , that was their first time, i had a lot of unsucsesful cooking experiencence ,that is why they all were used to think i cant even cook an egg:))
till they tasted the foods i done. Even i didnt let my mum to help me because when someone even touch a bit, it would be "ooo , your mum cooked that" :) i didnt take risk , i done all. I went home around 7 pm on friday, had shopping and preaperad cookie very tasty called Ladies Kisses; I have seen it in Cafe Pepela. Also from friday i cooked cake and Yaprak Dolma . on Saturday i prapeerad Hummus, Eggplant Salad, Chicken Burger, Falafel&Tarator Sauce.


My mum also made a dessert and Borek (pastry), maybe she was doubt that i may fail:) dont know.. but they mostly liked as they told.. And we had nice lunch with chating about old stories in university..

Bon Appetit..

Potato Ravioli (HINGAL)

I am feeling right now that i am in the heaven , while i am tasting potato , butter.. yummy!!

When i was a kid ,we had a neighboor who used to cook "Hingal" , i always loved it , and i felt like i am kid now, the taste the same like she did, her name is Yasemin who was living next door; i have liked her, life is weird, i havent seen her from years , i dont know where she is or what she does, this hingal just made me remember great memories. I guess i am getting old as i started to talk about past:)

She is Circassian , and this Hingal a Circassian food which is also cooked in Cantral Anatolia area of Turkey.

The difference from the usual turkish ravioli is ; hingal bigger than regular turkish ravioli, there are some different shape variations, you can do whatever you like. I used a form that i like.

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Banana Roll Cake

I found this recipe at Food in Life. It is my first trial to make a cake. Was i succesfull?? Honestly the taste was good but the apperance not really.. I dont like so much about sweet, dessert, cakes etc. ; maybe that is why i am not succesful at this kinda things, but i believe i will be better. I brought the cake at the bank today for my colleagues to taste, and everybody seems happy; i dont know if they really liked or just to be nice , but they really seemed happy. Here is the proof :)

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Kavurma

It is Eid , and every Eid my mum make kavurma..

And i have to give recipe. It is sooooo delicious meat. The specialty of this kavurma, it is maden in ;we call "Sac" ; a special iron plate.

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Puff Pastry (Pofuduk Borek)

Eid is going on in all muslim countries with all beauty. People visiting each other, eating dinner, sharing good things with feast sole. In every home there is a hurry to cook something for their guests and to welcome their guests in best way.

I cooked a pastry for guests, sure it is not only thing , i will share most of them with you so you can a bit feel about the feast we are having.

This recipe; i saw my friend Ferhat's blog, he has put inside onion and green pepper but i didnt add , i think you can add whatever you want.

It is really easy&delicious recipe which everybody loved.

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a Sunny Istanbul Day with Kuru Fasulye&Boza

Yesterday my long 9 days holiday started and the weather was luckily better than i could wish..

I had chance to walk the places i have never been in my city, walked all the ways around 15 km.. WOW.. i cant believe myself walked all the way; we just stopped every store ,every places, kissed every children and interracted with people as much as we can.

Our walking group was 8 people, enjoyed with the day a lot.

We stopped by a restaurant for lunch and ate Kuru Fasulye ( Haricor beans) with pastirma (beef that has been smoked or dried in the sun after being treated with spic) , pilaf (rice), pickle and for the dessert ; semolina dessert. All was soo delicious, i reccomend you to stop by there and taste kuru fasulye.

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Eid ul-Adha (Kurban Bayrami)

Eid ul Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice or Kurban Bayrami; whatever you call it.. It is one of important religious holiday celebrated by muslims. We will celebrate it in Turkey on next tuesday, as i know some arab countries it is 1 day later on wednesday. in Turkey it is offically 4 days holiday by this feast; when i combined it with weekends, my long 9 days holiday officially started yesterday :)
I always loved to celebrate these feasts, but it was better when i was a kid, was more meaningful, I had grandparents to visit, had neighboors to knock the door and get some money&candy.. I dont have any of them now unfortunately, my grandparents passed away long years back and the neighbourhood almost dead. Thanks God there are still some children to knock our door and ask for candy:)
Kurban means ; to sacrifice an animal for God sake. Some people comments very badly about this feast. They are calling it barbarity but really dont understand why; by this feast we just dont sacrifice animals, we help poor people as well.It doesnt mean just sacrifice the animal, put the meat in fridge and eat all year! NO! it is not like that, it is for also charity..
For example in Turkey (in other muslim countries can have other variations) when someone cut an animal, they have to share it with at least 7 people who didnt/cant sacrifice an animal so it give you chance to help other people, there are millions who cant buy meat, millions of children..
Also to cut an animal , there are some islamic rules which will give minumum pain to the animal.
Sharing is great habit, and the Sacrifice feast is great chance for people to share, to remember poor people maybe who never ate meat.
Happy Eid El Adha to everybody..
Kurban Bayraminiz Kutlu Olsun..

Chocolate Soufflé

I know i was away too long, was quite busy week.. Yesterday i felt asleep at 9pm. I think it is because of the all week exhaustion but today morning , i woke up at 7 am as lusty. There is a food competition program in Turkey, yesterday my mum told that a competitor cooked Chocolate Soufflé, she talked about it all evening till i sleep:) i love it but didnt know how to cook , my mum told the recipe, the problem my oven has broken so we went to market today,bought a new oven, new knife set, cake mould, I loved all but the most i liked the cake mould , it is 6 small cake place inside, it s silicosis mould which i learnt new. I know maybe you will think how i am ignorant :) but i am not the one who cook cake always.. when i was a kid my mum was cooking cake and to take it out of mould was really big problem ,it was always sticking it , with this new silicosis mould didnt get it to stick , perfect!!

Tomorrow i have an exam , i suppose to study today , but first i decided to cook Chocolate Soufflé which is easy to cook, soo delicious and will give me too much power to study at least thats what i hope :)

P.S: I got a lot of blog awards ,i am sorry to late to reply, i will do that soon and thank you so much for everyone who think my blog deserve an award!! big kisses.. :)

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Lady's Thigh Meatballs (Kadin Budu Kofte)

Turkish cuisine is full of foods which has funny names. It is one of them. Today after i decided to cook kadinbudu kofte, i searched why they gave this name? but i couldnt find.. Maybe it is because chubby:)) i really dont know. If you think this is funny name, also hear there are turkish desserts called "A Beatiful woman's Lips" (Dilber dudagi), "Finger of the vizier" (Vezir parmagi), "Ladys Belly" (Hanim gobegi) and etc.. I really dont know why this kinda names were given or who gave but funny.. isnt it? :)

I like kadinbudu kofte, very delicious and filling.

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Anchovy Rice (Hamsili Pilav) Recipe

As i have mentioned yesterday, in black sea region , you can find thousands recipes with anchovy. The rice is one of them . I never tried it before neither in a restaurant or at home so it was nice for me to cook this. I felt it was a real challange for me, i cooked it in a pan not in the oven , so i needed to turn the food and fry both face of it. But i was succesful, honestly i was afraid to screw it but didnt. The result is perfect either look or taste..

I cooked it in a medium pan , wish i have done more:)

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Anchovy Recipe (Hamsi)

For the who dont know about, Turkey is a country surrounded with 3 seas; Black Sea at north, Aegean Sea at the west, and Mediterrian Sea at the south. For this reason, it is very rich with the fishes and fishes products, but unfortunately we arent so fan of sea foods. We are mostly bread, wheat people as anatolian culture. It is like , although it is surrounded with 3 sea, most of turkish people dont know to swim!

This season is very generous with the fish, yesterday on the news they were anouncing that it is anchovy season and it is so cheap, and bla bla bla. A chef gave 12 recipes with anchovy which is so easy and tasty.

In Turkish we call it "Hamsi". In black sea region there are thousands recipes are avalible with it, whatever u think ; anchovy bread, pickle, rice ,everything..

When i surprise to see Americans use pumpkin in a lot of ways, if you have known about how anchovy is used in Turkey, i am sure you would be really surprised!

It is very easy and tasty way to eat fish.

I got 1 kg anchovy , was planing to use some part for Hamsi Kusu and rest of them for the rice with anchovy, but the tast of it was soo amazing and my family asked me to cook just this and tomorrow we will buy some more and use it for rice. This is winter time and the weather is cold and rainy, i dont wanna go out, so my sister promised to go out and buy it for me tomorrow, so we were agreed and all of them cooked as hamsi kusu, Win Win game !everybody happy:))

It was a real challange for me , because when my mum brought the fish and it wasnt cleaned so i needed to clean inside. I have never done it, first try was disaster, i almost mashed the fish!

I learnt the way from my mum.

First i had to break off the head , one finger has to clean inside of it,and take the bone out with the tale. I felt so weird , it was hard for me to do it and was a challange to see my hands with some blood although it is fish. Anyway i was succesful , just it took much time as i had to wash my hands quite often:)

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Belated "Happy World Pasta Day"&"Happy Birthday"

Yesterday,25th October was so important day. One ,it is one of my best friend' s birthday who is actually my manager, my friend&my sister.. She tought me a lot as much as she can with patient. She tried to make me convinced with the job and made easier my boring day at work. I am sorry to tell this but i havent heard any good things about lady managers all my life, everybody told lady managers mostly, jelous, aggresive,who has complexes and so on.. But she is the opposite of all of this.. Very kind,helpful, and try to make my life easier..
Happy Birthday Ender! you deserve all the best, hope God gives you what you deserve in the life..
And second important event at 25th Oct was World Pasta Day. I recognized there is a "World Pasta Day" exist. It has been celebrated from 15 years. I havent noticed it before but as the pasta is my favourite food , i thought it s good for me to cook a pasta to celebrate this nice day. Pasta is the cheapest, easiest and the most tasty way to get full..
My coughing getting worse. I dont like this dark, rainy weather, i should live in somewhere always warm and sunny. Although i am always so careful , i always get cold very easy, i think it is coz of what i eat , i should eat more healthy foods, but i love to eat pasta and patato:) i can live with just that 2 in all my life, can u do that? :) I
I cooked pasta yesterday with cream,garlic,basil,cheddar,parmesan,and some vegs.. It was so good , my family loved it. Unfortunately no pic coz of my pc&internew screwed:(
Btw when i was searching about this day , i learnt Turkey is the 2nd pasta exporter country in the world.
Happy World Pasta Day!!

Stuffed Cabbage Leaves (Zeytinyagli Lahana Dolmasi) Recipe

Today i feel so sick , have fever, throat pain and coughing:( dont have too much energy but we had some cabbage at home and cooked it , it was so tasty so i couldnt avoid to share with you.

I cooked it veg but also you can cook it with ground meat as well..

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Haricot Beans with Turkish Sausage Recipe(Sucuklu Kuru fasulye)

I was busy last days with a lot of things including some dates;)
it is pity that i just dont have enough time to cook. I try to follow a lot of blogs and try not to miss anything but unfortuantely sometimes i do. One of them is green girl and her recipe Bulghur pilaf recipe, i got upset when i recognized late. It is really look tasty.
And if i dont comment at your recipes ,doesnt mean i dont read, i defintely enjoy to read all of bloggers recipes , and try to follow as much as i can, just not enough time for everything.. Today dish is great Haricot beans which is a King at Turkish cuisine..
Haricot beans which has lots of type a kinda national dish of Turkey:) especially when the cool weather starts , at almost every home legume dishes are cooked include haricot beans.

And it is very healthy food which is rich carbohydrate, protein, and B vitamins.
When you ask someone here where to eat Kuru fasulye, they will all tell you "Comlek". It started in istanbul with a small place and now, they have big place to serve it. Their kuru fasulye is best in Istanbul. If you ever visit in Istanbul , dont forget to eat kuru fasulye at Comlek.

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Roasted red bell pepper salad

Here is another easy to make,delicious recipe..
I like red bell pepper. And all recipes with it. At home we make this salad quite often . Hope you all like it..

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Celeriac with orange juice

As i have told before , i started a kinda diet. Actually i cant tell it is a diet ,it is impossible for me to diet because i really enjoy to eat . But at least i try to eat light foods at least for dinner. I really like celeriac and this recipe is from my mum. I have ate celeriac out ,restaurants and i have hated it and was avoiding to eat it till my mum cook it in this form. I really enjoy with this dish , hope you like it too..

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Cheese Stuffed Zucchini

I have been busy for sometime , no time or energy i had to cook. And even i dont wanna eat anymore,i feel i am getting fat and i dont like it. It is better for me to stay away from my loves;pasta-potato and this kinda tasty and fatty things. Also i will stay away from frying foods for sometime. If you have noticed most of foods i cook and eat a bit fatty, already most of healthy foods arent delicious , what can i do:) But today i cooked and ate as dinner very light, healthy and tasty dish.

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Potato&Carrot Crocket

I love potato, i can eat it everyday ,i dont think i am gonna get bored of it. Today morning my mum has made potato salad for breakfast. But it wasnt enough potato for me i guess and i wanted to eat more potato :)) I like potato crocket, i wanted to try something else. I added carrot in it.. The taste was good. I reccomend you to try..

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Pilaf/Rice with green bean (Fasulye Dible)

All the areas in Turkey has different kinda food culture. In north east of Turkey which is Black Sea Region ,they cook almost all geens' "Dible". Dible is rice with veg. And Fasulye(green bean) Dible is one of them. Black Sea Regions is the most green areas in Turkey, so they cook a lot with green,vegs and so on..
Rize/Turkey

Normally i dont like to add recipes which i didnt cook in my blog. But after i started blogging thing and my mum saw that i got comments and Top 9 bla bla bla, she started cook better , unusual foods than normal times. I think she thinks that she has been cooking from 30 years and nobody appriciated in proper way:) and now she has a kinda chance with me to show her foods more people and got claps:) She is really great cook, best that i knew. Honestly she didnt want me to go in kitchen too much because she was afraid from the mess after i cooked.. But she couldnt do anything about it:) After she cook , always ask me to add the foods in my blog but i reject, but this time i thought i can make privilege for one time:) i liked the fasulye dible too much (normally she wasnt used to cook it, i think she cooked for you:) ) The taste is so good.. It is fillig,tasty and easy to cook. What you can ask more from a food? :))

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