spice bazaar

We finally made it to the Egyptian Bazaar/Spice Bazaar last Saturday. I have been searching for months for Oregano....perplexed by the fact that Thyme and Oregano are both labeled with the same Turkish word. Rick asked around to find out where the best sellers were and we found an English speaking salesman. He was offended that I brought a "McCormick" seasoning jar to Turkey..."Why do you bring this McCormick? We sell to McCormick!" I told him I didn't know what it was called here and thus had to "make do". I again found favor and he graced me with another spice I would like to try for free - in the same seasoning family, but for seasoning meat. We'll see if I figure out how to use it! We got the equivalent of 8 jars of oregano, marjoram, basil, and red chili pepper for $3.50! Better than aldi...AND fresh! ;-) Alas, then we got home and realized that all of these green flaky spices were in bags without labels. So, trial and error or blissful ignorance will be the title of our future Italian cooking.

Celebrating our 6th Anniversary

We treated ourselves to a boat cruise up the strait today to celebrate. The trip took 1.5 hours to reach the Black Sea where we explored an old fort and ate at a fish restaurant. As we were sweating before we climbed the hill to the fort, we didn't feel bad about having ice cream and the local yogurt treat on our way home. Plain yogurt with two heaping lumps of powdered sugar mixed in. Deeelish.


This is the view of our harbor along the Bosporus from the ferry.

Some houses on the water...wouldn't you like to live here?

Hugo & Micah

Micah & Hugo checked out the swimmers down on the beach below. We had a great day at one of the less popular islands. Micah & Hugo thoroughly enjoyed playing in the dirt and pointing at passing horse carriages.

Micah learns to make pizza dough...

comfort food...not so comforting

Who couldn't go for a nice piece of warm toast with melted butter on top...when you just want to feel a little better?

I bought this nice whole-grain looking loaf of bread from the store this week and anxiously anticipated the use of the new toaster we acquired last week. Salivating as it heated up...getting excited as the butter was spread on top...taking a tantalizing bite....

and, denied!

Imagine my horror when I realized the best part of warm buttered toast...is the salt in the butter! There is no salted butter here....which leaves me two choices...
1. Be healthy and eat it anyway...pretending it tastes like all the sweet memories from home.
2. Shake some salt on top?

Dream deferred - from a Mom's perspective

While this may be a misinterpretation of the original poem, I think I can claim a portion of the phrase.

Four months ago, Micah started having a nanny watch him for half the day. As young, naive parents we just assumed the nanny would "figure it out" (like we do) along the way. Well....after a few weeks of coming home to "He doesn't like to eat this food or that food....only if I mix it with yogurt." and "he doesn't want to nap anymore"....I decided I would take two weeks off and "figure out" my growing child. I planned to get him on a perfect routine with perfect food pyramid balanced meals so that I could then teach my nanny "how to do it".

The mere number of quotation marks in the above paragraph should let you know, I was a tad idealistic. Still, I had a dream...and I still have two more days before nanny comes back to work!

As far as sleep goes, he's almost back on a regular nice nap schedule. (Though who naps 5 hours a day?)

As far as food goes...our precious boy loves his dairy products. Alas, maybe it is best to mix everything under the sun into his yogurt.

Today we took a trip into town to meet my former classmates for lunch. Micah had a cheese stick, 3 spoonfuls of rice, 1 bite of turkey, and 5 "cherries" from the birthday cake...then in the twenty minutes between "lunch" and the bus trip home, he received (for free)...

-one double chocolate ice cream cone from the restaurant we ate at
-one chocolate kit kat bar from Rick's cantine manager at school
-three bites of simit (like a hot pretzel) from a stranger who saw us walking by
-two bites of something squishy from saudi arabia from a stranger sitting across from us on the bus.

And then he turned into a beautiful butterfly. (Actually, he just took a nap.)

Micah turns 19 months today!