Ramadan this year has been quite and busy, these long days I must admit have been hard and at time difficult.   The hardest part for me so far has been the lack of sleep and which resulted me to use my lunch hour to take naps in the offices quite lounge room.   Nothing like power nap to get you through the afternoon.  The good thing about Ramadan in the summer is having enough time to cook a full three to four course meal in a matter of hours after work.  I’m truly grateful I was able to do this year, because being able to cook always puts me in a better mood.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of hosting a Iftar dinner for my dear friends and family, they gracious accepted my invitation and helped me to the “T” with everything.  Having extra set of hands in the kitchen is always a blessing and they really outdid them selves with serving, to clearing the table even packaging the left overs and above all washing the large dishes not once but twice.  I thank all individually for all their wonderful handy work.

As for my menu, since it is mid summer and my mom’s & my garden are overflowing with fresh organic vegetables, I wanted to keep the menu  simple and light with summer vegetables. Even though the weather was rough (a lot of rain) in the month of May and June, my mom’s and aunt’s hard work rewarded us well.  As for me, I only pick some vegetables as I am dead afraid to set foot into our cucumber jungle. I leave that task to the husband!

Menu

• Organic flat green beans slowly cooked with olive oil, onion and tomato sauce.  These are from my mother’s garden.

• Oven roasted sweet long Turkish green peppers & very hot light green Hungarian peppers.  These are from my garden.

• Okra slowly cooked in olive oil, onion and tomato sauce.  (We did not plant any okra, rather these are Montana Brand, frozen okra.)

• Romaine lettuce, leek and fresh corn salad.

•  Mixed olives & Medjool dates.

• Savory parsley crepe with mushroom and provolone filling.

• My mom’s meat and rice stuffed green squash, Holland peppers and baby eggplants. 

Dessert

• Nalan’s fig pudding.

• Profiterole with custard cream and David Lebovitz best chocolate sauce.

Tags: borek, COMPOSTE, CREPE, Fig Pudding, HOSAF, Iftar, medjool dates, montana frozen okra, mushrooms, PORTAKALAGACI, Profiteroles, RAMADAN 2012, Ramazan