A New Year and new hopes, dreams, ideas, invites and cooking adventures.  To start of the New Year right, I invited my aunt Havva’s family along with my parents to host a traditional Turkish sit down dinner.  Since my aunts father in law is visiting and he visits so rarely I took upon this opportunity to host a graceful dinner.  In rare occasions like this,  I love our Turkish hospitality.  When great friends and/or immediate families are visiting we take the opportunity to invite them to our homes and show our respects.  If anyone of you have visited Turkey, I am sure you have experienced this first hand.  It is such a warm, humble and welcoming feeling.  For me this dinner was a special one because Grandfather Haci Muzaffer, resembles my own late grandfather in more then one way.  As he sat, chatted and played with daughter I thought about my own grandfather and how delighted I would have been to have him here with us.

Since it the New Year and we are all weight and health continuous, I opted to keep the menu light and yet still delicious. The above picture is Meat Dolma made by mom.

Middle Eastern aka Gray Squash – Stuffed with chopped meat, onions, pine nuts

Oven Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes with Rosemary 

Brussels sprouts with onions & carrots

Oven roasted, Yellow & Green Zucchinis and Oven roasted Eggplant

Not Pictured but served along with:

Turkish Peasant Soup
Turkish Style Lamb Chops
Jasmine Rice cooked Turkish Style
Which recipes would you like first? Please leave a comment below.

This past Sunday weekend, we had over my favorite aunt, uncle, wife, son-in-law and their son.  We’ve finally managed a day and time that worked out great for both of us.  The invitation and visit was long over due, mainly because around this time of the year, they go to Turkey and return in the winter.

Since it was going to be for just tea, I wanted to keep the dishes light and summery. I had intended on making two other dishes, but daughter did not let that happen.  Note to self, next time make a few more dishes at night, while she is sleeping. 

MENU:

CRUSTLESS VEGETABLE QUICHE

MY MOM’S JASMINE RICE & CHICKEN INFUSED WITH SAFFRON & CINNAMON

CHEESE PIES – READY MADE & BAKED ONLY 
          CAN BE FOUND AT THE FREEZER SECTION @ THE STORE

CHEDDAR CHEESE & DILL CORN BREAD adapted from Ina Garten

WHITE & SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE MUFFINS adapted from Epicurious.com

POMEGRANATE MOLASSES BUTTER CAKE

CRUSTLESS VEGETABLE QUICHE

I’ve made the vegetable quiche again, this time making sure not to burn the edges. 
Note:No crust necessary bakes beautifully without any crust – but can be cooked in a crust shell as well.

Beautiful array of colors – vegetables sauteing in olive oil.

Add in the grated zucchini.

 Mix eggs, heavy cream, grated cheese, dill, salt & black pepper.

 Add above mixture into wilted vegetable in the skillet.

Tranfer from skillet to safe baking dish.

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons of olive oil + 1 tablespoon to oil the baking dish
• 2 stalks of leeks – white part only chopped
• 4 head of scallions – white and green parts chopped
• 1 yellow bell pepper – chopped
• 1 orange bell pepper – chopped
• 1 green bell pepper – chopped (red works well too)
• 1/2 box of mushroom – white or portabella (optional – I had a box in the fridge) chopped thin
• 3 medium zucchini or 2 large – grated
• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cups of heavy cream or milk
• 1 cup of grated Turkish Kaskaval (or any hard cheese you have)
• 1/2 cup of chopped dill (optional can be left out)
• salt & black pepper

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet heat up the olive oil, add in the chopped leeks, scallions, all the chopped bell peppers and chopped mushroom and let cook until they all have become nice soft about 5-7 minutes.  Add in the grated zucchini and mix well into the sauteing vegetables. Season lightly with salt and black peppers.

In a large mixing bowl, add in your eggs and heavy cream or milk, whisk the eggs and heavy cream.  Then add in your grated cheese, chopped dill, salt and black pepper and give it a nice stir.

Pour your liquid mixture over the vegetables, making sure the liquid covers all the sides of the dish.  Gently mix the vegetables and the liquid mixture. 1-2 minutes only. You don’t want to bake the eggs on the stove top.  Oil the bottom of your baking dish and set aside.  Pour the mixture into your baking dish.  The mixture should easily flow into the baking dish. 

Place dish into the oven, bake for 45-50 minutes.  Until the top has formed a nice soft crust.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Cut into slices and serve warm or at room temperature.

Afiyet olsun! Enjoy… 

This morning as I was preparing this delightful Mother’s Day breakfast, I received tons of text messages from my friends wishing me a happy mothers day. Since it is my FIRST mother’s day it brought tears to my eyes, a sense of joy an unexplainable feeling.  Being a mother is an explainable feeling , it touches all aspects of your life.

On to the breakfast, I wanted to make it a special mother’s day BK, with the whole family and them some unexpected company.  It turned out to be an awesome.  Between the food, our conversations and Aleyna I did not want breakfast to be over.  Wishing you all a wonderful Mother’s Day.  I will post a recipe one day at a time – starting tomorrow with Potato au Gratin.

MY MOTHER’S DAY MENU

Before we get to the food – this a quick snap of the mother’s day gifts – Aleyna & I gave to our favorite mothers.

VEGETABLE QUICHE
        info: left the potato in the oven a bit long  wanting to serve it warm - the top crisped up more then it should have.

CUCUMBER & CHERRY HEIRLOOM TOMATO & RADISH SALAD

CHOPPED MEAT, POTATOE & MUSHROOM DISH

POTATO au GRATIN
       info: left the potato in the oven a bit long  wanting to serve it warm - the top crisped up more then it should have.

Along with Turkish style breakfast condiments – feta cheese, kasari, string cheeese, black olives, turkish brown olives (can’t recall the name), as well as our famous Turkish Tea & home made Baklava.

Where have I been? It’s already a new year and I’ve just got to chance to say happy new year to you all. I hope 2010 opens new doors for everyone of us, putting 2009 behind us (with the great and the bad) and leap into this wonderful New Year.  Since my last post to my current one, I have been quite busy.  I did not realize how quickly time just flew by.  I’m fine, Aleynais doing great, she will be 3 months tomorrow.  Tell me about it! I’m still in awwww.

Remember a while back, let me correct that, it was way back , I had mentioned I would be moving. Well I am moving but it has not happened yet, to long of a story.  Lets me put to you in short terms, Construction is not COMPLETE!  We ran into some issues which caused the delay and lots of running, rather driving back and forth.  I’m moving from my current home in Long Island back to my hometown, well second hometown I should say it is known as the other island ‘Staten Island.’  I’m actually pretty excited about this move, first of all because I will be closer to my mom and second of all because I don’t have to DRIVE too much.  For me December just flew by, I started to pack the house which entailed me going though all the things we had in the all the closets and draws. I got rid of things I no longer wanted, needed or will have the room for it.  My days were consumed of sorting, wrapping, packing and boxing.  I’m finally finished, everything is in boxes along with all my kitchen and cooking items.  This is one the reasons why I’ve sort of neglected blogging.  Currently I am staying at my mom’s since it is much easier then living out of boxed.  I did my part now the rest is up to my husband and the movers.  Then the unpacking begins!

Breakfast platter of: Sliced Avocados, Cucumbers & Tomatoes lightly seasoned with salt, olive oil and lemon juice.

So do tell, how was your New Years? Mine was nice and quite and it involved us watching Jennifer Lopez in that hot bodysuit!  

Breakfast platter of: Menemen (a traditional Turkish egg, vegetable & cheese dish) 
       ~ will share my recipe soon ~

This beautiful table was set by my cousin Duriye. I wanted to share with you all a wonderful traditional Turkish breakfast setting, the perfect way to start the New Year, a table filled with love and food & love for food.  One of the most delicious food she had prepared was the most simplest, potatoes cut into cubes and fried in vegetable oil.  It brings back such wonderful childhood memories, it tasted just like the way our moms makes it. 

Can be served at breakfast or brunch.

CUBED & FRIED POTATOES

Ingredients:

• 5 medium potatoes (Idaho or Yukon gold)
• 1 cup of vegetable oil for frying
• salt for seasoning

Preparation:

1. Wash and peel the skin of the potatoes.
2. Dice the potatoes into bite size pieces. The potatoes should be like small cubes and the size does not have to perfect. Pat dry with paper towel, so when cooking the oil does not splatter everywhere.
3. Heat up the vegetable oil in a small cooking pot or pan, giving it a good 5-7 minutes to heat up. (I prefer to use a small pot because less oil splatters)
4. The potatoes will be fried in batches, so divide the diced potatoes into 3 or 4 batches. Once the cooking oil is hot, add in your first batch, be careful and don’t burn your hands.  (You can add in the potatoes using a frying ladle, this will make it easier for  you to put the potatoes into the pot or pan.)
5. Let the potatoes cook for a several minutes, the first batch will always take longer to cook and take color.  Once they turn a nice golden brown in about 4-7 minutes remove from the oil using a frying ladle.
6. Lay the fried potatoes into a serving dish with a paper towel on the bottom to absorb the access oil. Sprinkle with salt while still hot.
7. Continue to fry the rest of the batch of potatoes following the same steps above.  Remember to sprinkle each batch with salt while it is still hot.  This will allow the potatoes to be seasoned perfectly.
8. Once all batches are cooked, tranfer the fried potatoes onto a clean serving plate and serve warm or at room temperature.