The Hostess with the Mostest Turkish Women in Her House!

I can almost smell them when I look at this picture. They are delicious!! Thank you Gulenay and all my wonderful Turkish friends for making me something so so so so yummy! I am the luckiest woman in Ohio. I took this photo to make everyone else jealous that they don't have a group of friends like mine!


Gulenay and Prince Charming, or in this case Prince Furkan. If you ever want to organize a party or have a half dozen Turkish women descend on your dining room table and roll a hundred grape leaves faster than you can brush and floss, call Gulenay. She'll have the grape leaves stuffed, in the pot and boiling before you even get to the bathroom. It's the Turkish chi. There's something in it and they won't tell me what it is. But it makes them very, very efficient!



From left to right: Lucky me, Nesrin (from Istanbul), Gulenay (from Izmir) and Prince Furkan (who liked my soup!), Zehra, Fatma (from Bursa), Bidia (from Izmir), Seyda and taking the photo is Sumyra (from Izmir).


Gulenay (Seyda in the background) and Prince Furkan. He wants more soup but all he could get his hands on was this plastic toy. Look into that baby's eyes....what a flirt!
Sumyra, Nesrin, Bidia, Gulenay, Zehra, Seyda and Fatma. Zehra teaches at the school where Skye went to preschool. If it were not for Fatma, the meals we share would not be possible. Over a year ago I saw Fatma's daughter reading a book on Turkey at the library. I met her mother a few minutes later and we talked. I asked her if she could teach me how to cook Turkish food. Within a week a small group formed. Then more women came together to cook Turkish food and talk and laugh. Then more and more. It has been wonderful for me to go back into my childhood via eating and cooking foods that bring me back through my senses to my old neighborhood in Izmir at dinner time, when the Turkish women were cooking outside or with their balcony doors open. I get to relive days from long ago through my new friends. Such a gift!


Gulenay in my messy kitchen before all the eating began. Look at all these beautiful scarves.


Do NOT mess with these women. I hope I don't have to tell you twice.