Corlu Bus News III

SO, I recall Adding somewhere Bus News. 
  Last year, I had thought the bus situation would be in the news, however, the same thing was happening. The Mayor of Çorlu was still trying to work against the private bus owners (which in Turkey that is 90% of all bus owners) So, getting rid of the bus owners was like getting rid of hundreds even a couple thousand jobs in a city of 250,000 (registered even though it was more like 500,000, however, it was thousands of jobs) 
The Mayor did do some laws, like buses needed to be new. So Baba's buses are new. I mean BRAND new. He's got a few of those now. So, Apparently, the Mayor has decided to have to be re-elected as Mayor and had a sit down with all the former bus drivers and bus driver associations of Çorlu that worked not just within the city but outside the city. Baba has gone to all the meetings and has decided to re-open and re-elect the Mayor. The Mayor promised to restore the buses and Baba's bus company is going to be completely functional within a couple of months. It is good news for the family and exciting news for baba! 
  We are of course really happy for this news and are looking to baba and all of his friends up and operating the buses in the next couple of months. We are really happy for this news. All the sweat and tear that has gone into the operation and working of the bus, all the laws and law- digging, all the arguments of working the buses, its going to up and functioning soon. We are so happy. The buses are new. The Long Rock has tested them, as we know he loves all things new. The Long Rock went with his father to look at the new bus and he said they are incredible. We are happy for this too. 

Next happy news::: When Long Rock is here... I will be more happy then. 

Kına Gece:: Part II

The Long Rock and I have been talking a lot lately. We have been trying to work out Traditions from both American and Turkish Weddings that we like and dislike and come up with our own unique wedding suited for us. 
 We decided that we are not doing Kına Gece. 

The reason for this is because we have been following many people that have been doing this and we realized that the couples here in Turkey just want one more things to do to make people pay them gold and money in order to do this and "Nişanlı" For my American and non-Turkish readers, Nişanlı is meaning Engagement. They ahve a Ceremony where they promise eachother to each other in front of family, friends and everyone else they decide to invite. At this time people are obliged to give them money and gold. 
 Say what you want, it is a tradition and how it helps the couple get a start on their wedding, but really, it is just another way to get more money. 
We have been engaged now for two years. This is how we did it. 
I knew he was going to ask me it was a matter of when. 
I left for worwk and it was a night class and so I did not get home until 10 pm. I came into the home and my light was on in my room which is odd. I went to my room and right before I did so, The Long Rock came running down the hallway and said "Wait wait wait!!!" barrelled by me to turn off my light. Then, said, "Now come in!" I had no idea what was going on and he got down on one knee, and said, "Please, look up." and I did. There were glow in the dark stars that spelled out "MARRY ME" on the ceiling. He opened up the ring that he had bought me and put it on my finger and told me how much he loved me. 
  We then told the family. THAT to us was more than anything. We did not want or need people giving us gold and money only to give us more on our Wedding Day. 
 Our being engaged is about us, not buying three different dresses or more, and trying to out do the neighbors wedding. 
The Long Rock has always hated Kına. When he had his Sünnet (I should post about it later, but baiscally,I am opposed to the Turkish Tradition of Sunnets) The Long Rock had to have Kına on his hands as per tradition. He got annoyed it was on his hand and put it on the face of the Imam that was preforming the Sünnet. He has always told me that he did not like Kına Gece and he doesn2t like the noise and hte music played at Kına Gece. 
  We were "Hummm-Haw" over the last couple of years, trying to figure out if this is what we really want to do. After I showed The Long rock what we traditonally do in USA, two things we were clear about in USA we don't want here in Turkey. 

Throwing the Garter Belt (Those are sooo stupid) As a matter of fact, having one, we just don't want one. (In particular: I don't want one)
and  Throwing the Bouquet (Dumb! Why do I want to throw my bouquet?!?)
Decorating the Brides and Groom Car::: Not my thing at ALL 

And so, as I post the Kına Gece and my former post I wrote that we were trying to decide what we are doing, it will not be that the night before our wedding. 
But, we do have some other things in store. 
You my readers will have to be lookng for my posts, and reading to find out what we do, how we celebrate. 
 

Call Me Crazy, But:::

I FREAKING LOVE This stuff. 

  This is called Kuru Fasulye. (kudu fasool-ye the same a sound in the word ate.) I am sorry to my dear Turkish Readers if I am spelling it wrong. (Yes, I meant to capitalize Readers because I am using it in a Title of respect because you wonderful wonderful people of Turkey have grabbed my heart, and made me the American that LOVES Turkey.) 

  

Now, for you Americans or non-Turks. This is a version of Navy Beans or White beans and cooked with other things and I wanted to tell you all how to make it. 

Why? I love this stuff so much and I wanted to show you how to do it because I am freaking awesome. 

This food is ooooh so good. There is some down stairs right now in The Long Rock's apt, but since it is 2:23am and I do not want to wake anyone up, I will have to wait til morning to eat some... But I am craving this right now and IF I had some I would be eating it up here. "sigh"

Recipe: 

White Beans (Kuru Fasulye)

3 cups white beans (Navy Beans are ok) 

1 Onion

2 Carrots

2 Tbsp. Tomato Paste

1 Tbsp Red Pepper Paste (IF it is available)

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

 Black pepper to taste

Salt to taste

8 cups water

Method

Soak beans over night. Drain and boil in a large pot for about 45 minutes. (or until somewhat soft)

Drain and set aside

In a large pot heat up olive oil and add tomato paste and pepper paste. Add onion and carrots and cook until onion is transparent and carrots are cooked all the way through. 

 Then, What my Turkish mom does is takes a fine strainer and smashes the onion, carrots and paste through it, and makes it into a fine paste ish red paste. Then, gets water back into the white beans on the stove adds water to is so that it is like a soup not too much water but not too dry either, and the smashed paste with the onions are added to the  pot of beans to finish cooking.I have seen it kind of boiling to get it kind of thick. It looks like Baked Bean Soup. Serve Hot! 

It is served with hot peppers served on the side, fresh French Bread, yogurt, and sometimes Beef is added in the soup. Depending on where you go, but this family I live with prefers it without meat (yay!)

I have heard other people put it over rice, but in this family we don't really serve it that way. 

I got the picture off the internet on resimle yemeklik. Something like that. 

 I love this so much. There is a song with Kuru Fasulye in it!!! Please look below:  It is not about Kuru Fasulye, It is about a man that wants to marry a woman, but anyway... Here it is!!!

Also , I would like to tell you about this dish a little. It is a very old staple dish dating back to the Ottoman Empire Kitchen. This means that although there are variations of this dish, anywhere that the Ottoman Empire Ruled, you will find a variation of this dish. I hope you cook it and enjoy it! Let me know what you think or if you have questions about how to cook it, I would like to hear from you! Post it on my blog! 

Peace! 

and as we say in Turkey Afiyat Olsun!!! (Bon Apetit)

The Art of Making:::

Baklava!!!

 Yes, my dear readers! You read correctly. Baklava is Turkish. Although everyone associates baklava with Greek and Greece (because the Greeks have taken many many things from Turkey, and stamped an "I am Greek" stamp on it, the history of Baklava making, as far as most people know, dates before the 1600's and even as early as the Byzantine Days. But, It is Turk. The actual Baklava is believed to come from the Central Asian Turks), brought on the silk road to the Byzantine people in Istanbul (although not called Istanbul), but remained in the Ottoman Kitchen and there has been recorded that the name baklava has never changed. The Balkan Turks in the Ottoman days, would make baklava only during very special occasions, and now, there are variations of baklava in Iran, Syria, All over the Middle East, Afghanistan, India, Mongolia, Greece, and even parts of Europe where the Ottoman Empire Ruled. (Yes, Mongolia was ruled by the Great and Illustrious Ottoman Empire, or they had to pay the Ottoman Empire taxes or something... Because they are called Mogolistan in Turkish...)  The History of exact dates and where is comes from before the Ottoman Kitchen is rather hazy, some say it comes from Assyria, but there are many historians that insists it comes from Central Asian Turks (and the Turkic Turks... ) which makes it all things Turkish.

 Why am I writing about this? Because my dear readers, my Turkish mom and grandma made it the other day, and I got to watch and help a little to see how it was made. My Turkish Grandma is 89 ish years old and this tradition has been passed from mother to child for centuries and centuries. It is about 900 years old or more, and so if you can imagine, being it Turk, and as I am marrying a Turk, I wanted to learn this wonderful and delicious tradition from the very person that is knowing how to make it better than anyone I have ever known. She learned from her mother, until her mother passed away when she was 12, and then her Grandmother taught her.  But, she is amazing. She makes the best baklava ever. This is not an exaggeration and I wanted to learn before she passed away, to keep this tradition in mine and Long Rocks family.

This woman is so amazing she did not even use measuring cups, etc... She just KNOWS how to do it...

Now, I have had to do a lot of research on the dough. All the internet recipes I have read says to buy the dough. OK. You can. But you will not get the dough thinner than paper thin, and I know the difference. Homemade is better. Homemade is HOMEMADE!!!  So...

My Turkish grandma uses yogurt in her recipe with butter somehow. and I will have to get that recipe from her, but I did not see how she made the dough... Sadly... I was interested in how she rolled out the dough... I will have to go back and get her recipe... And make hers. BUT  before you make it, please do yourself a favor and get a rolling pin and a wooden dowel! Make the dowel about 1/4 an inch around, and it can be about 24+ inches in length. Long Rocks grandma has one, they are sold all over Turkey for rolling out dough. Theirs is old old old but, just get yourself one for 3-4 dollars and use it only for the kitchen. The rolling pins are fine, however, not wide enough and it is easier to get a dowel. 

Before you start, have your nuts ready. You can use:

Walnuts, Pistachios, Almonds, Hazelnuts. You are not limited to those but, traditional Turkish use Pistachios, Walnuts or Hazelnuts. you will have to chop them up really fine, if you have a blender or Food Processor to help lucky you! But chop them up and lots. I mean a good pound or if you are making more ... two pounds. I mean, we had a pan 8x8 and we filled it with Hazelnuts. Hazelnuts grow like crazy in Turkey so we used Hazelnuts this time... But you get the picture.

Remove all Jewelry on your hands and wrists first! You do not want the dough to rip.

Now, phyllo dough ingredients. (Turkish yufka hamur)

Ingredients: I want to thank Making Life Delicious for this recipe. It is not Long Rock Family's recipe, but it is very very close. I did not do the steps as she did because, We used different things, and I did not want to steal I am trying to tell you how our Turk family does it, not Eastern Europe of Balkan Countries... So, I am telling you how to make real Turk Baklava.

• 2 2/3 cups (270 g/13 oz) unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon (1 1/2 g) table salt
• 1 cup less 2 tablespoons water (210 ml), plus more if needed
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (60 ml), plus additional for coating the dough
• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) cider vinegar

In the bowl of your stand mixer combine flour and salt. Mix with paddle attachment. Combine water, oil and vinegar in a pyrex measuring cup. Add water & oil mixture with mixer on low speed, mix until you get a soft dough, if it appears dry add a little more water 

 You want it sticky, but not too soft, When it sticks together in one piece, 

Knead with the dough hook, because we do not have a Kitchen Aide we do it all by hand, baby.  Dough will be soft and smooth. 

Now, make 22 balls the size of fifty cent pieces. Or, if you do not remember those, a little bigger than quarters. If you do not have enough for 22, 20 are fine. You want 10 layers for the bottom and 10 layers for the top. (At Least!)

The balls need to be placed on a plastic tray then covered. lightly cover with oil to keep soft, and cover with plastic strip. Because Long Rocks mom and G-ma are fast, because they have been doing this all their lives, they just use a clean kitchen cloth. I am not so experienced. Let dough sit for about 30 minutes. Do not make the syrup yet!!!

The following is how you should roll the Baklava dough. 

With corn starch and flour take one ball and the rolling pin (normal rolling pin) And roll out the ball flat, until you have about a thin 8 inch circle or try to get it as circle-y as you can... Or If you are using a rectangle pan try to get it into a rectangle shape as possible. add flour to the ball and your pin as needed. Make sure you rotate the dough and add a little flour as dust.

Then, with your dowel (see above) Roll out your now thin dough to even more thin and use lots of flour for this. How you do it is while rolling it, you will roll up the dough with the dowel, so that the dowel is rolled inside the dough. , turn the dowel and unroll the dough, and re-roll it with lots more flour. this is how you get it really really thin and this is how you get it the right shape and thin-ness all around. Do this several times. The last time you do it, when your dough is thinner than paper, unroll your dough onto your pan and adjust as necessary.  At times, the dough will get so thin that when you try to re-roll it , it will try to come up around the edges. That is ok. Gently push it down and roll onto your dwoel from the area closet to you to farthest away from you. When you roll it onto the pan and it drops in the pan roll it farther away from you to closest to you. This way, it will fall off the dowel and into the pan. Sometimes it will fold. Just use your hands to unfold it. 

If it breaks a little, this means your dough is getting dry. You do not want dry dough, it will fall apart and is not good. If it is soft, but falls apart, try to use those layers for the middle so no one can see it. Hehehe. 

Repeat until you have 10 layers of baklava. 

People use butter in the layers, this is not "real Turkish Baklava." that is  probably Greek or Persian variation. 

This one, you do not even butter your pan you do not need to, unless you are working with a pan you know needs to butter, but typically you do not butter your pan. 

OK Next step.

 Pat down your dough just a bit and then add your nuts. cover the dough with them, and get a good layer of nuts on the dough so that every inch is completely covered. If you have left over nuts, not to worry! 

Now, you will repeat the rolling process with the next 10 layers of dough... Rolling to really thin and covering the nuts layers with at least 10 layers of the dough. 

Pat down your dough. Congratulations. You have just completed the first half of making Turkish Baklava. 

NOW... 

(unlike other recipes, you do it this way for Turkish Baklava)

Cutting the baklava. Take your sharpest knife you have and cut into slices. You can make diamonds, squares or triangles. WE do squares in our home. Do your best to make the squares or shapes as evenly as possible. Cutting them is just as important as everything else. you need to cut through all the layers and you can not cut it after it is cooked. You must do it before. 

Now, before you stick it in the oven, set your sliced baklava square in your pan aside and melt butter. Real Butter. About 3/4 a stick or even a whole stick... 180 grams. I do not know the metric system, but my turkish mom used about 250 grams, but she was making double the recipe. Completely melt it and pour it over your baklava. Completely cover your baklava in the butter. try your best to pour it evenly. Then, in a heated over at 100 C (wihich is about 210-215 F) cook your baklava until golden brown. if it is thinner around the edges, to not fear, your baklava will be darker around the edges, but make sure that your baklava is a golden brown color. While in the oven... BTW it is better to cook it slower and lower temp, my Turk Grandma said... While it is cooking, now it is time to make the Syrup. 

My Turk family uses 1/2 cup of water, 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar, and boil until it is REALLY a syrupy syrup. If you want to dress this up a bit, you can add rum flavoring, almond flavoring, honey (if you add honey, reduse the other water and sugar... If you want), rose water (With is ore of a Persian Variant and even they do that in Syria and Lebanon) you can add to your syrup a number of different ways to make it a slightly different flavor. I am Long Rock and like how my Turk Grandma does it... plain. But, I might be in the mood to add a little something to make it my own recipe. I love Rose Water... But I am not sure Long Rock would like it. Anyway... 

 When you add the syrup, many people say a different timing to put the syrup. Turks do it like this. The Baklava is out of the oven, completely cooked, and cooled. The syrup is warm, not boiling hot and not cold, do not add it the least bit cold. That is how you should add it. and cover the baklava with it.

They put it back in the oven for a couple of minutes. Literally two or three minutes. 

We like eating baklava warm and fresh but many instructions say to eat it room temp.  You can sprinkle teh remaining nuts on top of the baklava for a garnish, if you want.

 To keep it, we just keep it on the table under a clean cloth or in the oven covered with another pan, because it dos not last very long in the house anyway. 

There are various ways to store it. The best way is just eating it and sharing it with your friends and family!!!

Happy Eating!

This is Turkish Baklava with Pistachios, and Sprinkled with Pistachios. Yummy

If you want, please add your variant to the wonderful dessert in your comments below! I would love to hear your feed back! Tell me what you did differently or ask me about anything Turkish, or Baklava. I will be more than happy to comment and reply to your comments!

More News From Turkey

So, over the past couple of weeks, the Turkish Government in all their Wisdom, had decided to obtain more money in the Economic Crisis. Their answer?

  Charge a forced and mandated Government Insurance to all foreigners who will be staying longer than one consecutive year in Turkey, whether working, going to school, not working... Whatever the reason for staying longer than one year, you must pay the government for Mandatory Government Health Care. If you do not pay you will be fined an out rageous amount of money, and the rates of said insurance a month goes wayyyy up.

If you think about it, this is brilliant. I say to Reciyyip Erdoğan ... KUDOS! I will tell you why. We in USA need this. We in America love LOVE people visiting, but, this will get rid of everyone that wants to stay illegally in the USA.

 The downside?

The laws right now are ambiguous and no one knows where to pay and who to pay and the price of said insurance is a rumor. Three webpages I have been to said the cost is £2,000 a year, meaning  £166.66 a month and  that if you do not pay it will have a fine of £2000 plus an additional £200 a month for a year. However, the Turkish webpage that The Long Rock was on said that it was 50 TL a month and if you do not pay it was 200TL a month and a fine of 2,000TL. There were two webpages that said that all those from the UK or UK Territories, Netherlands and France, Ukraine and Russia were responible and one webpage said it was only UK Passport holders while The Long Rock said that it was ALL foreigners or anyone with out a Turkish Citizenship, or not married to a Turkish Citizen.

 Apparently there are many Foreigners that come to Turkey, illegally work, get sick or injured, and rely on the Social Government to care for their health care problems. Many people retire and come to live in Turkey.

Turkey is saying Welcome, but we are not paying for your insurance if you are not a Citizen! Way to go, Turkey! I like that a lot. I am not being sarcastic. I like that when you live in a country you are not allowed the same Rights as though you are a Citizen of that country! (Sound Familiar!) I like the idea a lot. Now... Just how to pay...

  We will see as it unfolds. I have a Legal Residence Card, from here. So we will see what happens and I will be sure to update...

My Day With Long Rock

Today I went to Silivri. This city is really fascinating to me. I really like it there and I had a wonderful day with Long Rock. We have been feeling blue lately so it was nice to go and spend time together and not think about what is making us down and out. We laughed and talked and laughed some more. 

  Here are some pictures of that day. 

I will have a link of Silivri so anyone can read about it. 

 If you want to go visit, I would suggest Silivri Park Hotel, as it is better than other places and it is a pretty good deal staying there. You can get to the bus station in Silivri and then from the bus station either get a cab or have the hotel come and get you for a small fee. 

 Anyway... I like this city... So here are today's pictures. Read About Silivri Here!!!

Silivri Harbor: These ships will go to other islands.

I am doing an Experiment

I would like to try selling some Jewelry and Turkish things that is other wise different and hard to find in USA. 

  I think that eBay is not as aesthetically pleasing site to look at, and I love buying things from eBay but I would like to  try it on my own.  I would like the opinion of my readers. I normally have about 80 people a week visit my webpage, and about 60 of those people are my USA readers. I only have about 4 readers that I know face to face. Anyone think I should sell some Turkish Items that you other wise can not find in USA... I mean not junk stuff... I would set it up like pay pal accounts and have some really nice things to buy... Who is interested in browsing a blog like that? Please... Give me feed back!