Soft-Boiled Eggs and Crock Pot Bread for Breakfast

This was a springtime breakfast with Zach.  It dirties up a lot of dishes to have a Turkish-style breakfast, but it is definitely our favorite.  Part of why we like them is because they are very relaxed, since we can only do Turkish breakfast when we both have the morning off.

We had cucumbers from our garden, tomatoes from the store, soft-boiled eggs, what appears to be hummus (maybe?), apple butter and strawberry jam, and some green-tomato pickles that seem to have plenty of turmeric in them.  And, of course, Turkish tea.  Zach was also making some "espresso" in our aeropress.

These eggs turned out pretty well.  The bread we ate was baked in a crock pot, something I'd wanted to try for a while.  The results were underwhelming.  I used this method http://busymomsmenuplan.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-make-homemade-bread-in-crock-pot.html and whole wheat dough.  

I remember looking at many different recipes to decide what to do, so I may have used a combination of methods.  The idea is pretty simple: put dough in crock pot, cover, bake.  It took quite a bit longer than the recipe said, and it was NEVER going to get a nice crisp crust like the pictures led me to believe.  It still didn't look browned AT ALL at 3 hours, but I took it out anyway.  The result was a heavy (whole wheat) bread that was fine, but nothing exciting.  I will probably try again.

Anyway, I'm sure it was a lovely breakfast, and that we drank way too much Turkish tea, and I probably had a slight headache later from all the sugar.

Another Mystery Photo

I found this picture on my phone.  It looks exciting, and I am trying hard to remember the occasion.

Clues:

It was probably not too long after we started moving stuff into our house, because the china cabinet isn't in the background.

I am remembering the food: lentil stew (North African spices), pickled onion salad, pita.  And olives. 

Oh, those were the olives that Lydia gave me for Christmas, so it must have been late December/early January, because olives never last too long in our house.

That might be yogurt in the foreground, and it is probably homemade yogurt, which means that Megan (my 2012 intern) had arrived, so it must be early January.

I'm guessing the strawberries are from an Aldi dumpster.

Mmm, Turkish tea.  This must be lunch, since us old folks don't drink caffeine in the evening very often.



Well, I am thinking the occasion was simply that we were both home and it was lunch time.  Not very exciting, but I do remember that the lentils were REALLY good with those onions....

Turkish Breakfast

Nothing is better than Turkish breakfast on a warm summer morning.  Remember, these are old pictures from my phone.

 

Menu:

Bread (Italian bread from Kroger is the closest to Turkish bread that I've found)
Feta Cheese
Olives
Sliced Tomatoes
Sliced Cucumbers
Yogurt
Sliced Avocados (not a normal part of Turkish breakfast)
Jam
Turkish Tea

Perspectives Meals

First of all, I'm not sure if I need an apostrophe in the title.  I think Perspectives is simply a proper noun in this case, and I can say Perspectives Meals like I can say RIC Meals.

 

If I had thought about this earlier, I would have taken pictures of all of the meals for the Perspectives participants....

 

A group of 65ish people attend a Perspectives class at the RIC every Tuesday evening (January-April) this year, and 35ish of them eat dinner beforehand.  I choose the menu based on what part of the world the speaker has been to.  Here are the weeks that have already passed:

 



 

 

Week I Menu (Turkey):

 

Guvech (baked stew of chicken, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, potatoes, and carrots, with lots of red pepper paste and garlic)

Rice Pilaf

Mediterranean-Style Salad (Romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onions, with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and oregano)

 

 

Week II Menu (Afghanistan):

Qabili Palau (rice pilaf with chicken, carrots, onions, and raisins--and cinnamon, coriander, cumin, all spice, and cloves)

Tomato-Cucumber-Radish Salad (with red onions, lime juice, and cilantro)

 

 

Week III Menu (Identifying with the Poor):

Black Beans

Steamed Rice

Bananas

 

 

Week IV Menu (Thailand):

 

Sticky Rice

Laab Turkey-Beef (ground meat with green onions, mint, cilantro, lime, and brown rice powder)

Som Tam (pounded green papaya, carrots, green beans, and peanuts with fish sauce, lime, and sugar)

 

 

 

 

 

Turkish Meal with the Interns

Now I am going to start uploading pictures from my phone.

 

 

Remember these guys? 

 

2012 Interns, finally at our house during their last week of internship.  We had a Turkish feast, a "drinks tasting," made cranberry-popcorn chains, and decorated our Christmas tree.

 

 

 

Jess, Janae, DENISE!, Jared, Ryan, Megan, and Zach

 

 

Our menu was:

 

Turkish Tea (duh)

Manti (little meat dumpling things in garlic yogurt, drizzled with paprika-cumin oil)

Mercimekli Kofte (lentil....patties)

Kisir (Turkish version of tabouli, eaten out of little lettuce cups)

Haydari (my version this time: strained yogurt with dill, garlic, and toasted pine nuts)

Patlican Salatasi (my version this time: fried eggplant cubes, red peppers, garlic, parsley in a tomato-ey sauce)

 

 

Goodness, I can't even remember.  This was too long ago.  There may have been some sort of spinach-feta borek.  I would have made them (Megan loved them) unless something prevented it.  There also may have been hummus and/or baba ganoush.