My Very Own Pepper Chain

Drying peppers grown in Wizard's family garden in Malatya.

Monster's first "person" drawing!

Monster, 3 years and 3 months old. Draws her very first person drawing =) Complete with eyes and NOSE!

Salma Said It: Daddy would have Killed you!

Every time I am cutting watermelon slices out, slicing precariously close to the whitish parts, I know I'm NOT doing it right. As it is, Wizard happens to be a scrooge about wasting food, so in spite of all my pleadings that "the white part is NOT for eating, it is the reason you get stomach ache after eating watermelon" he refuses to let me waste it. So I continue the atrocity that is, not sparing the white, and cut it out as Wizard showed me.

Alas, every time I cut a watermelon at my sister's house, she never misses a chance to tell me (accompanied with a dramatic gasp) "If Abbu (our late father) was alive, he would have killed you." You see, my dad loved watermelon and took delight in cutting and delicately picking out the seeds out of single bite pieces for his family. He would NEVER have left the white meat on.

Each time Salma tries to keep me from adding on the pale pink and white meat on to the watermelon slices, I think to myself "But Wizard will kill me if I waste the white part and HE IS ALIVE!"

Here you go my love, enjoy the stomach ache that is sure to follow.

Cultural Nuances

Add this to my list of cultural food that I laughed at and then ate my words because I loved them!!!

Sure, it looks innocent enough. Kinda like, Tang, no?

Except, this baby is going to get a HOT bath!
And no, it doesn't have Vitamin C in it, although that would have been a great idea.

The two other foods that I initially laughed at and then later loved are "Ketchup with Omelette" (Thank you Sadia and Omer!) and Mexican Mangoes with Hot Sauce. I kid you not!!! You'll thank me for pushing you over the prejudice! TRY IT!

Ozturk Family's first day out

A candid shot of Father and Daughter at a doner place in Taksim Square, Istanbul. August 3, 2011

Just a regular breakfast table

The Wizard choreographing the breakfast table while I snap away--July 18, 2011

Another door, another world, another life...

(Avcilar Sahil, July 17th, 2011)

The Ozturks have moved....

One of our dreams is finally materialized...of living in Istanbul!

We took a chance, at adventure and here we are. It seemed like the right time to escape USA and spend some time with the other part of the family for a while.

What happens next, is still up in air, while we tread smoothly, waiting, patiently for our feet to touch the ground.