His Birthday

Last Saturday, it was his birthday. Normally we would have celebrated it at our home..

but baba is not well...it was only logical for us to do it at baba's. We invited everyone for tea..at around 4pm... and my plan was to have a simple tea gathering....with loads of chat...

And so i woke up that saturday morning thinking that next to the tea, i would serve the family a simple.....

poğaca (with white cheese filling)

and next to it ...

This zeytinyağlı lahana dolması (stuffed rice in cabbage with olive oil)

But then...i thought to myself... the kids would be there as well... they might like...
This small sandwich bread filled with garnitur (mixed veggies) and hot dog mixed in mayonaise
as well.. and so i prepared it...

But Wait!! Why dont i just add another thing?

This salty biscuits with poppy seeds sprinkled on it (hopefully the poppy seeds did not drug them all hehhe)

And there i was thinking to myself....hmmmm

kısır (pounded wheat salad) is almost a necessity in each gathering..everybody loves it i think...
Yup! Kısır it was....

Hmm... i feel like adding something... well.. i could see a bit of tomatoes right here...
Maybe i will make a potato salad?

Oh yeah.. i did boiled the potatoes to make the typical potato salad.. but of course.. my thinking mind couldnt stop there.. and so i experimented with the potato salad.. and....

added kidney beans and pomogranade (nar aka buah delima) as well in the salad! hahahaha
Well.. everybody tasted... they didnt actually said that it was delicious but could only mutter..*not bad*.. still..not many of the salad was left in the end anyway...

and What is the one thing everybody likes (even merve!) ?

Yup! this rus Salata...mixed veggies n cucumber pickles with mayonaise...

At around 1pm.. kerim called.... asking what i was planning to serve for my beloved's birthday...
He then suggested we added some more food.. and so by 1.15pm.. halil,- kerim n the kids went out to the pastry shop and bought..

this su böreği... (trust me...this particular börek is difficult to cook.. easier to buy)..

They also bought some eggs and mıstık boiled them up...
Yes.. nice looking boiled eggs..
Mıstık also boiled 2 chickens... and since halil was quite late in picking me up from home.... Meşe had the tough job of separating the bones and the meat heheheheh Sağol meşe!

and here we have chicken meat.. :0)
The kids love hot dog ...

Yup! that too became part of the menu....and so all the food altogether were like this...
on baba's long dining table...

But Wait! it was a birthday after all eh? where's the cake???

Here it is..all the way from magnolia pastanesi...

Of course, i was scolded for not informing them that i would cook a lot that day...The rest of the brides would have contributed something as well...

Well.. i didnt know i would cook that much myself!! if i had known i would do sch a thing.. i would have lavish more food on the table hehehe what i came up was what my food stock could come out with...and so.. here we were.. at baba...celebrating his son's birthday...

For more pictures of the family... please cick to

http://www.simahzaim2.blogspot.com/

of course u wont be seeing me in the picture hehehe the only romantic picture of me n halil (snapped by funda..thanks sis!) there is not for public viewing...i have only shown it to kak elle so far heheh

THank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..

Mother..

I promised them Burger King for dinner... and Burger king it was.

We were heading towards the nearest Burger King in our area... just as we were crossing the road in front of our apartment, i saw an older lady. Her face was clearly in pain. She was carrying at least 6 plastic bags containing fruits n veggies from pazar. They were clearly heavy. She had put them on the ground..her hand holding her back...she was grimacing in pain...

I voluntered to carry her things till her apartment door. She didnt know me but she consented. I was after all with two kids tagging along. I couldnt have been a thief could i? Hatice also took one of the plastic bags to carry.As we were walking, the lady was saying how grateful she was... praying for good things for me n my kids..as i kept saying..*estaghfirullah* repeatedly... her home was not far..only 100 metres from where we met..she was in fact our street neighbours...but such a simpleact of kindness, i think left her totally grateful... i was happy most when hatice particularly became so happy after helping the lady...hopefully one lesson learnt...to go good...

We continued walking towards our destination. ..Of course the anne just culdnt stop making a detour..into pazar hehehehe.. it was late... the pazar sellers would be ready to leave the pazar anyway... i dragged my kids to venture into the pazar street...the obediently complied...

What i saw saddened me. At the street where the sellers had left the pieces of fruits n veggies which were rotten or perhaps soggy to sell, a very very old lady was picking them up. I was stunned. I kept thinking, there i was trying to buy the best for my family..esp for my kids... and there was this lady...picking up the bits and pieces no one else wanted on the road...

Those two ladies.... who knows what their history r. I didnt ask...they most probably r somebody's mothers... just imagine.. if they r ur mothers... wouldnt u help?

U n i.. we came out of our mothers' wombs... a mother is someone who normally carried us for 9 months inside her tummy. ...My mother is thousands of kilometres away from me...yet she is alive... i can call her anytime... i can still hear her voice...but for my halil... it would be totally scary if his mom calls him from the other world....

Mother's day will be celebrated this Sunday.If u have a mother nearby.. celebrate it with her..dont wait till it is too late to celebrate that special person...

Here is a song written and sung by Halil... one of his songs written soon after his mother's death... in ode of Anne... after all these years... ur son still misses u very deeply...



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY EVERYONE!

Thank You for hopping by...Hope to see u again the next time..