I have a new job !

On the 5th of March, 2 days before my birthday, I lost my job in the economical crisis. At the very same day, my significant other dissappeared. The addiction took him over, took him away from me.
I was told first that it was not a seperation then knew it was so. There are more than one reason in such acts but I know it well that if I would not loose my job, this wouldn't happen there.

Having lost my job and my love, I had my family, friends, my health left, with the risk of moving out of my home that has been my dream for years. I was blessed by having the best landlord ever that consolated me and told me he doesn't need that money of the rent until I will arrange something.

I spent 4,5 months job hunting, staring at the ceiling, trying to find a solution and understand all this.

A month ago I saw this on a mall's entrance, stopped, stared at it and smiled..

It says : "DON'T LET ANYONE LOOSE THEIR JOB
If we stop shopping, he will loose his job !
It is the production, recruitment, consuming that keep economy up.
The economy in fact dies if it stops.
We will not surrender to the crisis!
We will go out to the market place, we will choose the one that carries Turkey's work!

We will support our country
Let the unemployed find back jobs, the ones that lost their jobs be back to their work, don 't let the shutters be locked forever!
Come on Turkey, first to produce then to consume what you have produced!

Lest Turkey smile!
If there is crisis, there is also solution."


This photo was taken on 7th of March. The day I felt the most miserable on earth. I thought about it and I mean it.
There was a dinner with my 27 years long girls gang, their husbands and my family. The boyfriend did not show up.

This photo means a lot to me.

This photo and the days I lived in the last 5 months I lived..And the ceiling of my living room.

This photo will explain the meaning of the photo in my previous post.

And what these girls mean to me.. As if I was a tree and they were my leaves.
I would have cold and would feel naked as a tree in the winter season.

I am starting my new work on Monday !..

A Very Special Celebration

Her pregnancy and my new job..

Sour Cherry Madness - My First Jam !

Oya just moved to her dream house. A beautiful house with a beatiful old garden with fruit trees. She was so generous about sharing half of her sour cherry harvest with me and a great family dinner and a breakfast in the garden with the girls and her mother who cooked the breakfast jam the night before.
Having learned the technique from her mother I took the boat to come home and dreaming of cooking my first jam today. I invented my own recipe combining the basic technique of cooking jam with my previous sour cherry brandy experience. Here is my recipe:


Sour Cherry Jam My Way


Ingredients:
Sour Cherries 1 kg
Caster Sugar 1 kg
Lemon juice 3/4 of a juicy lemon
Ground Cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon
Ground Nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon
Ground Cardamom 1/4 teaspoon
Butter 1 tablespoon

1- Wash the sour cherries, remove the stems and pit them. Pitting them will let the juice out in the sun.
2- Put them in a casserole with a lid, covering the whole fruits with caster sugar.
3- Leave the covered casserole in the sun for 6 hours. This helps to take the juice out of the fruits and melt the flavor with the sugar.
4- Boil the mixture adding the spices. Once boiled, cook for more 30 minutes in low heat
5- Add the butter give it a good stir.
6- Add the lemon juice and cook for the last 3 minutes.
7- Remove it from the heat and wait till it cools down to put it to your jars. To my experience, the mixture thickened more after waiting over night in the jars and was the most delcious jam I have ever tasted.

Now for my sour cherry brandy I use same ingredients apart from lemon juice and butter. After waiting for 12 hours in the sun. I add the spices but this time I do not use ground spices but the cinnamon sticks and nutmeg nuts for instance. I bring the mixture to a boil then let it cool down and add brandy - half of the amount of the sour cherry syrup. If you obtained 1 liter of syrup for instance, you will need 500 ml of brandy. I put the drink in my favorite bottles and let them in a cool place for at least one month then serve my beatiful drink to my joyful guests.

I learned the recipe of the Sour Cherry Brandy from Ilhan Eksen's beautiful small book "Multicultural Istanbul Cuisine - Cok Kulturlu Istanbul Mutfagi" where you will find the very old generation of Istanbul from different cultures(jews, muslims, greeks, ottomans..) racounting their childhood days in Istanbul and telling about the food and drinks of the occasions.

The jars by the window and on the photo above are for the Sour Cherry Liquerfrom the same book where you put the whole ingredients in jars -without pitting or boiling them and let them under the sun for 2,5 months then add alcohol and water to the jars, you find the details in the book.