Gluten-Free Challenge

I have to say that it's a bit frustrating to cook here. Well, more than just a bit because of the celiac issue. I know eventually I'll get the hang of it and have a collection of recipes to cook from which won't require so many ingredients either unavailable here or unavailable as gluten-free (such as soy sauce). On top of that, it's been frustrating to feed a stubborn, picky 2-year-old. I have been spending hours researching recipes, substitutions for ingredients, and finding recipes to make ingredients from scratch like worcestershire sauce, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, vanilla extract, etc.

There aren't a lot of gluten-free flours and other GF ingredients available here. I can find GF pasta, hazelnut meal, all-purpose GF flour, bread (which is dry and hard to swallow), corn starch, and maybe some other products that I never used in the States anyway. I need a lot more than that, namely xanthan gum. It acts like gluten does and provides the elasticity needed for soft, spongy bread.

I ran out of gluten-free oatmeal that I brought from the states so that left me with very little to choose from for breakfast. It's challenging to find breakfast foods that can last me a long time. Fruit and yogurt doesn't always cut it and I end up needing a snack before lunchtime. Fortunately, I was able to buy a crockpot last week from a family here so now I can make porridge from brown rice for breakfast.

A couple of weeks ago, I tried to make ranch salad dressing from scratch with fresh ingredients. It wasn't terrible but the recipe wasn't worth keeping. I used what is basically sourish watered down yogurt for the tart milk-based liquid ("ayran," a popular drink here) for the dressing but it was too runny. It wasn't until after the dressing was made that I realized that I could've used plain yogurt. What I didn't like was the tons of veggies left over:

The small pile closest to the knife was all I needed for the dressing. The green onions are bundled together in such a single, large item so I had to buy the whole thing. I ended up chopping the rest of the green onions and freezing them. The white container to the right was filled to the brim. It'll be good in omelets and as toppings on salads.

I also learned how to make crepes which can be a good breakfast (with scrambled egg stuffed in it - if I could eat eggs) and dessert with jam inside the crepes. I just found a recipe for raisins and bananas in crepes with vanilla ice cream scoops on top. Delish.

Anyway, for now, I will just have to make simple dinners like steamed veggies and rice. My mom is mailing me a couple of packages of GF stuff so life might get a little easier once the packages (hopefully) arrive.

**EDIT**
After hours of reading and searching, I finally came up with a menu plan for the next 5 days or so. Take a gander:

Ratatouille
Balsamic Veggies with Pasta (a variation of my friend's recipe at scarbroughkitchen-dot-blogspot-com)
Mediterranean Chicken with Vinegar Roasted Peppers
Zucchini Fritters with something else on the side
Curried Tomato Lentil Soup
Lemon Yogurt Cake

(Recipes are from kitchenparade-dot-com, glutenfreegoddess-dot-blogspot-dot-com, allrecipes-dot-com, cookitallergyfree-dot-com. Let me know if you want to know where a recipe is specifically from).

Settling in Slowly

G was gone for two weeks so I was alone with A. We managed to stay busy: potty training (off and on - which probably confuses the poor girl), attending small group Sunday mornings, learning the way to a nearby park, shopping at a little grocery store around the corner, cooking and baking a little bit, constantly cleaning, training A on how to walk on these busy streets and to hold Mommy's hand, major spending at Ikea, dislocating A's elbow and experiencing our first visit to the E.R. in this country, paying a bill (which involved walking several slippery blocks on a rainy day - I had a couple of close calls while carrying A), diffusing A's bedtime battles, meeting new co-workers, learning how to order dinner/lunch and have it delivered to my door, discovering stores, and watching lots of movies. Yeah, we're getting settled in.

I am getting closer to being able to sew a little bit. I have been itching a bit to sew it but didn't have everything I needed. I ordered a dining table set which is great to finally have a place to eat at as a family and I can work and sew at the table. I just bought an iron and ironing board today so I am just one step away from being ready to sew. All I need is a power transformer for my sewing machine. I brought my machine from the States and since the electrical system and outlets are different, I need a power transformer for the machine to work. I should be getting that tomorrow, yippee!

I also ordered a toddler table/chair set for A. I'd been dying to get her a set since long before we left the States and we held off until we got here. Finally, she has her spot to color, play with play-doh, do crafty things and I won't care if the table gets dented, scratched, and colored upon. 

We still need a bed frame for our bed (we're sleeping on a mattress on the floor) and a desk. We need a couple of furniture pieces here and there. Curtains need to be made and hung; couple of pillows to be covered; rug or two to put down on our bare parquet floors; maybe a reading lamp for the couch. We need a fan with a light hung in A's room. She has no light source in her bedroom whatsoever - she had an old, used floor lamp that broke a few days ago. We need to put up shelves and pictures but that requires a special drill for these smooth, concrete walls. There are a couple of things I also want to do but I think I may be getting too ambitious and will lose interest long before I can find the time to do them.

In a couple of days, we will mark our one-month anniversary of being here. We should be starting our language training next month and that will keep us busy. I am looking forward to exploring and getting to know the city better. I found an aquarium that we could take A to. She loves Finding Nemo and all things fish. Hopefully, we can make that trip soon and post pictures later!

Wordless Wednesday (Some of G's City Photos)

"Happy Day to You"

Our kid sings happy birthday like this: "happy day to you, happy day to you!" She sings it often on random days for no one in particular. She sang it to me today and it really counted this time because it was my (Di) birthday.

It was kind of an odd birthday. I woke up this morning feeling more tired than usual. It took about 3 cups of coffee to get going. I had real Starbucks coffee, not the wimpy European stuff. G had planned to make me waffles for my birthday but I got really hungry last night and had the waffles then. I did have waffles for my birthday breakfast, although they were left over from last night. We made syrup from scratch (betcha you didn't know you could do that) but I ended up spreading Nutella on my waffles. Nutella's good stuff.

Now, the stinky part about my birthday was G was set to go out of the country for two weeks, departing on my birthday. Booo, right? Don't blame him; it was work-related and unavoidable. A and I headed to our Sunday morning small group fellowship about the same time he headed for the airport. After that "fellowship" (if you know what I mean), we came home for A's nap. I also took a brief nap - brief because something woke me up.

It was just the oddest thing. I was napping on our new tweed-like gray-brown (I guess you call it taupe) couch. I felt a vibration and I snapped awake. The vibration continued for a couple of seconds. I got up and walked to the window to see if anyone was looking out with confusion on their faces - like me. Then I felt my apartment building sway - a quick sway back and forth several times. I think it was an earthquake. I texted a couple of people to see if they felt it. They didn't. From my view at the window, no one was looking out their window in confusion. Possibly because they're used to this.

Maybe it was my imagination. I looked it up online and there was an earthquake of 5.0 magnitude in Greece (which kind of neighbors my country with some water inbetween) right before I felt that vibration and swaying. There is a fault line that run east and west through the northern part of the country into the Aegean Sea which lies between here and Greece. I don't know that has anything to do with it.

Who knows if I actually felt an earthquake? Let's move on. A woke up and we went to a friend's house. She'd invited me for dinner. I ate with her, her husband and daughter, and two men who are my friends' partners in a Central Asian country. One of those men is a Dutchman. A Dutchman was at my birthday dinner. All international-like. Just sayin'. 

So, the way to get from my apartment to the aforementioned friend's apartment is to take a metrobus from the stop near my home to a stop near hers. The metrobuses have their own lane and are never stuck in traffic. Then from the metrobus stop, I walk a little bit down a street and hop on a minibus. (I'm going to have to explain the modes of transportation that we use in this city in another post so stay tuned for that). Then I get off at a certain stop and walk to my friend's apartment. When it was time to leave, I assumed that I take the same minibus back to the metrobus stop, I thought the minibus made a small circular route back to the metrobus stop. The minibus has the names of the stops on its route in the window and it had my stop. It seemed like it was the right minibus. Little did I know that I was supposed to take the minibus going in the opposite direction to go back to the bus stop. So, as we were riding along on the - wrong - minibus, I realized that the we were making a general straight path; no turns to make a circular route back towards the metrobus stop. Whoops. Little A and I ended up in a part of the city that we'd never been to. I recognized a major landmark: the giant river that splits this enormous city in half. 

The minibus came to a stop at the river, an area that was teeming with people. It had a party atmosphere and seemed like a popular spot. It's Ramadan and the sun has set so people were in line for a restaurant on the water. Everyone got off the bus. A and I waited to see if the minibus would start heading for our metrobus stop. The driver got up and looked at us, puzzled. I said, "Acibadem?" That's the name of the stop I needed to get to. His eyebrows shot up. Clearly, I was on the wrong minibus. He motioned me off the minibus and led me to another one, which I understood from the routes listed in the window that it was the minibus I needed to take to get home. I sat in the minibus and waited. And waited. It was way past A's bedtime so we got out and took a taxi home under 10 minutes with no problems. 

Taking the wrong bus probably happens to everyone living in a foreign country. It's like a rite of passage. I once ended up in the wrong country. Literally. That's a story for another day.

All in all, an interesting birthday. An earthquake, a Dutchman, an accidental sightseeing tour.

 Now, I'm off to bed. 

Pazar

Pazar is a word here for bazaar, an outdoor market. I have been to one close to my home a couple of times already because I have heard that curtains there are cheap. Sheer curtains are standard here like blinds are standard back in the States and gives you privacy. So, when in Rome...

The pazar is pretty cool. It's a produce market, too. The pazar has all sorts of things - clothes, hair things, kitchen items, make-up, curtains, bedspreads, towels, bed sheets, shoes, bags, scarves, and nearly everything except appliances. They also have fabric on bolts and also masses of cut fabric. Buttons, zippers, elastics, and some thread. The produce is probably the best part, though. They have fruit, root vegetables, greens, herbs, etc. You can buy a variety of nuts and dried fruit in bulk. 

This collection of buttons is astounding!

Some fabric 

One section of the produce market in pazar

Ribbons - all in a pile 

Curtains - they just pile curtains and let you sift through them. Couldn't resist including the napper under a curtain...

Bolts of fabric

Zippers 

Ribbons and notions

Sorry these pictures relate mostly to sewing. The rest of the pazar is just ordinary. It's not really a flea market - more like an outdoor Walmart on a limited scale. No one is selling artwork, antiques, knick knacks, and random things like you see in flea markets. 

Anyway, that's one of my cultural experiences so far...

Home Sweet Home

The kitchen

Living room - the mattress in lieu of a couch

Ava's room

The junk room for now - a guest room eventually

We finally got couches to sit on!

We can't drink the faucet water - this is one of our ways to get clean water: a filter

We will eventually add rugs, curtains, and other furniture as we get some free time to go to bazaars. You might have noticed the shutters on outside of the windows. They are mostly to block out sun so you can open your windows and let breezes in. Central air in private homes do not exist here. Most homes here do not have air conditioning and if some do, it's mainly a unit attached to a wall (which you can see in our living room picture, close to the ceiling). The shutters can be rolled up and the frames collapsed against the window casings so let it in full sunlight during cold weather. Since we have no curtains, they also serve as privacy shutters. Anyway, pretty much all homes have these shutters on their windows as a measure against the heat here.

Have I mentioned that it's hot here? Pretty hot. The first couple of nights in our apartment, we all three slept on mattresses on the floor in the living room with the AC running because we had no fans. Once we got fans, we've been sleeping in our respective bedrooms. It's warm at night but not unbearable. Luckily, we live close enough to the water to get breezes.

We're Here!

We're finally here in our host country! It's hard to believe we've been here a week because it feels longer and shorter than that all at the same time, you know what I mean? The week is one big blur so I cannot really begin to tell you what we've done each day. I doubt you want a blow-by-blow account of each day anyway.

First, I want to apologize to those of you who might feel offended by finding out all the details from this blog instead of a personal email from me. Forgive me. I am doing this for efficiency's sake. It's also the reason why I created this blog in the first place. I can do more on this blog than I would in an email.

I'll begin with our flights to our destination. I was anxious about our itinerary because we had a 4-hr layover in Charlotte during A's nap time. I knew it was a busy, noisy airport and I was afraid A would never nap which in turn would make her grouchy, which in turn would make for a miserable flight overseas. Surprisingly, we ended up being in a terminal that was pretty much empty and quiet. A actually took a nap and she did well on the long flight over the Atlantic and going to sleep at bedtime. We changed planes in Munich (it was 54 degrees there - such a contrast to the heat wave we'd just left in the States!) and made it to our city.

Our city is E-NOR-MOUS. Approximately 18 million people live here and I've heard that the city proper is 700 square miles; bigger than New York City in area and population, by far. It's crowded, busy, smoggy, noisy, and as urban as it can get. We knew this but we still shook our heads now and then in a sort of stupefied way. I've noticed the sidewalks because we've been pushing A in a stroller that is pretty much fighting a losing battle against the sidewalks here. The sidewalks are not friendly to cheap umbrella strollers and poor A has been jostled about so much. It has been exhausting to push the stroller over uneven sidewalks, broken sidewalks, over high curbs, around trees growing in the middle of sidewalks, cobblestones, sidewalks that disappear, etc. This city is not your orderly, standardized city with sidewalks all exactly the same. Not to mention that we have tons of stairs to climb and trams, metros, and buses to hop on and off. The stroller is cumbersome. In short, we need a Cadillac stroller with BIG air tires and shocks and especially one with a seat that inclines. A has pretty much taken all her naps in her stroller since we have been SO busy and on the go. Poor girl.

I don't want to give a negative picture of the city. I don't hate the city but it's an adjustment. Parts of it are beautiful and picturesque. Since G has picked up photography as a hobby again, he has plenty of subjects to choose from.

So, we live in an apartment. Not surprising. We like it. The floor in our bedrooms and in the living room is parquet. The kitchen was already outfitted with a stove and dishwasher but not a fridge. Here, you have to bring your own appliances and light fixtures; stove/ovens, fridges, dishwashers, light fixtures do not come standard with an apartment when you rent it. We bought a fridge, microwave, washing machine, and dryer used. The dryer isn't hooked up and it's too hot to use it; our stuff can line dry. Our washing machine is Austrian so the labeling is all in German. Tonight, I sat down with my laptop and translated all the German words from an online dictionary. We'd already figured out how to use the washing machine but I wanted to be on the safe side. For your useless information, schleudern means "catapault, shoot from catapault, hurl, sling, centrifuge." I can picture sopping wet clothes being slung and hurled from a catapault but we can safely conclude it means "spin." 

We unpacked between outings and we're done for the most part. Yesterday, we spent a great deal of time shopping for furniture and kitchen stuff like dinnerware, eating utensils, pots and pans, cooking utensils, and all the basic stuff for living. The night before, I did a big grocery shopping spree to stock my pantry. Tomorrow, we are expecting a couch and loveseat to be delivered and I tell you, we are very excited about it. We have been getting by with sitting on a mattress in our living room. We want a real couch to sit on. 

So far, we are learning our way around and getting settled into our apartment. We've set up bank accounts, our phone and internet, and got cell phones. I have cooked very little since we've been out so much so our meals have been in restaurants. The national cuisine here is very delicious! Most of the dishes here are gluten-free although they eat lots of bread. No worries, bread is mostly on the side.

This post is already long so I am going to wrap up. Pictures should come soon...