A Day at the Zoo

Today we headed to Pionirska Dolina which is the City Zoo in Sarajevo. Among other animals, this llama was particularly my favourite. The moment it got out of this fabulous hut in the photo, it kept staring at me or I felt as though it was. Anyway, do you remember the scene in the Harry Potter series where a silver stag appears as Harry Potter conjures the Patronus Charm to repel dementors? Well, that is almost what I felt when it emerged out of nowhere. A typical llama it was after all but I loved it. Have a look! 

Well I wanted to share two videos about the zoo life. The first one is pretty old: A Day at the Zoo is a 1939 Warner Bros. animated cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series.

The second one, Creature Comforts, was originally a 1989 British humorous animated short film about how animals feel about living in a zoo, featuring the voices of the British public "spoken" by the animals. It was created by Nick Park. 

Black Bean Salad for Iftar

It's been almost one week since we returned to Sarajevo and I haven't had the opportunity to go grocery shopping yet. The list of the things that's running out or already has is waiting restlessly on the refrigerator. Well, it was another rush hour before Iftar yesterday and I didn't have many choices. I quickly found a jar of black beans and soon we enjoyed a great salad. Here goes the super easy recipe. I just used what's on hand. 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup of freshly cooked black beans
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped 
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 clove crushed garlic
• 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of sugar (to taste)
• Salt, pepper and oregano to taste

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the beans, onions, tomatoes, parsley, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil. Add sugar, salt, oregano and pepper to taste. (The sugar will help balance the acidity from the tomatoes and lemon juice.) Chill before serving.

Dreams and the King

''I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each other's dreams, we can play together all night.'' Bill Watterson

All men dream and so do I. I dream mostly about people. I dream about people who are mostly far away from me. Some of them live just a few blocks away and some are a few countries away. They share their stories with me in my own dreams and I think it is my privilege to be there with them. 

I do not really care whether dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions. They might be as well. However, I do attach so much importance to events occurring in dreams. The moment I remember what happened in my dreams in the morning or later during the day, I write to the person or people concerned and inform them about all the details. They of course don't react or interpret the dream as I would and it makes me pretty disappointed yet I keep on believing that dreams are there for us to play together some more throughout the night. 

Well, the last person I dreamed about is Queen Elizabeth II. I won't go into details but in my dream she was on a short trip in Istanbul accompanied by all her family including Kate Middleton. The next morning, I was having my morning coffee and I was surprised to find this image of a king with his crown in my cup. 

P.S. I haven't written to Her Majesty about my dream yet. :)

Cheese and Parsley Stuffed Peppers

I do not like meat. However, every other member in my family does. Sometimes they even feel sorry to watch me leaving the dinner table after enjoying only some salad and cheese. So last Saturday, just before starting his family barbecue party, my father stuffed these hatch and piquillo peppers (right from his garden) with feta, garlic and parsley to make everyone around the table enjoy their lunch. He grilled them on a special kind of domed metal griddle placed on fıre, known as saj. Quick, easy and lovable. 

All you need is:

Fresh piquillo and hatch peppers

Feta

Parsley

Garlic

All you need to do is:

Chop the tops off the peppers, and remove any remaining seeds inside. Mix feta with one or two cloves of minced garlic. Feta is optional, any other kind would serve in the peppers. Stuff the peppers with the cheese and garlic mixture. Top them with some parsley. Grill them until the peppers are soft and browned.

Mulberries, Fingerpaint and Hand of Fatima

I told you about the mulberry trees in my parents' garden. It's great comfort to play with Milou in the shade they cast. So, grandpa, daddy and uncle have together built a classic sandbox under one of them for Milou in which she plays for hours while the fully ripe mulberries fall on the sand constantly during the day. Well, after such a few days it wasn't difficult to notice how much Milou loves squeezing fruit particularly red ones so the idea popped into daddy's head: Fingerpainting with squeezed mulberries! I fetched his pile of heavy paper and there we were all ready for lots of fun! I think all children love the ooey-gooey feeling as the paint oozes through their fingers and along their hands and arms while they fingerpaint and so did Milou. She was laughing while we were squeezing the mulberries. 

The first shapes to appear on the paper were the imprints of our hands with fingers spread apart, as expected! They looked like hand of Fatima which is kind of popular superstitious defense against evil eye since it represents blessings, power and strength. They reminded me of the palm-shaped amulets painted in red on the walls of some North African dessert houses for protection. Surprisingly enough, when my mom saw our paintings set aside to dry, she shared with us her very early childhood memories of the houses in her village in her hometown. She told us that elderly women in the village used to soak their hands in some red-brown mud and imprint their hands on the wall next to the front door. The idea was probably to ward off the evil eye. Whatever the reason was, she clearly remembers the bright red-brown colour of the hands on the white walls. Actually, her story sounded quite familiar when we thought of how 'Eastern' the symbol is. I was happy to listen to her memories as if they were to praise our artwork and 'Easternness'. 

Hand of Fatima, Jewish house, Mellah, Morocco

Hand of Fatima on a shop door in Cairo

By the way, it was accidentally smart enough to choose heavy paper for painting because mulberry juice (and original fingerpaint as well, I guess) would be too wet for regular paper. Well, after cleaning the mess we made, I searched for some recipes for home-made fingerpaints and here are three of them. The last one doesn't need any cooking and so super easy! 

  

Original Fingerpaint

Ingredients

1/2 cup cornstarch
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cold water
food coloring

Directions

In a medium pan, mix all the ingredients together to make the finger paint. Cook over low heat 10 to 15 minutes. Keep stirring the finger paint mixture until it is smooth and thick. After the finger paint has thickened take the pan off the stove and let the mixture cool.

After cooling, divide the finger paint into storage containers depending on how many colors you would like. Add a few drops of food coloring to each container. Stir the coloring in to the paint to determine the shade of color. You're ready to finger paint! Cover tightly when storing.

Cornstarch Fingerpaint

Ingredients

3 cups water
1 cup cornstarch
food coloring

Directions

In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil.  Dissolve cornstarch in a separate bowl with water.   Remove boiling water from heat and add cornstarch mixture.  Return to heat, stirring constantly.  Boil until the mixture is clear and thick (about 1 minute).  Remove from heat.

As the mixture is cooling, divide into separate bowls and add food coloring.  Let the children carefully mix in the coloring.

Easy Fingerpaint

Ingredients

2 cups white flour
2 cups cold water
food coloring

Directions

Put water into a large bowl.  Slowly add the flour, while the children are stirring.  Once it's all mixed together, divide into smaller bowls and add food coloring.

Mulberries

The mulberry fruit is not a berry but a collective fruit
 in appearance like a swollen loganberry.

My parents have been growing mulberry trees for a while, both black and white mulberries. Every summer the trees offer us large, juicy, white and purple-black fruits which fall from the trees as soon as they are fully ripe. Once again I'm feeling quite lucky now that Milou and I have this great opportunity to eat them as much as we'd like with all purple stained hands. Let me tell you that black mulberries are my favourite species: Large and juicy, with a good balance of sweetness an tartness which makes them the best flavoured ones for me. I knew that mulberries have been extensively grown for raising silkworms for centuries, but I didn't know they have also a long history in medicine particularly in China and almost all parts of these trees are used in one way or another. I've just learnt they've been used for liver-kidney deficiency, ringing ears, dizziness, insmomnia, rheumatic pain, premature gray hair and even diabetes. Fantastic!

Well, having grabbed this unique opportunity, it would have been a pity not to share a quick and easy dessert recipe using mulberries. Below is the recipe of  super easy milk pudding accompanied by black mulberry sauce. Everyone in the house liked it well. Give it a try and enjoy it!

Super easy milk pudding with mulberry sauce

Mulberry Sauce

Ingredients
2 cups ripe fresh mulberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water

You don't need much sugar as the berries have such a natural sweetness to them, so you can even avoid using sugar in this recipe at all. Strain through a sieve and reserve in a container for future use.

Method

1. In a medium saucepan heat the water and sugar until all the sugar is dissolved, bring to boil. 

2. When the sugar solution is boiling add the mulberries. 

3. Boil for another minute or two till it becomes slightly thick and take it off the heat and let it cool.

Easy Milk Pudding


Ingredients

1 litre milk

1 cup flour

1-1.5 cups granulated sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Whisk well all the ingredients (except the vailin extract) in a pan. Stir fast constantly to prevent the mixture from getting lumpy. Keep stirring till the mixture boils. 

2. Boil for another minute or two until the mixture thickens. Add the vanilin extract, stir once more and remove from heat. If there are still lumps in the pudding in the end, stir with an electrical mixer for a few minutes until it becomes smooth. 

3. Pour the pudding into serving cups and let it cool down. Refrigerate after 1-2 hours. Serve cold.

Welcome to Istanbul: Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sauce

Istanbul map by Emir Isovic

Great news! Milou, her super dad and I are finally in Istanbul all together for the summer holiday. We've already attended a wedding ceremony and met new people. Emir has been  travelling around the city and drawing everything that's enchanted and inspired him. The map above is one of them which has been posted as well on they draw and travel. Unfortunately, daddy has to return to Sarajevo in two weeks but we'll be around here for some more time! Well, here is the photograph of the chocolate cake with super duper chocolate sauce my sister made for Milou and me as a welcome home present! The texture and taste were beyond my imagination. I will add the recipe as soon as she shares it with me. I should leave now: There is a lot to see in Istanbul.  

Swiss Chard Pie

It's summertime. It's time to enjoy every piece of green in the little garden at the backyard including parsley, lettuce, cucumbers and Swiss chard. It's time to bake a pie every other day to enjoy the summertime. It's time to learn how to roll out traditional yufka/phyllo with a rolling pin. I proved to be quite successful with the first few sheets which encouraged me to go on with growing eagerness.  I'm not an expert in the field but they say as you get familiar over time with the texture and rolling process, you can roll out even thinner and thinner yufka/phyllo. Here are the recipe I came up with and the photographs. Give it a try. You won't regret it!

Ingredients


(for the filling)
1 bunch of Swiss chard
4 tablespoons of vegetable oil 2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic
1,5 glasses of warm milk
salt and black pepper


(for the yufka)
3-4 cups flour
warm water 
2 teaspoons of white vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
3 tablespoons of olive oil

To glaze

1 large egg yolk beaten

Method


Step 1:

1. De-rib the chard, wash well, and let the chard drain on a kitchen towel (or some paper towels) for a few minutes, so that there’s no excess water on the leaves. Coarsely chop the chard, and set aside. 
2. Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and saute for a few minutes. Add the chard, mix everything together and cook for five minutes, stirring, until almost tender. Add some salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside. 

Step 2:

1. Add 3-4 cups of flour to a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add warm water (start with 3/4 cup), 2 teaspoons of white vinegar, 1 teaspoon of salt and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix them all together until you get a soft dough. Feel free to add more water if needed. 
2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead by hand, oiling hands if needed, until the dough is soft and smooth for 10 minutes. 
3. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces and roll each piece with a rolling pin out to an oval shape yufka/phyllo, about 24 cm across and almost 2 sheets of copy paper thick, sprinkling the work surface and the yufka/phyllo with flour to keep from sticking.

Step 3:

1. Place a layer of yufka/phyllo in a lightly greased ovenproof dish and spread some chard mixture over the yufka/phyllo. Repeat layering until all of the chard mixture, and yufka/phyllo have been used up. Do remember to pour some milk on the layers while assembling the pie which definitely helps the pie become juicy. Use remaining yufka/phyllo sheets to cut into strips. Arrange the strips to fit the top of the pie. Brush the strips with the blaze and bake for around 30 minutes or until the top is golden.

Turkish Pogaca Rolls ( Cheese and parsley filled rolls)

Ingredients

approx.500g plain flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 teaspoons of salt

3 teaspoons of sugar

1 scant tablespoon of active dry yeast

1 cup milk *add more if needed

1/2 cup water

1 cup vegetable oil

Filling
Half bunch of parsley
1 ½ cup feta cheese

To glaze

1 large egg yolk beaten 

sesame and black cummin seeds for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Heat the milk and water in a small saucepan till just warm. Dissolve yeast in this warm mixture with sugar and salt. Let stand until creamy looking about 5 minutes. Add the vegetable oil. Make sure all  the ingredients you've had at room temperature.

2. In a large bowl add the flour to the yeast milk water mixture and knead for approx. 10 mins. Sprinkle with a little extra flour if it's too sticky. The dough should be quite soft so don't be tempted to add too much extra flour whilst kneading.

3. Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a sheet. Allow to rise in a warm place for at least one hour (it should more than double in size).

4. While the dough is rising prepare the filling. Put the cheese and chopped parsley into a bowl and mix. Sprinkle in spices, this is optional. 

5. Once the dough has finished rising, punch down and knead gently for a minute or two then divide the mixture into balls.

6. Roll each ball out into a disc shape (approx. 3mm thick). Place the disc on your hand or the counter and fill with approx 1 heaped tbsp of the filling.

7. Fold the dough in half over the filling and pinch the edges making sure that the filling is completely encased in the dough.

8. Place on a baking parchment lined baking tray.

9. Once you've finished shaping all the rolls brush them with the glaze and sprinkle with the black cummin seeds or sesame. You can also use poppy seeds, if you like.

10. Allow to rest for approx 15 minutes. In the meantime, heat the oven to approx. 200C.

11. Bake the rolls for 15-20 mins, till nice and golden.

12. Serve warm.

Milou's Travels around the World

Milou is a little lucky princess. Have a look at her birthday gift: A story book written, illustrated and published by her super dad for only Her Highness. It tells Princess Milou's adventures with her best friend Köpiş across the world from Zimbabwe to the South Pole. Köpiş is the embodiment of Milou's favourite toy at home and it was a great idea to illustrate him as Milou's companion during all those far-away travels which makes it much easier for Milou to identify herself with the main character of the story. She also meets other animals in those regions and makes friends. It's just something great for a little princess who goes crazy and hugs animals whenever she sees them around. 


Only a couple of days ago, we were cycling around and stopped to say hello to two shepherds who had let their herd graze and Milou didn't hesitate to go embrace the first sheep she could caught although it was the first time she'd seen some. To my surprise, she was fearless enough and full of love towards animals to go pat the shepherds' two enormous dogs. She just walked up to them and touched the first wet nose she could reach. Well, she loves animals. 


Anyway, the book is stunning with all those different kinds of holiday ideas while showing Milou in a variety of local clothes. Illustrating the parents approving and encouraging such an idea - travelling around the world on her own and returning home safe and sound- is also highly motivating for the reader. What is more, a friend of mine requested Milou's super dad to prepare a new book for her own son with the same story but with a few details adapted to their own lifestyle. As far as it seems, I'll be helping him soon with new stories to illustrate for other children as their birthday gifts! I wanted to share these photographs with you quite some time ago but here the story goes now! 

Milou loves the book!

The front cover illustrates Milou and her best friend Köpiş

The name of the publishing company was invented by her super dad as well:
  Little Asia Library 

It's dad and mum waving goodbye!

The first destination is London, no doubt!

Then she goes on an eco-holiday in the Sahara Desert and perhaps spends some time with the Blue Men!

India is the next stop!

Milou, then, goes on a canoe safari on the River Zambezi!

She gallops on a mustang with Köpis running along.

Milou's on an emergency mission to the South Pole to take paracetamol to the penguins there! 

Returning home safe and sound with Köpiş!