From my diaries/ Olive tree, symbol of peace🌳

Established in the 17th century BC, when the discussion of which god will protect Athens comes to the agenda, Zeus gathers the Assembly of Gods.  According to the decision taken, the god or goddess who gave the most valuable gift to the new city will win the competition and become the protector of Athens.  Determined to win the race, Poseidon creates a horse that will be very useful in wars from the sea and brings it to the attention of the assembly.  The horse is truly dazzling, with its ability to run almost as fast as the wind and its powerful appearance.  

The gift of Pallas Athena, goddess of mind, science and art, is an olive branch.  This tree will grow and live for hundreds of years.  A healthy liquid will be obtained from the fruit of the tree that will help prepare delicious meals.  This liquid will heal wounds, shine bright at night, embrace people with its shadow in hot weather, and warm them with its wood.  Athena is the winner of the race. 

 The tree is planted in the Acropolis.  The olive tree, the symbol of peace, has now become the representative of established culture and abundance.

Stay safe .

#QuarantineDays

From my diaries/ Creamy Leek Soup

Improve your immune system by eating veggies during the Covid-19 pandemic. I love.. love veggies!!! I am a person who eats veggies with love. Even if you‘re not a veggie lover, I suggest you to give this beneficial tasty soup recipe a try. New tastes, new habits, new starts to welcome Spring. Why not?

Cooking veggies is as fun as eating them for me. I'm so glad hubby is a veggie person too :) My son loves some of them but he doesn't like leek. Except this creamy leek soup. It’s cold outside today, a cup of hot creamy soup. That is totally what I crave!

One thing I love about making soup is, you can also use ripe ingredients. Fridge cleaning recipes save the day. Right?

Ingredients

3 cups chopped leeks

1 cup Yukon gold potatoes (peeled, chopped)
1 cup carrot (chopped)

3 cups of veggie broth.

3 cups of water

2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 cup coconut milk (or any plant based milk)

2 garlic cloves (peeled and smashed)

1 small chopped onion

2 tbsp olive oil

2  bay leaves

1 tsp thyme 

1/2 tsp dry mint

A touch of turmeric

Salt, pepper 

In a large sauce pan, sauté onion, leek, carrot until softened and add potatoes, garlic, salt pepper. Stir a few minutes and add the bay leaves, veggie stock and water. 

Cook until the potatoes are tender. Remove from heat and remove bay leaves. Stir in the lemon juice and coconut milk. Add turmeric, mint, and more salt for taste if  needed.

Pour the soup into the blender and puree until it's smooth.

Sprinkle black pepper and thyme or chopped parsley on top and serve.

If you like to try more soup recipes,

Cauliflower Soup,

Spicy tomato Soup,

Lentil Soup

Nostalgia

From My Diaries /Since April

 

None of us like 2020. The year of the disasters! I can’t say that is the worst year  for sure, World War II comes to mind first, and then I did a bit of research and learned that; Professor Michael McCormick, who is the one that had claimed 536 AD to be the worst year (due to the extreme weather events probably caused by a volcanic eruption early in the year, causing average temperatures in Europe and China to decline and resulting in crop failures and famine for well over a year.) and said this about 2020: “It has clearly been a bad year so far and we are only 2/3 of the way through.” 
December is at the corner. So, I hope, I wish and I pray for the last month to not bring any other bad event to anywhere or anyone. We already have a virus problem that kills people everyday. 

What a year...

Wild fires in Australia, airplane crashes in Iran and Pakistan, social unrest over the killing of George Floyd, the deadly explosions in Beirut, shooting down the Ukrainian airliner PS752, killing 176 people on board, violence in Delhi, a locust swarm outbreak in East Africa, earthquakes in Turkey. 177 people died here in Izmir which is the city I live. 

Aria and I stopped by D&R that day to buy new books.I always miss the smell and the sound of a new book. Suddenly, I feel like my blood pressure was getting high for a second. Because, it happens sometimes and I say” is that an earthquake? Then the books dropped on us from the shelves. We ran out the store. It was scary. We were lucky that there were no major damage or death here in Cesme, unlike the centre. Some of them were relocated to tents after the disaster. People in Izmir/city center are still trying to get back to normal.

Have you you read the book Pyramid by Tom Martin? It’s the last book I read that I grabbed from my son’s shelf. Since the subject is about the secrets of the universe it caught my attention and hunger to read it all day long.

An eminent Oxford professor is murdered. But authorities are calling it a suicide. Oxford professor Catherine Donovan finds herself chasing the truth all around the world trying to save it from certain destruction. She meets Dr. Rutherford, a classicist, and together they chase the late professor's death trail, led by gematric clues. It is an easy and enjoyable read. 

 In fact, everything was repeated all over the world. Aliens weren't coming or restarting life. It was the man who always managed to gain access to advanced technology. But selfishness would turn the earth into a cloud of dust, again.

  They are the good ones who have broken the secret of the universe and the bad ones who do not realize that they are part of the universe.

                                         A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

When he started to Kindergarden

2020

I can't believe that Aria is a college student. He is studying Applied English and Translation in Izmir University of Economics. He chose French as his third language. 

Class 2020 is unlucky. They couldn’t start this long awaited exciting life stage as they had hoped. Masks, social distance with friends and finally online education because of coronavirus. They couldn’t even have a prom. Sometimes I forget and call him;

Me: Honey, I have fresh coffee, do you want some? (Yelling to his room)
Him: Mooom, be quite! I’m in the class 😅 

Anyway, we are thankful for technology that allows him to join class online. Unfortunately, it was not the college life they all waited for. 

The class that studied for only half a term last year, the exam stress combined with a mask in the hot sunny classrooms where the air conditioners are not operated because of the virus precautions, the pandemic struggles in the education system, the curfew is for under the age of 18, the days are short when there are limited hours.

I found peace while listening to nature.

Pomegranates from our garden.

It was a windy day. But that's ok. We were out together and taking nature pics.

...and spending time in the kitchen always makes me peaceful

Olives I picked up from our garden.

Since 2020 made a bad start and insists on being a horrible year for the world, I think Halloween was one of the enjoyable days of this year. Making pumpkin pancakes and watching our jack’o lantern in the front yard was fun. Aria carved the pumpkin and made eyes and mouth very well. Success! What do you think ?
No trick or treating since we moved to Turkey.. Costume parties? Yes, it’s not common but there is! Anyway Covid-19 doesn’t allow such a thing this year anyway. So, getting in the kitchen together and making pumpkin pancakes with cinnamon & ginger topping was definitely fun, as much as eating them 😁☺️
So thankful that we all are healthy and together 🙏

I had 4 cups of coffee while waiting for him to come out from preparatory exam across the campus 😃 He got 1st place with 96%!! 🙏

The day was hard but a gift arrived at the end of that day, which was very thoughtful 👌🎊

We opened the candy package first and couldn’t stop having another one 😊

Happy Thanksgiving! Hoping a better one for next year for all of us 🙏