So, sometimes I think if I didn't love my fiance, I'd hate him. LOL So jealous right now! I just got this e-mail from him (most of the content is actually from his friend and poker buddy Steve, a well-known producer/sound engineer, and recreational chef and food blogger, who has his home & studio in Chicago). I don't know if he'd be mad if I revealed his full name so I'm not gonna since this post is public. In case it feels like you're reading a foreign language in parts of this, "swingo" is a poker variation that Steve and his card-playing friends developed. Anyway, I'm not going to Vegas with Yancy this year because I'm teaching summer school and it just wouldn't be practical.

Yancy: Don't hate me, but look what's happening while I'm in Vegas.

"Begin forwarded message:

From: steve ******
Date: May 18, 2012 5:19:31 AM CDT
Subject: Iron Chef Las Vegas

Gentlemen,

I am going to be preparing an incredible meal in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker, probably Monday June 18. Our mutual friend *TT* has proposed a kind of Iron Chef thing at his enormous loft apartment, me pitted against a guy who used to be a sous-chef at the French Laundry in Napa. He's going to be getting some real wine-prick-caliber wines and I'm going to cook my ass off. Any of you assholes want to get in on this, let me know because he's only going to be able to seat 12 and he's already guiched about 5 people into it. To "guiche" is to goose somebody in the 'taint to encourage him to move along. High probability of Swingo afterwards.

Menu will depend on what the surprise ingredient is, but if we assume pork shoulder then this how I intend to throw down:

Prosciutto-wrapped dates stuffed with truffled gorgonzola mousse
Rissoles of sweet sausage with caramelized fennel and onion
Saffron-potato skordalia with frico crackers of parmigiano reggiano
Ravioli of creamed kale with smoked almonds, balsamic vinegar and sesame
Pork shoulder braised in li hing muy and apple cider over hibiscus rice
Olive oil, honey and lemon panna cotta with orange crepes.

-steve"

WHUT. OMG, screw you guys and your Vegas boys club!!! Whywhywhywhywhy!!! *mouth waters*

P.S. I found this tumblr and it's pretty funny. But probably only if you live in or near Chicago. http://soyeahduh.tumblr.com/

I know barely anyone reads this these days, but I figured this news warrants a once-in-a-blue-moon post.

Yancy proposed to me yesterday! I was *completely* taken by surprise! He really pulled it off; I'm still reeling. He had been planning it for a while but managed to tell NO ONE except his old boss and a coworker from CD Warehouse (now PMac Music), where Yancy worked in our college days (and also where he and I met since I was a frequent customer there...and he also first asked me out there).

Anyway, after a weekend in Missouri visiting with his family for the holidays, we were headed home yesterday (Monday, 12/19). Yancy planned on stopping in Cape Girardeau (where we both met in college) so we could visit with his old bosses, Paul and Peg, and drop off some gifts for them (some craft beers for Paul and a little Chardonney for Peg), and so Yancy could unload some old CD's. We get there, and Yancy and Paul are catching up, Paul is checking in his CD's, etc. (Peg is out running errands), and I decide to wander around the store after saying 'hi.' I end up near the comedy DVD's and CD's, checking out what's in stock. Yancy comes over and says, "Oh look, this is one of the first CD's I ever ordered for you here." Sure enough, we're right by the "S's" in the pop/rock section (which is weird because no one told me to stand over there but the comedy stuff happened to be right near there), and Yancy pulls out John Stewart's Bombs Away Dream Babies, which I had ordered back in the late 90's during my Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac obsessive phase. The album is produced by Lindsey Buckingham and has a really good duet between John Stewart and Stevie Nicks, called "Gold." The album cover is Stewart playing guitar, and a single red rose attached to the guitar.

Yancy pulls out the CD for me to look at and I say, "oh yeah, wow, look at that," like a moron. Then he opens the CD, and in it is an insert that says, in red cursive, "Lisa, will you marry me?" On the other side is a PMac logo with a mouse in a Santa hat that says, "This gift certificate entitles the recipient to one engagement ring." At first I only half-looked at the insert and started to say, "Hunh, someone left a note in here and the girl's name is Lisa, what a weird coincidence, what does it s...?" and I was thinking, "who the heck would leave a personal note in here before selling their CD to a used CD store?"--but at some point my brain caught up with what was happening, and I realized that the note was a proposal, and it was intended for me! It helped that Yancy was starting to get down on one knee. At that point my brain kinda turned off completely and I forget what all I said but I know "really?!" was in there somewhere and I also managed a "yes!" LOL

So anyway, we're engaged now! Woo! Yancy wanted to wait for the ring because he wants me to pick it out, so we're going shopping this Thursday, :).

He later told me that when he came to pick me up and I was finishing up packing to go down to Missouri with him, he went rummaging through my CD's and found "Bombs Away Dream Babies," then packed it in with the rest of the CD's he was gonna sell to Paul. He also had the order form from like, 12 years ago, which he had saved (I had completely forgotten my old dorm address and phone number, and there it was along with the titles of two CD's I had ordered, one of them being Bombs Away Dream Babies). He showed me the form after I said yes and I couldn't believe he had saved it for all those years. When he got to the store after that weekend of seeing a whole bunch of family and telling NO ONE (that was tough for him, but we couldn't time the visit in Cape Girardeau for the way down; we had to do it on the way back up), he handed Paul the box of stuff and Paul started going through it...once I wandered off, he handed Paul the CD and they frantically inserted the PMac graphic gift certificate thing, and Paul gave the CD back to Yancy. When Yancy saw that I was looking at stuff right near the S's in the pop/rock section (but with my back turned to them), he decided to just stealthily insert the CD exactly where it would be alphabetically and then nonchalantly point it out to me, and he let the rest take care of itself. I'm marrying a clever guy! LOL I hope Yancy's ok with marrying an oblivious ditz, :).

So yeah, I'm still kind of in shock, but *thinnnngs aaarrre happeninnnngg.* Gonna have to get used to calling Yancy my fiance now (and eventually my husband, wow) instead of my boyfriend!

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays so far!

Ok, I realize no one has time to read this stuff anyway, so I'm gonna try to sum up the last 5 or so days of the trip in one long-ass post. Probably a little ambitious of me. Here's a little taste:


Under the facade of the library at Ephesus (home of Greek philosopher Heraclitus and later the capital of Roman Asia Minor).

( More stuff under here. )

Well, that concludes my Turkey tripologue. I still feel like I'm leaving out a ton of information about Turkey: my general impressions, the daily call-to-prayers, what the public restrooms were like, some of the Turkish words I learned, etc. I learned a lot about Turkey that gradually became ingrained so that now I take it for granted. If you're curious about anything, just ask! Otherwise, I hope you had a nice reading/viewing experience. Farewell for now, :).

Antalya is a beautiful beach resort town on the southern coast of Turkey, along the Mediterranean Sea. According to Levent, it caters mainly to Russian, German, and Arabic tourists. After driving down the entire length of central Turkey and seeing so many sites, chilling out here was a welcome respite! And we were lucky enough to get TWO nights here, which was sweet.


A shot of Antalya's old harbor town, with the Mediterranean and some mountains in the background.

More pics ( under the cut )

Well, I think that's about it for Antalya...coming up is another strange landscape, this time at Pamukkale (where we also got to check out more ruins), then it was on to Ephesus. Hope you're enjoying the on-line travel journal so far.

Yo. Posting all about the Turkey trip is getting exhausting. So many of the ruins, kervansarays, and madrasas/mausoleums/museums are running together! It was a fairly exhausting 14 days of nonstop action, and my attention span was pretty weak at times. But there were so many amazing places and things to see.


Here's a shot of a whirling dervish ceremony we saw one afternoon while still staying in Nevsihir (at Peri Tower, in the Cappadocia region). The whirling dervishes are a religious sect which believe that the circle is a perfect shape, and when meditating in order to get closer to God, spinning in a circle is a natural expression of closeness with the Supreme Being (it's somewhat akin to speaking in tongues, as believers just start doing it when the spirit moves them). During this ceremony, some of the members of the sect played instruments while others walked slowly in a circle before finally beginning to twirl. The twirling was not a fast, crazy spectacle; it was actually somewhat slow and hypnotic/mesmerizing. I actually found myself nodding off during the ceremony. Fun fact (told to us by Levent and I cannot verify its accuracy): Madonna tried to join the sect in order to learn the dancing of the whirling dervishes, but she was turned down because her intent was believed to be more about performance and less about religion. So I guess she'll just have to stick with Kabbalah, ;). After the ceremony, we got to explore the area (which was a kervansaray) and enjoy some apple tea, which is an almost ubiquitous traditional Turkish drink that I enjoyed many times on the trip (it tastes like crisp, not-too-sweet heated apple juice). Pictures of the road to Konya, and some ruins at Aspendos and Perge on the way to Antalya ( under the cut--so look here if you're skipping the text. )


Time to say goodbye to Perge--Antalya awaits! (so stay tuned)

The whole gang at the outdoor museum of Goreme.

After Ankara, we headed down to one of the most anticipated parts of the trip, the Cappadocia region in central Turkey. This region is characterized by its landscape and what early Christians made of it. Due to some volcanic eruptions, soft rock--hardened and then eroded by many years of wind and rain--have formed a strange, almost otherworldly landscape of tower-like structures nicknamed "fairy chimneys" by the locals. Early Christians carved into these structures and made churches as well as dwellings. Some of the interior walls and ceilings of the rock chapels have been decorated with frescoes, which we were able to view at the outdoor museum of Goreme, though unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the churches. Also included in this post is the underground city of Ozkonak, where early Christians burrowed to hide from attackers. We also got to tour the facilities of some leaders in Turkish pottery and textiles. Finally, there are pics of an optional excursion: a sunrise hot air balloon ride over much of the region. Out of the 42 of us, I think about 12 of us decided to do this--and there are no regrets among us! Everything's ( under the cut. )

So, once we left Gordion, we continued on toward Ankara, the capital of Turkey. I guess now would be a good time to admit that if you want to see a lot of Turkey, you're gonna need to do a lot of driving. Often our days consisted of getting up at the hotel, having breakfast and loading the bus with our luggage, doing something touristy in the morning at the current city, then driving out to the next destination with a lunch stop and something touristy on the way, then getting to the next main city and getting settled into the next hotel, having dinner, etc. If there was time, we'd do something touristy in the new city too before dinner/free time/bedtime. But it seemed we were always on the go!

Examples of some stuff we did while on the road (and pics of that and Ankara) ( under the cut. )

I think that's probably enough pics for now; I was planning on combining this with the pics from Nevsihir/Cappadocia, but I'm now realizing that was an insane idea. Stay tuned!

After Istanbul, all 42 of us, plus our tour guide, Levent, and our bus driver extraordinaire, Baki, loaded onto the bus (and then a ferry, and then the bus again) and headed to Bursa. I was surprised by the terrain of Bursa; it's very hilly and green and actually reminded me of being in the Pyrenees mountains in the south of France, in towns like Aux-les-Thermes back when I visited David and Mark. Our hotel in Bursa was actually built on top of an authentic Turkish bath--instead of tearing it down, they just built around it and decided to keep it as an amenity for the guests (for a price). My hotel room ended up being right down the hall from the bath, so I couldn't resist trying it. Other adventurous souls from our group included Lynn and Ken from Australia, and Mandra and John from Minnesota.

( More about the bath and the town of Bursa )

After leaving Bursa the next day, we headed toward Ankara (Turkey's capital city) with a stop in Gordion, which is the home of the tomb of King Midas and the legend of the Gordion knot. Since you're already probably going blind by now, I won't type out all the info here; there's always Google and Wikipedia if you're interested, ;). ( Just a few pics of the museum and tomb )

Ok, I'm spent for now--next up is Ankara!

So, from May 13th to May 27th of this past spring, I decided to fly off to Turkey for a couple of weeks to see what I could see. I met up with a tour group once I arrived, and the adventure began. I have no idea where to even start...I went to 10 different cities and took over 1000 pictures. I'll do my best to not just ramble.

Turkey fun fact #1: It straddles both Europe and Asia (specifically in the city of Istanbul, which is separated into the European side and the Asian side by the Bosphorus River). Our guide, Levent, described the cosmopolitan, more expensive European side as "New York City," while the populous but sprawling, less city-like Asian part would be "New Jersey." LOL Istanbul was the first city we spent time in (I landed in Ataturk airport in Istanbul, and that was also where the journey ended after two weeks).

( Pictures w/ occasional explanations )

Ok, that'll do for now, but that only covers my first two days in Turkey, so I'll be back! Up next is Bursa and our harrowing (not really) experience with an authentic Turkish bath, then Ankara, the capital of Turkey, with its nationalistic pride and award-winning museums...then a true highlight of the trip, Nevsihir and the Cappodocia region.

Friends, here is my first post to the picturing food community. It's my new summer snack:



Low fat graham crackers, mascarpone cheese, raw honey, and fresh berries (raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries). Om nom nom.

Happy Friday!