Notes from my Turkish Kitchen

Choosing to cook or to eat out pose equally challenging problems but I usually opt for eating in to avoid the stares of a single woman dining alone in the almost entirely male dominated restaurants (except for the food court at the mall). But cooking presents its own problems.

Here are a few I've encountered in the past week:

1) Saran Wrap - It's like a nightmare trying to find the edge, cut a piece because the box doesn't have a metal strip, and to keep it from sticking into a giant snake before stretching it across a container.

2) Nesting containers with lids - Due to problem number 1, I bought a set only to walk home and discover that one of the lids is missing. I don't have time or the vocabulary to explain the problem and I know for a fact I took the last box on the counter.

3) Coffee Press - A random lid fell out of my cabinet and broke my Istanbul Starbucks coffee press the day after I bought 1 kilo of coffee. (2.2 pounds). And, the man who sold me the coffee was incredulous that I would buy a kilo of coffee for myself. I never thought it would be a problem.

4) Coffee Press # 2 - Found a coffee press at a designer kitchen store and splurged today. It would be a shame to waste the coffee. Walked the 45 minutes home from the mall only to discover that the pot in the nice gift pack they gave me is broken.

5) Baked my first chicken today in my little oven. (I usually cook on the stove top.) It sure made the house smell good. It still smells good. So do all the walls, the windows, the carpets, the door, the two drip pans in the oven, my clothes, the computer..you name it. Not only is this NOT a self-cleaning oven, I suspect that it's not properly vented oven either.

6) Cabinet door knobs - or lack thereof. The bolts are stripped so I just leave all the drawers cracked open.

7) Dish pan hands - Getting worse due to a)no microwave which leads to many extra pots to wash. b) no dishwasher c)empty bottle of hand lotion and lack of reading glasses (this is another story) to read the fine print at the store to find a new bottle of hand lotion.

But, behind every cloud there is a silver lining and here are today's:

1) Found some delicious brown bread at 5 Migros (Turkish Walmart) that will make excellent toast for breakfast tomorrow.

2) Have been gorging on delicious winter vegetables, broccoli and brussel sprouts ( I wonder if they're from Brussels?)

3) Have plenty of leftovers so I won't have to cook for several days.