Memories of Istanbul

 Michael K, Rebekah, and Lily joined Dave and me for a Turkish dinner on January 9, 2022.  All our Christmas guests have gone home, and our other regular guests were either sick or with other relatives.  Large parties are fun, but small parties are better for having long conversations to "catch up."  Rebekah goes back to work this week, after maternity leave.  Luckily, she can work remotely, and she will have Lily with her, in the background.  Michael is enjoying his job as a computer programmer for a tech start-up

Lily is beloved and thriving.

As we ate our spicy Turkish stew, I remembered visiting Istanbul, Turkey, one of the great cities of the world, with David, Michael, and Jonny, when our boys were teenagers.  We toured the richly decorated mosques, some of them converted from Byzantine churches, and we sailed up the Bosphorus on a ferry boat.

I remember Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, with shops selling spices, gold and silver jewelry, brightly painted ceramic bowls, and almost everything else I could think of!

I buy cookbooks like this one to teach me the history and culture of a country, as well as providing me with recipes for my Sunday dinners.

These two bookshelves, near my kitchen, are completely filled with cookbooks, as well as with my collection of dolls from around the world.  The doll collection gets examined every Sunday by my little granddaughters and great-granddaughters who come to dinner.