Fasulye (Turkish Green Beans)

I'm all about easy, tasty recipes. I'm much too lazy to try to do the hard stuff. I'll leave that to Jackie. (and while you are at it, go check out Jackie's blog, and vote for her in a foodie competition she's in...just do it!).

Well, here is the simple recipe to a simple Turkish side dish:

1 pound of fresh green beans
1 big onion, chopped
2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste

1 cup water

salt

1. Clean and trim green beans.

2. Heat olive oil in a pan, add onions and cook about 5 minutes.

3. Add tomatoes and tomato paste, stir and cook for about 4 minutes.

4. Add green beans, water, sugar, salt and bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until beans are VERY VERY tender, about 45 minutes.

5. Serve cold and add fresh lemon wedges as a compliment (I swear, everything in Turkey is either served with lemon or yogurt).

This is a healthy way to eat green beans, instead of adding all that Campbells soup! :)

A Cold Beach Day

Sometimes, I really enjoy wandering on the beach on cold days...

Days like these are the best kind of days for thinkers and dreamers, for which I am both.

Favorite Thing Thursday: Holiday Rituals & Giving Thanks

The holidays are officially here, and there are a few traditions I always have to implement right around this time.

In no particular order, here are my favorite holiday rituals:

• Watching The Holiday, Love Actually and most importantly, A Christmas Story. I love all three movies immensely. The Holiday surprised me with how damn good it was. Love Actually has become a modern holiday staple. A Christmas Story is hands down the BEST Christmas movie EVER. No, there are no debates over this subject. This is my blog and what I say here goes. ha.

Best Xmas movie ever!

• The purchase and fast consumption of Peppermint Mocha Creamer. OH YEAH BABY.

• December Nights in San Diego. It is an annual festival of food, dancing, twinkling lights and free admission to museums in SD's historic Balboa Park. I adore it. And guess what? There is a little multicultural food area where Turkey is represented. What, What?! Chicken Döner Kabab here I come!!

A pic of me on the bridge heading to December Nights last year. I love the energy of the whole festival :)

• Painting my nails some kind of Santa, holly-berry red.

• SWEATER AND SCARF SEASON! And can I say, I love seeing men in sweaters! Adorable.

• Hot Chocolate by a fireplace. Yeah, OK. San Diego doesn't get as cold as, let's say, D.C., but we still like to pretend it's winter here!!

• A few listens to "All I Want For Christmas is You," (Mariah Carey version), "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays," (YES, by *NSYNC--still a fan) and "Oh Holy Night," (any good version) because it's my favorite Christmas song.

You know you wanna buy the album (wink).

Well, anyway...I realize that today is Thanksgiving, so can I just say that I'm thankful for you? Because I am. Thank you readers, comrades and friends, for being a virtual ear...listening to my irrational worries and ramblings right here on this blog. Thanks for your support, thanks for your friendship, thanks for your community.

I heart you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love, Love, Love

I had another friend that got married about a week ago, so I wanted to share come lovely photos of the wedding (set at a winery).

The cute-as-a-button couple ♥

Fun shots by the winery!

:-)

Candace and "Pilot Man"

The cute cake (they also had cupcakes).

Time with friends, watching other friends get married.

Good wedding...yet kind of trippy to see all these friends of mine get married. Well, it's weird and not-weird at the same time. Each individual couple is ready at their own rate, yet what's weird is seeing some people that you've known for years move from one stage of life (college and being a twenty-something wanderer) to GETTING MARRIED--a very monumental stage of life.

And so, all these weddings I have been to have been trippy in that sense, because I am so not in that stage of life.

This is not a good or bad observation; rather, just an observation on how we (or I) perceive changes. Yeah...I think that sums it up!

Book Nerds

I got this from Michelle's blog.

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions: Copy this. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible - Too Many Cooks
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I've read 12/100. And I just wanted to say, I'm surprised A Farewell to Arms is not on this list. I want to read more on this list (and classics in general) for sure!

How many have you read?

Not So Good News

I've been terribly sick the past few days. So much for saying that I don't get sick often...these past few months it's been the opposite. I've sounded like a frog (croak-a-licious) recently. Good thing I don't have to talk on this blog. ha.

Also, I wasn't going to post about this...but I think it's good to let out my anger over it, so here goes:

A close relative of mine was in a domestic abuse situation last week. I was shocked over it, and kept teetering between emotions of anger and worry. Long story short, she's doing fine, but the family is a mess right now, and everything is up in the air.

It makes me livid that there are men (and even some women) that will resort to violence when angered.

What's different about this case, is the husband had never been violent before (in a 13 year marriage). This raises the question of mental health issues. He's in his 60s, so dementia is a possibility. It's all so complicated.

Is it bad that I'm still angry at him, even if there are possible mental health issues in the mix? I just can't help it. What's worse is, the children witnessed the altercation.

I guess there's nothing more to say on this issue. What bugs me is I can't do much to help here. I can offer support and sympathy, but not much more than that.

At least, this guy will be going to a psychologist soon...and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, that will help.

Favorite Thing Thursday: Hot Adam!

*credit*

I've been in a Maroon 5 mood ever since the concert, and it's really hard to ignore the frontman (especially when he points at you...I still can't forget about that!).

Is it really pathetic to have a school girl crush when you're 25? Wait, don't answer. Although I have a very mature side, this is my very immature side. But I don't care. LOOK AT THAT HUNK-A-BURNING LOVE!

Why I swoon over Adam Levine:

• that unusual, pierce-your-ears, soulful voice.
• the way he handles his microphone. That is not an innuendo you DIRTY thinkers!
• he's brooding, like Marlon Brando. Gotta love those ones.
• his sexual prowess on stage...watching him is...um, an experience.
• his simple-and-truthful song writing...he says what he means and means what he says.

To finish, I found this clip of a show I would have sold my left kidney to go to. But really. I died when I saw this. JT and Adam Levine on one stage??? I can't take the sexiness!!!!! HOT-BOY OVERLOAD...cannot...write...anymore...go to clip!

Alright alright alright...I'm done with being 14 for the moment. But Adam Levine, you are the sexiest pointer EVER.

Perfectly Acceptable Ashley

You know it's acceptable:

• to make a line from Glee your new mantra. That being, "Give me some chocolate or I'll cut you." Sounds about right. :)

• To be furious enough to cuss out your television, when the outcome of a certain show was ludacris! MONDO SHOULD HAVE WON PROJECT RUNWAY! NOT GRETCHEN-STUPID-FACE!!! GRRRRR....*breathe* Ok, I'm done. But really...am I crazy for yelling at the TV?

• To overplay a song ("Whip My Hair") from a 9-year-old prodigy-of-sorts (Will Smith's daughter). Willow Smith, you make me feel slightly unaccomplished for my age, but I can't help but shake it to your cute song with a great beat. SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE HER DAD!

Within Reach?

Bodrum, Turkey--A picture I show a lot here on this blog, because I adore it. Let's call this my happy place.

*sigh*

I'm really wanting to get to Turkey.

I feel like I'm playing too much of a waiting game, but I'm too careful and levelheaded to just fly to Turkey and look for jobs in person. I've always tried to play it safe with my money, because I don't want to have to struggle while I'm there.

But I just. want. to. get. there.

I know I'm being whiny in this post. Forgive me.

POSITIVE THINKING: Rev Run (on twitter) said Focus: (F)ollow (O)ne (C)ourse (U)ntil (S)uccessful.

Word, Rev.

Quote of the Day:

"I always fall in love with an open door, with a horizon on an endless sea." --Death Cab For Cutie

Just wanted to post these lyrics, because they are so me.

Favorite Thing Thursday: Big Daddy

Who's your daddy?

The only answer should be God, the ultimate "Big Daddy." My favorite thing pick of the week today is God. YES, as in the one theological being that created everything.

DISCLAIMER: I don't always talk about my faith here, but it is a big part of me. I don't like to cram religious ideas down peoples' throats; however, days like today I feel refreshed and inspired by God, and it's only natural to share something that moves me. Whether it be Justin Timberlake, chocolate, coffee or God, I have no choice but to share what makes my heart beat with utter joy. And seeing as God created ALL of those things, I think he deserves his own post. God is a favorite thing of mine.

I'm not going to ramble on and on about theology, doctrine, rules and regulations; rather, I want to talk about the very core of my religious belief. That being, I've found that a life without God is no life at all.

A favorite pastor of mine, Erwin McManus, has a quote that perpetuates that thought. He says, "We weren't created to exist, but to live."

In other words, too many of us are the walking dead, accepting to only exist in a mundane cycle we call life. I fall back into that cycle all too often.

The true breath of life lies with God, and I'm trying to breathe it in.

To end, here is a song that somehow fits in with this post and my ideas about life and God. Enjoy :)

Perfectly Acceptable Ashley

It's very acceptable:

• to be a little scurrred when you're sitting next to man reading a magazine about guns and killing deer (on a plane). So what, is there a rifle in your checked luggage? And why you gotta kill Bambi? There are other "sports" to take up...I hear cricket is a nice one to play, where you're not SHOOTING THINGS.

• to have an "awwwww" moment when a 7-year-old boy starts talking about the functions of important body parts, elaborating that "brains are for remembering things and hearts are for loving somebody." I wasn't gonna correct him. :)

• to be true to your heart and not date the guy mentioned in the last Perfectly Acceptable Ashley. Because after a few dates, it wasn't right. Although said guy may make a good friend, it's always acceptable to go with that innermost, almost-primal gut instinct. Because the old adage, "you know when you know" works both ways. You also know when it's a NO.

And I said, what about, Breakfast at Tiffany's?

My dear friend Bethany called me a prostitute on Halloween, to which I replied, "Hey!" Then I remembered, I was a prostitute for Halloween: Holly GoLightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I realized that I will miss the whole Halloween extravaganza when I move to Turkey, but hey--I'm ok with sacrificing an American tradition for a plethora of new Turkish experiences.

About Turkey, since some of you asked, I'm still chuggin' along and applying, and some places are starting to look very promising. So I'll keep you all updated.

Anyway, onto my photos from Halloween!

We went to a street fair where there were multiple creative (and inappropriate) costumes. If you can name the costumes shown above, you get extra points. I was super excited to see them!

Bethany was Lady GaGa from the "Telephone" video, and Christian was an urban cowboy. I told Christian to watch out for gay boys that would inevitably hit on him. haha.

The following night (actual Halloween), I took my nephews out for trick-or-treating. Like the zombie makeup job I did on Brendan above?? He loved it. Anything to score cool aunt points.

How was your Halloween?