Happy Holidays

Hello Everyone

As Turkish-American women, we love holiday season in America. December hosts all different types of holidays for different cultures and traditions. It is a colorful festival for us to see all people to celebrate each other's holiday and to exchange gifts.

Undoubtedly, the most important feature of this season is giving and sharing. Giving gifts open the doors of friendship and strengthened the existing friendships.

To be part of this giving and sharing festival, this year we had decided to share Turkish cookies with our American friends, neighbors and colleagues. We knocked 360 families' door.  We shared our cookies with our teachers, bus drivers, nurses, and police officers. As a response we got great smiles and heart full of thanks.

Hopefully, next year we will visit more families to see more smiles.
Thank you for sharing your culture and have a wonderful holiday season.

iyi tatiller...

December 2012 Turkish breakfast meeting (Last breakfast of 2012)

Merhaba

First, we would like to thank you for your interest in Turkish Breakfast. This month, we had many guests for breakfast and we hosted them in 3 groups. Thank you very much for coming. It was wonderful to have breakfast with you and to talk about our common values. 

Since 2011, we have been coming together around breakfast table, and we are discussing the events from women's perspective. We are sharing our culture and we are learning from each others experiences.

This month's breakfast took place in a sad environment due to Sandy Hook shooting. We expressed our condolences for deadly Connecticut shooting and we tried to answer the question of what turns a troubled person into a monster that pours death onto other fellow human beings. As caring parents, we pray to find the strength to illuminate both hearts and minds of our sons and daughters with the love, respect and compassion for others, and do whatever is in our power to help prevent the reoccurrence of such tragedies.

The other breakfast meeting were hosted by a  family who is from Karadeniz (Black Sea) region of Turkey and shared a short movie with us. Karadeniz is the most green area of Turkey and its climate is appropriate for tea agriculture. It was very interesting for us to see how black tea was prepared and come to our table. 

Some guests were making Turkey trip plans after these breakfast meetings and this made us very happy. We will be happy to host you in Turkey as well. 

We are hoping to see more friends in 2013 breakfast. 

Till then Hoshcha kalin

Condolences to Sandy Hook Elementary School Parents and Newtown community members

We would like to express our deepest and heart-felt condolences to all the aggrieved families and loved ones.

We are deeply saddened by the tragic shooting incident at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. We cannot possibly imagine the shock and sorrow this unfortunate shooting incident has caused all families.

Regardless of where the fire falls, it burns our hearts. A true human being is the one from whose tongue and hand all others stay safe. To be safe in the future, we have to increase our efforts to brighten both hearts and minds of our sons and daughters with the love, respect and compassion for others, and do whatever is in our power to help prevent the reoccurrence of such tragedies.

Please know that, we, as Turkish community, deplore this tragic incident, and pray that it happens never again. 

Mott Road Elementary School Visit

Merhaba

This week, we visited Mott Road Elementary School, second graders to talk about Turkey and about being a child in Turkey. We talked about Turkey's location on globe, Turkish, family structure, culture, holidays and Turkish food.

Students were so happy and curious to learn a new culture. They asked many questions about Turkey and about children in Turkey.

We had prepared special bags for them and for their families with Turkish cookies and snacks.

It was a wonderful experience for us to meet with them, to spend time with them and to talk about Turkey and Turkish children. Thank you for having us.

From Breakfast Table to Helping Campaign

Breakfast is the best meal of the day. It is as important as a refreshing sleep to start the day. If you are alone, you just past over the first meal of the day. But if you have a company for breakfast, breakfast is the reason to wake up happily in the morning.

The Turkish breakfast is more than a meal for Turkish-American women who had discovered the relationship of breakfast with happiness. Turkish breakfast times are special times to strength the friendship, to learn different cultures, to have friendly conversations. For Turkish women and their American friends these are the times to share a smile, to talk about helping organizations while having a cup of Turkish Coffee.

TCC (Turkish Cultural Center) Syracuse Women’s Club members welcomes their American friends each month within the framework of the "meet your neighbors" activity. Women have a chance to see a Turkish family breakfast tradition while having a Turkish tea/coffee and warm conversation.

The friendly atmosphere during these breakfast let these women to talk about helping organizations and campaigns. They had organized a bake sale for the famine victims in Africa, and they had dressed up Burmese families in Syracuse. The next topic in their agenda is helping Sandy victims.

These monthly breakfast activities, allows for the development of friendships.  The participants said that, they had welcomed by Turkish women and had a wonderful time in an sincere environment and they were looking forward to future breakfast.

November 2012 Cooking Class

Merhaba

TCC Syracuse Women’s Club offered Turkish cuisine cooking classes last Saturday November 17^th 2012. Attendees enjoyed actively participating in cooking hummus and rice pilaf with orzo during the class. The class was in the kitchen of Turkish Cultural Center. Experienced volunteer chefs, instructed and helped the participants improve their cooking skills. And of course, they joined the feast at the end of the class! Next session will be on Saturday, December 15^th at 2.30pm at Turkish Cultural Center. Hurry up, the space is limited!

Hummus: Hummus is a Middle Eastern food dip made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. In Turkey, it is popular in Mediterian region, specially in Hatay. Hummus is very health food. It is high in iron and vitamin C and also has significant amounts of vitamin B6. The chickpeas are a good source of protein and dietary fiber; the tahini consists mostly of sesame seeds, which are an excellent source of complementing the proteins in the chickpeas.

Rice Pilaf: Pilaf is a very common side dish, which is cooked with rice. It suits very much with vegetable dishes or with meat.  In Turkey, it is cooked with orzo.

Afiyet olsun...

October 2012 Cooking Class

Merhaba

Turkish Cultural Center (TCC) Syracuse Women’s Club got together on October 20th for the 1st session of Turkish Cooking classes. Participants tired out two delicious recipes of Turkish cuisine while meeting new people.

The featured dishes of the October session, which change with every month, were two famous dishes of Turkish cuisine: Peynirli Borek (Cheese Pastry) and Cevizli Kadayif (Turkish Shredded Phyllo Dough with Walnuts). Volunteer Turkish chefs showed step-by-step how to prepare these delicious dishes with serving and shopping tips.

Peynirli börek (Cheese pastry): Borek is a very populer dish of Turkish cuisine invented in early era of Ottoman Empire in the Anatolian Provinces. In countries whose people living in close contact with the Turkic peoples of Asia and Europe, also feature derivatives of the börek. It is made of a phyllo (yufka). Phyllo is washed with yogurt-oil-egg mixture and filled with cheese filling or any other desired filling like potato, meat or spinach. After sprinkle sesame seeds to the top of the borek it is baked in the oven.

Cevizli Kadaif (Turkish Shredded Phyllo Dough with Walnuts): Kadaif is a common Turkish dessert that employs shredded phyllo. Its in the syrup desserts' family like baklava. It is traditionally tossed with lots of butter, filled with nuts and drenched with a sugar syrup.

Afiyet olsun (bon apetit)!

How To Register for Cooking Classes?

If you are interested in cooking something special for yourself and if you would like to learn about Turkish Cuisine come and join Turkish Cooking classes at the Turkish Cultural Center Syracuse.
Turkish cuisine (Turkish: Türk mutfagı) is a fusion and refinement of Central Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Balkan cuisines. Turkish Cooking classes are, a project of the Turkish Cultural Center (TCC) Syracuse Women's Club. We are offering monthly cooking classes with rich, healthy and delicious recipies. Volunteer Turkish chefs will be showing step-by-step instructions to produce variety collection of delicious dishes. As soon as each dish is ready, you will sit down at a luncheon and enjoy our tasty food with traditional Turkish tea and coffee.

If you want to learn new recipes, explore exotic ingredients, and cook delicious dishes, please come and join us.

For registration: women@tccsyracuse.org or 315-373-0261
The registration fee is $15 per class. Our class will take place once a month on Saturday at 2.30pm at Turkish Cultural Center Syracuse.

320 Tracy St. Syracuse, NY 13204
www.tccsyracuse.org