Turkish Tuesday # 16

Springtime seems to have finally come to Yalova.  The last couple of days have been absolutely beautiful: sunny and warm with clear air and plenty of people out strolling. :-)
I was one of those people this afternoon, when I stopped by the green grocer on Fatih to pick up some fruits and veggies. The grocer and I got to chatting (in Turkish--he-ey!) and before I left, he gave me an "ikram"--treat or gift--of some fresh Turkish strawberries.

I only wanted to cook something simple tonight, so I made the Sultan's Pilav (rice+butter+onions+chick peas=treat fit for a Pasha) listed in my beautiful Turkish cookbook. I paired that with a really good fresh green salad topped with bright red cherry tomatoes, homemade balsamic vinaigrette and roughly chopped almonds.

I still wanted to eat those berries, though, so, thinking like a Turk, I thought: "Well, I have yogurt...." Getting creative, I sweetened my plain, live-culture yogurt with some honey and a few drops of vanilla extract and put the sliced berries on top. Eh voila! Essentially, it was my favorite dessert from Sweden (strawberries and vanilla ice cream), Turk-ified! In other words, delicious and made from yogurt.  If you, too, have some yogurt and your own hallock of fresh strawberries, it's a dessert I'd highly recommend. Afiyet olsun!