Why should they have all the fun when we are thousands of miles away?
So we decided to celebrate Easter at home in Istanbul and share some of the holiday traditions with my husband's Turkish colleagues.
Celebrating holidays abroad isn't always easy. See last year's Thanksgiving Challenges post. But we're pretty good sports and make the best of everything as often as we can.
First, I bought some Easter decorations and Greek egg-coloring kits from this small shop near the Ramada Hotel called Hobby Dekorasyon in the Pangalti neighborhood. Thanks to another friend's recommendation, I found this shop. The staff is helpful, and the prices are reasonable.
Thirdly, we had to go to my friendly butcher guys at Kardesler Kasabi in Besiktas and explain that we wanted a kuzu incik (lamb shank) to feed 8 people. But my version of a lamb shank and their version differed.
So through our broken Turkish and some hand gesturing, my butcher just brought out the whole hind quarters of a male lamb. We just pointed out what part of the lamb we wanted and we got a beautiful 2.2 kilo leg of lamb. I can't imagine EVER getting this kind of service in the U.S.!
Jason found this cinnamon-cardamom infused recipe for Braised Lamb Shanks with Swiss Chard. He was in charge of making the lamb while I made hot cross buns, bulgur pilaf, my macaroni and cheese casserole, roasted carrots and potatoes with mint, parsley, dill and rosemary; and for dessert, individual ramekins with sour cherry clafoutis. We had a busy afternoon!
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| Our braised lamb shank about halfway through the cooking process. |
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| Our Easter dinner table spread at home in Istanbul. |
Where to find seasonal and holiday decorations in Istanbul:
- Hobby Dekorasyon, Kurtulus Cad. No:30 in Pangalti, Sisli
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| Guess what we're having for breakfast for the next couple of days? |
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| Our friend, Sinan, made Rastafarian-colored Easter eggs. |
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| We used crayons to color silly faces and designs on the eggs before we dyed them. |