Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Shastacilar at Lake Berryessa


On the way...
Originally uploaded by ozdema2.


We went camping this weekend to Lake Berryesa compliments of Shastacilar. This group is just plain crazy, very funny and seriously challenged with organization skills. Plans change every 5 minutes and you just have to hang loose and just laugh. Otherwise it could get a little too chaotic.

Saturday was fun with a lazy day on the lake followed by low action volleyball game and BBQ. Food was amazing, only if we had more lemons and eggplant in the eggplant salad (!), less salt on Kisir, a little more chicken for Can and a couple volunteers to make Smore's. Here is the Turkish version of smore's making: Everyone sits around the table, one person stands next to the fire and serves! Ughghgh! I am way too much "Americanized", this really got to me!

Yuko disappointed us by not singing one single Japanese song (since when Japanese are shy in singing) and Can really hurt her feelings by not dancing Salsa complaining that he did not have his salsa shoes...Meeeeeeeeen!

However, the song of the night was "You come from Kyoto and wear your Kimono".
We also had two secret romantics in the group, one brought a sheet cover, 500 Egyptian cotton (he forgot his tent but sleeping under the stars was even more romantic), the other brought incense, no one will ever figure this one out...(hint: "not big" in French)

We also learned that cups are important to stock up as we ran out real fast:)

Finally, if you ever step on to a boat, just make sure there are no ropes hanging around your leg. The stupid rope tangled around my leg and now I have a permanent reminder of this trip with me for a while.

Check out the pictures on Flickr!

Friday, August 26, 2005

Visiting Pixar



I had Friday off to spend time with my sister and we invited ourselves to lunch at Pixar. It was a blast! More pictures will follow but if you happen to know Erdem, just bug him a million times and mention my name and he will get you in:))

Here are the pictures from our visit...

Monday, August 22, 2005

excellent up!


excellent up!
Originally uploaded by ozdema2.
playing v-ball in Santa Cruz!

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

My sister is in town!


I should bake her something but what??? Hmmm, any ideas???

Posted by Blogger for Word…it only works when Outlook is closed!

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Update: and it doesn't support images and tables! Come'on you guys!!! :)))

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Cagla's Birthday Cake



Here is the latest from the kitchen: Swedish Meringue cake with Strawberries and Blueberries covered with Fondant! It was Cagla's 30th birthday and after long hours of thinking and numerous email exchanges with the birthday planners, I decided to make this cake for her...

It is an interesting recipe, there are no egg whites in the cake but instead the whites are whipped with sugar and almonds and baked on top of the cake batter, creating a crunchy layer. The filling is French pastry cream, (pastry cream lightened with whipped cream and raspberry liquor) and folded with berries. The cake is then covered with light vanilla buttercream and finally with fondant to get that smooth looking texture.



Oh, my modeling skills are getting slightly better, now I am using black sesame seeds for the eyes and it seems to be working fine. That is Cagla's husband Baris, with his gift box:)

More on flickr...Cake pictures and party pictures, for those of my friends who have been requesting to see more people pictures than my creations:)))

Monday, August 01, 2005

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes with Marshmallows on Top!

These were ok, not much zucchini flavor but still tasty...I used my lovely culinary torch to blow the marshmallows, even better:) Check out Dom's pictures, it was fun to play with fire!

Weekend Projects: Failed!



Coconut-Chocolate Granola Bars
I was looking for a project for the weekend and Natalie suggested these Coconut-Chocolate Granola Bars, from The Chicago Diner. She tried them before and had some trouble with the consistency. Something is totally not right with this recipe. The bars don't hold their shapes. The taste is not that amazing either...but I am going to give them one more chance and try adding butter or oil to the crust. She really likes them and that is enough of a reason to perfect this recipe:))

Oh, I also put sunflower seeds and but was not a great idea...



Check out pictures from this weekends projects @ Flickr!