LA – Day 3 (Turkish Dinner Party)

Good morning! Yesterday was an amazing day full of cooking, eating, drinking, and meeting new people...and then sleeping hard!

My friend Mine is from Turkey, so I asked her to show me how to cook a few Turkish dishes while we are visiting. She did way more than just that - she held a dinner party for 16 people and we cooked an entire spread of Turkish food! I will be getting recipes from her (some still need to be translated, I know no Turkish) and hope to recreate them at home. I took tons of pictures so I will have step by step reminders of what I need to do. I think we made 15 dishes overall - I'm not even kidding. When I say an entire day of cooking, I mean it!

We went shopping on Wednesday at three grocery stores. Then yesterday morning we hit up two ethnic markets and made one more 'regular' grocery store stop. We literally ran out of room in the fridge to store stuff!

We started with a good breakfast of scrambled eggs with feta and tomatoes, strawberries, coffee, and mimosas - yum!

We snacked all day as we cooked, and kept the coffee and the champagne flowing!

At one of the ethnic markets, Mine helped me find some of her favorite Turkish treats from her childhood. Obviously Katie and I had to try them out!

We were cooking/cleaning/doing dishes for hours - but we had a lot of fun! I love learning how to cook new things.

Somehow I didn't take any pictures during the party! There were a lot of people to meet and a lot of things to talk about. I did get some shots of the food right before everyone arrived, though!

(check out the awesome baklava I made - I'm so proud of it!)

By the end of the night, we were exhausted - but I'd definitely do it again. I can't wait to make some of this food at home for my family!