Execution Weekend

[Jenny A]

Doing what I always do, making a Turkish feast: lamb leg marinated with cumin, paprika, and garlic; stuffed grape leaves; eggplant and cinnamon pilaf;  yogurt and cucumber salad;  feta cheese and parsley borek; pita bread; eggplant plant dip;  hummus; pita bread; baklava.   It's a family tradition.  One of Mom's cousins married a Turkish  grad student in the 60s, and he learned how to cook out of shear homesickness (it took a very expensive long distance calls to his illiterate mother).   Easter was the meal he shared because so many people have lamb for Easter. He taught Mom how to do the dinner before he and his wife left for Turkey in the early 70s (they came and went a lot before settling in Nebraska).  I began making this dinner for Easter when I  left Colorado for law school in the 80s.  Halis died four years ago,  but I still make his dinner.  Our daughters think it's what everyone has for Easter.  My husband converted years ago.

It's a fine spring feast.

I made the borek and the baclava yesterday.   We will be a small group this year. Only one daughter as our eldest is off at college and no guests as we are renovating the house and much of it lacks sheet rock, or flooring over the particleboard.