4th Kurdish Supper- "The Things We Do For Love"

Friday, 6 September was my 4th annual Kurdish supper  fundraiser  for CPT. The amount raised is around $1,600 however more will be coming in from people who were not able to attend the meal, but who still want to donate to CPT.

As I worked all day yesterday to get the meal ready, I had that 1970's song by 10cc running through my head. The lyrics don't make sense in this situation, but the title,  'oohhh, the things you do for love", does. The things I do for the crazy, wonderful organisation that I work for!!!

 Amazingly enough this year  I did mostly all the cooking by myself, starting on Tuesday when I made the bread and the desert. I think that I have learned some lessons in previous years, but (as I found out) I still don't have the quantity idea down. I again made far too much food for the 38 people who came.

The wonderful new mural painted on the wall of the Halal Meat Store which also carries many things you need to make a Kurdish meal

I made 16 large rounds of bread.

 

And 3 pans of baklava (paqlewe)- walnut and almond

 

The menu was:

YAPRAX;  Grapeleaf dolma and other stuffed vegetables

KAYSI; apricot sauce

TAPSI: eggplant, tomatoe,pepper sauce for rice

BRINJ: rice

SELATE: mixed vegetable salad

NAN: Kurdish bread

PAQLEWE: sweet desert pastry

MAST OW: slightly salty yogurt drink

CHAI: sweet tea



I finally figured out that I could make the dolma (yaprax) on the day before. Whew, that was a relief to get that labour intense job finished.

 

 My guests in the lineup to get their food.

Brad Langendoen  says, " I can't believe you made all this food".

The atmostphere in my backyard was fantastic with everybody having good conversation and enjoying the food and Kurdish music AND the storm clouds that threatened all went away leaving a wonderful warm evening.

 

 

Finally I was able to grab a few minutes to eat, although after cooking all day I was not very hungry.

 

 Here is a few photos of the kids who came.

 

 

 More conversations

And then I was able to enjoy a piece of walnut baklava as the sun went down.



Kurdish Supper in suburban Winnipeg

Two days ago on Wednesday, 22 August 21 MacAulay Place saw the 3rd annual CPT Fundraiser Kurdish Supper. Thirty-seven people came to sit on our lawn in the back yard. They ate lots and many said that they loved it. Some were repeaters from last year, others were new.

So I will post some photos of the preparation, and of the supper itself.

 

Last year I worked with a Kurdish woman to learn to make this bread, so this year I did it all by myself. The red bottle cap is to give perspective on the size.

 

 

Frying the luqme (fried balls of dough which are then soaked in sugar syrup)

 

Two of my neighbours, Charlotte and Elaine came to help roll the dolma/yaprax and other helpful tasks.

 

Once the people were here we discovered that the rice was a disaster. It was mushy and hard and crunchy. So while waited for it to cook I told everyone about CPT.

 

Someone asked about Kurdish life so I brought out Katrina's dress to show them.

 

Final mixing and getting ready to serve.

 

Vic, in the background, my wonderful support for pre and post cleaning, mosquito killing and babysitting the rice.

 

.Dolma- grape leave wrapped around rice (in Kurdish it is yaprax), kasi (a apricot sauce to go over rice), Fasuli (beans in tomato sauce with and without chicken)

Nan (bread) and mastaw (yogurt diluted with water and mint drink)

 

 

   

This little girl loved the fasuli.



 

It was so great to have kids in my yard.

 

 

 

For desert we had kuliche (date and nut filled cookies) and luqme (fried dough balls) and Kurdish tea.

 

 

It was a lovely evening, the day was warm and sunny, marvelous people came, and the mosquitoes stayed away until dusk (when they came for their supper). And money was raised to support CPT's work in Iraqi Kurdistan.