"SWEET ON YOU"

One woman's insight into her daily life and some 'adventures'.............cooking, collecting, travels etc. With a lil' bit of this and that...........

Sunday, July 7, 2013

TURKISH Potato Salad (Patates Salatası)



When I was visiting Turkey a few months ago a friend from Izmir  in Turkey brought this salad over for a picnic we had in a park beside The Aegean Sea. First I thought it's very hot and I'm not eating a potato salad smothered in mayo in this scorching heat.........but it turned out to be this potato salad, with no mayo. It was so yummy that I had seconds.




POTATO SALAD

6 medium potatoes (I use Yukon Gold)
2 tomatoes, chopped finely
2 green onions, chopped
1 onion (I use Vidalia), chopped
Handful of Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
Dill, chopped to taste
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste


Boil potatoes in skins and when cool peel and cut into cubes.

In a medium bowl...add potatoes, tomatoes, green onions, onion, parsley and dill and combine well. Gently mixing as not to break up the potatoes to make them mushy.

In a small bowl mix together Olive Oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste..... pour over potato mixture and combine.

Refrigerate for a few hours as it tastes better and the flavours marry together.

***This is the recipe she gave me, but I use slightly less Olive Oil and lemon juice .




Thanks for stopping by......

VATICAN ROME, ITALY.Piazza San Pietro (Saint Peter's SquarePiazz




Beautiful "BLUE" sky, it was a very gorgeous sunny day in Rome in the afternoon.....but had rained in the morning.

This was the last day of sightseeing in Rome before we returned home. We left The Vatican for the last day so we could spend actually the whole day there.......and we could take our time and enjoy the place.

We usually walked around Rome....so tiring. But with the rain we decided to take a cab, no way were we going to use the Subway or buses there....to confusing.  Soon as we got out of the cab a young man greeted us with an umbrella and started to ask if we speak English or what language......we thought oh my gosh he's trying to lure us into buying something. Like the other ones that keep approaching tourists.... actually since I'm a brunette I didn't get approached too much as all my life everyone thought I was Italian (but I'm not). My husband on the other hand got approached quite a lot, is it because he has grey hair?????

Anyways we listened to what he had to say and he was from a Tour Guide office down the street........for a fee we would get a guide for 2 hours....and skip the 2 hour line-up to get into The Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel. Well that was worth it paying extra as it was raining then drizzling on and off and we didn't want to be like wet noodles so we took the tour........

We got about 12 people in our tour mostly from the UK and USA so it was good and they spoke English........the guide we got was such a cute Italian girl named Angela. She was very informative and talked about everything in detail and more. We found out she was a History Student from the University doing a summer job.

It took 2 1/2 hours of walking through other buildings with The Vatican treasures and the guide explaining the most important buildings and treasures......which they sure have a lot to explore and look at it. Finally we made it to The Sistine Chapel....we only waited 20 min. or so and if not with a guide it would take hours she told us........it was worth the visit there into The Sistine Chapel, absolutely gorgeous and most amazing. My whole life it was a dream for me to see The Sistine Chapel . I couldn't believe I was there and staring at Michelangelo's amazing artistic creation. One thing I thought was that it wasn't as bright as it looked like in pictures, but still amazingly beautiful.  ....It was jamm packed like sardines.....basically you could only look at the ceiling as it was wall to wall people. No pictures were allowed to be taken and talking.....security guard around every nook and cranny watching and yelling to be SILENT!!!! They spoke in different languages but still everyone kept talking. Some people just have no respect for anything.

After the Vatican Museum and The Sistine Chapel we walked into St. Peter's Square......which also with the tour guide got us in right away and didn't have to hang around a line-up for a few hours and let me tell you that line-up was extremely long like for blocks and blocks. After this amazing tour we were starving as we were there the whole day and we found this lil' Italian Cafe on one of these medieval skinny winding streets and had some dinner....it was so yummy.


Here are just some of the foods we had with my husband and daughter after we finished our day tour at The Vatican.

 Pizza.....with eggplant, tomatoes, onions and peppers.

 Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce....


 Lasagna, the best I ever had.


Pizza..........we had to have more it was so good.


Piazza San Pietro (Saint Peter's Square)





Piazza San Pietro (st. Peter's Square) .....looking on to the square form the Basilica.....





Vatican Museums in the grounds of St. Peter's Square.





Vatican Museums.





Seating ready for a service they had set up.....







Egyptian Obelisk.




Bernini Fountain.....1667-1677.



Egyptian Obelisk brought to Rome in 37 AD.



SAINT PETER'S SQUARE......with the Egyptian Obelisk.



Fountain and Egyptian Obelisk.



Outside the Vatican City


Linking to; 

smilingsally.blogspot.com for BLUE MONDAY.

Wednesday for; Outdoor Wednesday at; 

Monday, July 1, 2013

CANADA DAY!!!!! 2013.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA"

Happy 146th Birthday Canada!!!!

The   true north, strong and free. I'm very fortunate and extremely lucky to live in this amazing free and beautiful country. I never forget or take for granted any moment of the day.



 My city Toronto....