End of Summer, Shish Kebabs, and Real Life Cookbook Sightings
Download the PDF recipe of a delicious Lamb Shish Kebab and scroll to the end of the newsletter for sneak peeks of the inside of my new cookbook!
So I have a secret to share. I actually don’t love summer. In fact, I am such a winter girl that summer is usually the hardest time of year for me. After growing up in cold and snowy Erzurum, Türkiye, the warm weather can be hard for me to handle. But summer does have one major benefit—lots of time with my son and husband to explore. As a professor, my husband’s schedule is a little more flexible in the summer months and my son has a long break between his elementary school years. While my work tends to never stop, I relish the opportunity to disconnect from my phone and connect with my loved ones.
After our long trip to Türkiye at the beginning of the season, we took it easy with the rest of our vacation time, going on small weekend trips within driving distance of our home state of Virginia. This time is so special to me, an opportunity to relax in new beautiful locations.
And the best part of traveling? Food! Tasting food from around the world is my favorite sort of inspiration. Living in the US has allowed me access to so many different food cultures and it is absolutely incredible. Trying new tastes and textures while abroad allows me to come home refreshed and ready to experiment in my kitchen, with new ideas to sustain me all year long.
This Lamb Shish Kebab recipe is the stuff that grill dreams are made of. Tender lamb with perfectly caramelized vegetables, all served over a fluffy and flavorful bulgur pilaf. Serve with naan or pita for the perfect end of summer dinner! And if everyone isn’t a fan of lamb? Simply replace with sirloin steak and follow the same recipe!
On Friday morning, I received the most exciting delivery of my entire life! (Other than my son, of course.) My editor sent me the first copy of my NEW COOKBOOK! I filmed my reaction so you could all join me in those moments of seeing it in person for the very first time—though this video has significantly less crying than actually occurred! You can find my first reaction to opening it here.
Turkuaz Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Dough Recipes for Sweet and Savory Bakes is the culmination of 20+ years of baking and cooking and 7 years of photographing. It has been living in my brain since I was a teenager, a dream that I never thought would make it to reality—and holding it is so much better than I could have even imagined.
It is released on November 5th, so there’s still plenty of time to preorder here if you haven’t done so already. Remember—there are signed copies available through our independent bookstore partner, Malaprop’s Bookstore! Here’s a direct link to that preorder page. Don’t worry, they ship internationally as well!
We have some really exciting announcements coming out later this month, so stay tuned for updates! For now, here’s some of my favorite image spreads from the book. Trust me, this is only the beginning of the beautiful images and delicious recipes.
Congratulations 🎊 on achieving this huge milestone 👏 🙌
Honestly, you're an inspiration for me, the part where you said that it was your teenage dream is so relatable.
Kuddos to your efforts 👌 ☺️
New subscriber, where do I sign up to pre order cookbook? Does an older one already exist?