Turkish-American Community in Madison came together at the Eagle Heights Community Center and celebrated Kurban Bayrami (Eid al-Adha).

At the beginning of the program, Turkish-American families served a rich meal, including meat, rice, salad, and baklava. Then, Alper Bolat, a Turkish businessman, gave the keynote speech. He extended his sympathies to those who lost their loved ones in Van Earthquake. In his speech, he explained the meaning of “Bayram”, and encouraged the audience to watch Azra Bebek’s rescue in Van Earthquake and see an Iranian movie, called Children of Heaven, in …

Eid al-Fitr, the festival of fast-breaking, is an important Muslim holiday, celebrated at the end of Ramadan.

We believe that  festivals like Eid al-Fitr help bring together people from different cultural and social backgrounds to reinforce friendship and emphasize on the values such as mutual understanding, respect, love, and peace. Nevzat, a member of TACC-Madison’s executive committee, made a presentation about Ramadan’s meaning for Muslims in spiritual and social life after the dinner.   Among our guests are UW-Madison faculty and staff members, religious leaders, business people, students …

Today we hosted our December 2010 Cook & Share. Rabia demonstrated how to make the traditional Turkish Ezo Gelin soup. As always, we had such a great time. We even had some guests dropping in to see what is cooking because the hallway was filled with the aroma of the soup. Thanks to everyone who participated.

We have been working on changing the format of the program a little bit. Therefore, this month, we tried something new. We turned our watch and learn demonstration to a hands-on cooking class. We had …

It’s autumn and the trees are shedding their colorful leaves. Inspired by this festive season, these nice fall centerpieces were made at TACC-Madison on November 20th by our attendees of the flower design class. Our instructor, Gülden, had taken a floral design class for one year at MATC and shared with us her knowledge on flower design.

Everyone made their own centerpiece with a variety of flowers to pick from. All the flowers and tools for the centerpieces were provided for with a small fee from each person that attended. …

Rice is one of the most important ingredients in Turkish Cuisine. Turks use rice in many dishes both as the main ingredient of a dish or as part of soups, vegetable dishes or even deserts. Different types of pilaf is a must-have food next to meat dishes.
İç Pilav, rice with pine nuts and currants, is a special type of pilaf prepared for guests on special occasions like weddings and henna nights in Turkey. For Cook & Share (November 2010), Yücenur who is Oliva Cuisine’s owner showed us how to make …