-
Going back, moving forward – in Istanbul
I want to write about my six-day trip to Istanbul over the Easter break. It wasn’t just a visit—it felt like a quiet collision of past and present. Going back with my husband and our son, I found myself moving through a city I know so well, yet seeing and feeling it differently. Same skyline, same chaos, same sea air… but this time, I felt like I was the one holding the map. Staying in a hotel in my own hometown added a strange layer to the experience. No family home to return to, no familiar drawers or cups — just key cards and elevator music. Not stepping back into…
-
A recipe from the heart – “the” chocolate cake 🤎
This cake holds a very special place in my heart. It was the very first gluten-free cake I learned to bake after my son was diagnosed with celiac disease. It was a time when everything felt overwhelming—ingredients, labels, cross-contamination. The truth is, I never liked baking because it is too precise, it leaves almost no room for creativity. In cooking, you can improvise, add a bit of this or a bit of that, and somehow bring a dish back to life. But baking doesn’t forgive that. Miss the right quantities, and most of the time there’s no saving it. Therefore, it completely scared me. So now, on top of that,…
-
Our Most Precious Travel Find: Auberge La Fenière
I’ve been thinking about what should be the very first post on my Travel Finds page… and honestly, Nadia and the world she has created at Auberge La Fenière largely deserve it. A heavenly place on 8 hectares of land, olive trees everywhere, and the sound of grasshoppers which instantly took me back to my childhood at our summer house. But the most exciting part was its story – the story of three Mediterranean women who passed down their skills over three generations — a lineage of inspiration, passion, and care that you can feel in every corner. Truly touching and deeply inspiring. And it’s the first and only Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurant completely free of gluten…
-
Celiac Disease, Simply Explained…Basitçe Çölyak Hastalığı
What is celiac disease? In my opinion, the first and most important thing to know is that celiac disease is not a wheat allergy, but an autoimmune disease. Simply put, people with celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye. When gluten enters their body, their immune system mistakenly starts attacking their own healthy tissues. In other words, if the immune system were a security guard, in people with celiac disease that guard mistakes gluten for a dangerous intruder and immediately starts fighting it. Unfortunately, this “fight” happens in the small intestine, where it damages the tiny finger-like structures called villi, which help absorb nutrients from food. Over time,…
