A perfect breakfast -- for Marlyn

Years ago (gosh, like TWELVE years ago) I was traveling in Turkey and was introduced to what has become my favorite breakfast. I clearly remember my first morning in Istanbul. After a red eye that got us on the ground in the wee hours of the morning we checked into our modest hotel and took a small nap. I remember dozing in and out while the morning call to worship beautifully and hauntingly reverberated its tinny prayers through the ancient city, the sounds slipping through the gauzy curtains of my room, bouncing around the yellowing wallpaper. I remember slipping from my creaky iron cot and pulling a curtain back to gaze at the Black Sea with the grand freight ships barely visible in the morning haze. And I remember climbing down the narrow, worn red carpeted steps to my first breakfast in Turkey. In a beautiful courtyard, with cobble stones, fountains, and lush flowers, and lots of cats, tables were laden with the ingredients that would come to be my preferred morning meal: crusty rustic bread, hard boiled eggs, freshly sliced baby cucumbers, quartered bright red tomatoes,and a selection of wonderful cheeses. Throughout my stay in what is likely my favorite country to have visited (so far!) I found this breakfast over and over again. I often replicate it at home (it's easy enough!). This morning, I found I didn't have any wonderful cheeses, so I subbed a CA fave, a buttery avocado!

Alex was sleeping in (until 10:30!) and Greggie joined me in everything but the cucumber. Then she had a little 2-year old "fun" with the ahda-cados --"I'm making sauce! Ahda-cado sauce, Mom!"