Eid Candies Ramadan 7

The holy month Ramadan ended yesterday, muslims broke their fast for the last time yesterday evening and today we are celebrating Eid (Ramadan Feast). After a month of fasting, people enjoy this feast with sweet foods. The feast lasts three days and these adays are officially holiday for people to spend time and celebrate the feast with their families.  The excitement of Eid starts at least one week before it comes. People do shopping to buy new clothes for themselves, but as you can guess the most excited ones are always children. Their parents buy new clothes and shoes for them to wear on Eid days and we call these “bayramlık” (clothes and shoes special for Eid). Even if they buy these weeks before the Eid, they don’t wear, but keep them in their gardrobes (or near their beds if they are so much excited) until the feast. It’s a lovely tradition for children to wear new and clean clothes during the feast. However, there are of course parents who can not afford new clothes and I can’t help thinking of them during these days. Some considerate people buy new clothes and give them to some poor children, but is that enough? I’m not sure. I wish clothes weren’t so important for these special days.

Besides the preperation of clothes, there is another preperation for Eid. Cleaning the house! When I say cleaning the house, I mean a real and complete cleaning. As they will have many guests during Eid days, women want to welcome their guests with a perfectly cleaned house. So women mop up everywhere, clean the windows, wash and iron the curtains, dust the cupboards and everywhere! We call this cleaning “Bayram Temizligi” (Eid Cleaning). After such a laborious cleaning, you may think that women start the feast so exhausted, but no, they are so strong that they don’t have any complaints about the other works waiting for them such as making a Turkish dessert and host their guests.

In fact, the celebration of the feast starts in the early morning. Fathers go to mosque to perform their ritual prayer called namaz and they take their sons with them. After namaz, people in mosque celebrate their Eid by shaking hands and wishing happy Eid to each other. Meanwhile, moms prepare a perfect breakfast with various boreks and newly brewed black tea. When fathers and sons return, they celebrate their Eid; mom and dad hug each other, children kiss their parents’ hands and put it on their forehead wishing happy Eid. Parents generally give some money to their children to make them happier, which is called “bayram harcligi” (Feast Allowance). Then they enjoy their breakfast and they feel that this breakfast has a different taste after a long fasting time.

After breakfast, their door bell starts to ring, they know it will ring many times today. A group of  children (even the small ones) are waiting with bags in their hands no matter they know the house owner or not. And the owner of the house treat them with colorful candies or chocolate. Children take one or two candies happily and put them in their bags. When the children of that house see them, they immediately grab a bag and join the group as they are looking forward to picking candies from neighbors. They all know that it’s much more enjoyable to keep the candies until they finish all houses. At the end, they open their bags and show how they have plenty of candies and eat them together.

Children turn back to their houses not so late as they know their grandparents are waiting for them, so when they return, without any loss of time, with their parents, they go to their grandparents. They kiss the hands of grandparents in Turkish style and guess what? They are rewarded once more with the feast allowance. Then, they don’t forget their beloved ones who are not with them any more. They go to the graveyard to visit departed family members there. They pray for them and leave some candies on the grave.

After these, on the way home, people make short visits to their neighbors one by one to celebrate their Eid. Turkish desserts such as baklava and kadayif are served accompanying with Turkish tea or Turkish coffee. And while they are leaving, mostly the child of the house is waiting for them near the door with a bowl of candies or chocolate in one hand and a bottle of lemon cologne in other hand. S/he first offers the candies to the leaving guests and then drops some lemon cologne into the waiting palms of these guests. That’s the Turkish way of sending guests during this Ramadan Feast. Some people may also offer candies and the cologne as a way of welcoming the guests. And surprisingly, some people offer these two both to welcome and to send their guests. And people shouldn’t refuse any of these offerings at any of their visits, they are thought to be so rude if they say ‘no’. Can you imagine how sweet we become after Eid?

Personally, I didn’t want to buy candies from stores and I wanted to make something special for this Eid as I thought it would be more valuable for guests and especially for children. I made these natural candies from dates yesterday and as I understand from the eyes of children at my door, they loved it! And when their parents saw these home made candies, even they asked for the second one. I think I should have done more of these.

Ingredients
-    20 dates
-    ½ cup pounded almond
-    2 tbsp orange juice
-    1 orange zest, chopped in very small cubes

To coat the date candies
-    A handful of  pounded pistachio
-    A handful of crumbled hazelnuts
-    A handful of chocolate chips

Pit the dates and put them in a mini chopper and chope them a few times. Then add orange juice to help them to have a right consistency. When it become like a date dough, take it to a bowl. Add pounded almon and chopped orange zest and combine them very well with your hands. Then take a walnut size piece, roll it in your palms, give it a ball shape and coat it with pistachio or hazelnut or chocolate chips. I used all of them to make my Eid candies more colorful.

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Sauteed Meat Ramadan 6

We’ve started to count down for the end of the Ramadan month. There is a very sweet festival waiting for all muslims at the end of this fasting month. And I want to share still another Ramadan tradition before it ends. This is a month when rich people think more of the poor. People understand the importance of foods more as a result of their fast and they realize that not everybody can afford even the basic foods. You know iftar tents open for the poor, but there is still another good way of helping these poor people if you want to help individually.

In the past, people used to buy some packaged foods, put them in a bag, and take it to the poor people’s homes. Today, these packages are prepared by big markets and they are sold there. These packages are called Ramadan Package (Ramazan Paketi). So what does a ramadan package contain? A usual ramadan package generally has dry foods such as rice, bulgur, chickpeas, lentils, beans, black tea, pasta, sugar, salt, flour, vermicelli 1 or half kilo packages from each. In addition, there is a 1-kilo-bottle oil. So it becomes easier for people. People go buy ramadan packages from the market and take it to the ones in need. Markets prepare different versions of ramadan packages according to the quality and price of the foods. Then you can buy the package suitable for your budget, and help others. Also, you pay less for these foods when you buy them in these packages, so this is another reason for people to prefer buying these prepared ones from markets. You can also make some additions to these packages with some meat, chicken, cheese, etc. if you’re an indivual supporter. Besides the people helping individually, the municipality of the city buys ramadan packages in big numbers and distribute them to the neighborhoods they’ve assigned in advance. These packages can also be given to the workers of big companies as a gift. In short, ramadan packages are great gifts if you want to support one’s budget at least in this month.

Today, our dinner was a simple sauteed meat (veal) served with our usual rice pilaf.

Et sote
Ingredients
-    500g meat (veal or lamb), diced
-    3 tbsp olive oil
-    2 green peppers, chopped
-    1 medium sized onion, chopped in half moon (I used purple onion)
-    A few scallions, chopped
-    2 medium sized tomatoes, grated
-    1 bay leaf
-    Salt to taste
-    A pinch of black pepper
-    A pinch of thyme

Put the meat in a flat pan, cover it and cook it over low heat until it releases its water and then absorbs it back.
Add olive oil now and stir. Sprinkle salt and other spices.
Put peppers first and stir it until they get tender, then add onions and scallions and keep stirring.
After they all get tender, pour grated tomatoes and stir once. Cover it and cook for about 10 minutes more.

Finally, take it from fire and put the bay leaf on the top, cover it again. Let it rest for some minutes. The flavor of the bay leaf will spread into the dish during this time. As I don’t love a very dense flavor of bay in my dish, I use this method, but if you love it, you may put it into the pan with the spices.

Support The Poor

Mrs Duck is shopping for dinner and she decides to buy some meat to cook a tasty dish for her family. However, she will buy more than she needs this time. Her husband is at the market buying a ramadan package for a poor family, and she wants to add some meat to this package. She knows how expensive meat is for some families and this will be a perfect package if they add the meat. When the butcher learns why she’s buying more, he generously adds a little more meat for free to contribute this ramadan package. And they both wish all people do the same more often without waiting for this holy month. (drawing by mom)

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Red Lentil Soup Ramadan 5

I want to share another Ramadan tradition that is still alive especially in small cities. As it’s hard for traditions to survive in big cities, they are mostly seen in towns or small cities where people have more intimate relationships. On the other hand, people in big cities are always complaining that they don’t have these old traditions any more. One of theRamadan traditions I love is that neighbors send dishes to each other. And this is mostly the responsibility of the youngest family member. It was mine when I was a child. I remember that mom used to prepare a bowl of the dish of the day for one of our neighbors and tell me to take it to the neighbor. I must admit that I always wonder what our neighbor cooked on that day as she used to empty my bowl and fill it with the dish she cooked and give it in return, which is the second part of this tradition. That’s why I love it, it’s a very good way of sharing. In this way, you have a richer dinner table. And I think the significance of giving this responsibility to children is to teach them sharing. Mom used to decide on another neighbor next day and I used to take the dish to them. I used to walk so fast going and coming back form our neighbor as I didn’t want to miss the time of iftar. And when I heard imam’s voice on the way home, calling for the prayer (which means we can break our fast), I used to start to run! Everything was more exciting those times. But if there is no child in a house, you yourself take the dish to your neighbor. When I talk to mom on the phone these days, she says they still have this tradition in Tarsus, my hometown.

After breaking their fast, peole generally start their meal with a soup to warm their empty stomach. It also has a control on your appetite. When you start with a soup, as it removes the feeling of hunger, you eat enough from the other dishes. You always want to eat more if you don’t have a warm soup at the beginning. Among the soups I learnt from mom, red lentil soup is my favorite. Our negihbors used to love it, too. One bowl was never enough for them, so mom used to send them a small pot full of this soup. This is a traditional Turkish soup and you may find it at every Turkish restaurant at any time. Its cooking style may change although the ingredients are mostly the same. Here is mom’s style red lentil soup.

Mercimek Corbasi
Ingredients (servings 6)
-    1 medium sized onion, diced
-    1 medium sized carrot, finely chopped
-    1 medium potato, finely chopped
-    1 cup red lentil
-   6 cups water
-    1 tsp red pepper flakes
-    1 tsp cumin
-    1 tsp black pepper
-    1 tbsp dried mint
-    Salt to taste
-    2 tbsp olive oil
-    1 tbsp flour
-     1 ½ tbsp butter

Heat olive oil in a pot. Saute onion,  then add carrot and potatoes. Stir occasionally.

Wash red lentil, drain and add it to the pot. Saute it for 3 minutes. Keep stirring. Pour 6 cups water, add the spices and salt and boil it until the vegetables and lentils get soft enough. If they can easily be mashed when you press with a spoon, it’s done. It takes about 30 minutes over medium heat. Do not cover the pot during this time as it can rise and overflow.

In a small pan, melt the butter. Add flour and mix it continually. When it becomes creamy, pour it into the pot with lentils.

To have a smooth soup, mash everything in the pot using a blender. Then put the pot back on the fire and boil it for 5 minutes. It’s ready to warm your stomach now.

Traditionally, this soup is always served with lemon wedges. When you squeeze it on your soup, its taste is completed. To have the utmost pleasure, I always sprinkle extra red pepper flakes and dried mint on my soup.

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Stuffed Red Peppers Ramadan 4

Iftar is as important as suhoor during Ramadan. And there is a great tradition during this month. You can see iftar tents at certain streets of cities. Iftar tents are the places where homeless people or poor people are served various dishes for free. They either eat there or bring their pots and have them filled with dishes, then take them to home.

During Ramadan people invite guests for dinner more often than in other months. Muslims call this dinner iftar (just in this month), which starts with breaking fast (with water, dates and olives), and then goes on with other dishes. Inviting friends for iftar is like a tradition as people want to end their fast with people they love. In Islam, doing anything like eating, praying, working together is always advised. They pray together to thank God aither before meal or after it. And to go on enjoying iftar together, if you are invited for iftar, you may take something you cook or buy a kind of dessert as a gift. If someone invites you for dinner, you should invite them back after some time.

Stuffed vegetables are always popular at iftar tables as it shows the importance you give to your guests. They are served either as the main dish or as side dish. As we are in Summer, in the season of red bell peppers, I want to share stuffed red bell peppers with you. As I love them more than the green ones, I make these more often. When they are cooked well, their skin can easily be removed and it becomes more appealing.

Kırmızı Biber Dolması

Ingredients (servings 6)
-    6 red bell peppers
-    ¾ cup rice
-    2 medium sized onions, minced
-    A handful of minced parsley
-    A handful of minced scallions
-    3 cloves garlic, minced
-    1 tomato, diced
-    1 tbsp dried mint
-    1 tbsp black pepper
-    2 tbsp salt
-    4 tbsp olive oil
-    1 lemon
-    ½ tbsp pepper paste
-    1 cup water

Wash the rice well and drain. Add onion, parsley, scallion, garlic, spices, olive oil, lemon juice and pepper paste. Mix them well.

Cut the heads of red bell peppers and remove  their seeds. Then stuff them with the rice mixture you prepared. Do not overstuff the peppers as the rice will get bigger when cooked. Put the stuffed peppers vertically in a big pot.

Pour water in the pot and cover it. Cook it over the lowest heat for about 40 minutes. Then check if the rice is cooked. If it is, then you can take it from fire. I love to eat this when it’s still hot, but some people let it get cold and then serve. And we generally serve it with some yogurt near it.

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Gullac Ramadan 3

In Turkish culture, there are some certain dishes which are made on special days or occasions. Sesame Rings, which I wrote on before,  are one of them. And today I want to share another special dish made just in Ramadan month. This is a simple, but tasty dessert called gullac (güllaç in Turkish letters). I don’t want to translate it into English as it might be nonsense. And I didn’t  rename it in English as I couldn’t find what I could call it. If you have any suggestions seeing the photos or reading this post, I’d be so glad to hear. In Turkish gül means rose and aş means food; gullac  is the abbreviation of güllü aş, which means food with rose. Noone calls it güllü aş today, gullac is easier to pronounce, so it is the modern name of this yummy dessert. So what is the relation of rose with this dessert? Actually, it’s not the rose, but rose water which has that relationship. Rose water used to be the main flavor in this dessert in Ottoman culture because of its refreshing effect. However, today, it depends on your taste to add rose water or not. Some people use it, some don’t. Personally, I don’t love its flavor in gullac much, so I prefer not using it. But it doesn’t mean it tastes bad, it gives a quite refreshing flavor to the dessert.

Another Ottoman tradition about gullac is that it’s always decorated with pomegranate and I love to see these cute red beads on the white surface of this dessert. I think they complete each other and address to our eyes first. And I love to add a third wonderful ingredient for garnish. Pistachios! When you have these three at the same time, the pleasure you feel doubles.

You can see gullac at patisseries and at markets just in Ramadan. Just like dates,in Turkey it is special for Ramadan. This simple and easy dessert is made from gullac sheets. You may think that they are similar to phyllo sheets, but these are totally different. Gullac sheets are so white, thin and crispy. Today, people don’t make these sheets themselves as it requires special talents. These are sold in packages at the markets. And there are about 15 sheets in a package. As far as I know, there are two big companies producing and selling gullac to markets, Saffetabdullah Gullaclari and Istanbul Gullac.

Gullac sheets are simply made of corn starch, wheat flour and water. In the early times of Ottoman Empire, people used to make sheets from corn starch, flour and water and they could keep these for months. As these sheets  are dried and got crispy, people used to soften them with milk and sugar. I guess it wasn’t a kind of dessert those times, but people used to have it as a main dish.  The best part of it for those peple was its simple ingredients. And keeping the dried sheets for long might be the second reason for people to love it. Then as the empire got richer, it turned out to be a dessert special for the palace and it became sultans’ favorite. And today, when you tend to buy the dessert (not the sheets) from a patisseire, you will see that it’s not that cheap. It has that fame as the palace dessert thanks to sultans, it deserves to be expensive, doesn’t it? Business people always know their job!

You can find how gullac sheets are prepared here. As you’ll read here, these sheets are completely natural, they don’t have any additives. Moreover, it is a very light dessert. These are just two of the reasons why people prefer gullac to end their iftar meal with something sweet. You know, in Ramadan, muslims don’t eat or drink anything from sunrise till sunset, so their body needs more sugar than usual because of hunger. Besides meeting people’s sugar need, gullac also strengthen their bodies with vitamins B and E it contains.

Gullac

Ingredients
-    10 gullac sheets
-    1 ½ kg milk
-    350g sugar
-    A cup of crumbled walnut
-    Pistachio and pomegranate for garnish

Put milk and sugar (and 1 tbsp rosewater if you like) in a pot and heat it until the sugar melts. Stir it occasionally. It shouldn’t be too hot to touch, so let it cool a little. When it gets warm enough, we can start to make our dessert. If you use it hot, your dessert gets mushy.

Lay a gullac sheet on an average size tray. Wet it with the warm milk. Repeat this with five sheets. After the fifth one, spread the crumbled walnut on it. Then lay the rest five sheets one by one and wet each of them with milk. When you finish with the tenth one, pour the rest of the milk on it. They don’t need to be very good in shape while arranging them in the tray. They will combine when they get wet with milk. After pouring the milk, you will see the sheets are rising, do not touch them. Cover it with stretch film and put it in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

I always leave the garnishing part to the serving time, otherwise pomegranates and pistachio may change the color of gullac. After taking it from refrigerator, cut it in squares or rectangles, garnish and serve.

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Dates Ramadan 2

Hurma

When you hear imam’s voice calling for the prayer from all minarets of the city, you know that everyone fasting is ready to break their fast. Some people are sitting at a perfect dinner table with a warm soup, a kind of meat as a main dish and various side dishes like rice pilaf, stuffed bulgur kofte, stuffed grapevine leaves or cabbage rolls, a green salad or cacik and a Turkish dessert to end their meal while unfairly enough, some people have just one kind of dish or just tomato, cheese and olive to end their fast. As we witness all over the world, not all people have the same chance of having the same food. However, when they hear imam’s voice as a reminder for breaking their fast, they all have the same feeling. Whatever they have on their table, they think they deserve to eat it after a long fast.

Breaking fast is not simply eating something for muslims. They generally take care to have certain foods at the very begining of meal. Dates (hurma in Turkish), which are known as the fruit of heaven, are on top of this list. The rest are olives and water. As these are holy for muslims, it’s important for them to start their meal with these. Dates, olive, and water have a special place in the holy book Quran, so muslims feel closer to God when they have these first. Why are dates more important for muslims during Ramadan? It’s said that our prophet Muhammed used to break fast with dates, and muslims want to follow him by having dates at the beginning of their meal. I think the prophet Muhammed had a good reason for this. He knew that the amount of sugar in dates would help people’s bodies and overcome low blood sugar caused by hunger during the day, so he advised muslims to break fast with these fruits of heaven. In addition, it’s told in Quran that God helped Meryem telling her to eat dates to bear her baby easily. Doctors still advise pregnant women to have dates during and after their pregnancy. They say that dates contain a big amount of sugar and this helps both recovering weak bodies of new mothers and increasing the amount of milk their babies need. Dates have many other benefits for health as they contain fruit sugar, vitamin A and B, calcium, phosphorus, protein, iron, potassium, magnesium, zinc. As you see, it has the ingredients of most medicine. With these features, it is like a natural medicine against many diseases.

Date trees are so similar to palm trees. The main difference between a date tree and palm tree is that palm tree has no fruits and the other difference is their leaves. Leaves of date tree are so thin and sharp while palm tree has flat and softer leaves. We have lots of palm trees in the Southern region of Turkey, but unfortunately we don’t have date trees.

Dates, which we see at the markets mostly in Ramadan, have different kinds for every budget so that all people can buy. These are imported from Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and mostly from Iran. The cheapest dates are coming from Iran and the most expensive ones are from Medina, Saudi Arabia. There is a special species of dates in Medina, the tree of it was planted by the prophet Muhammed, so it’s known as date of prophet. As you can guess this one is the most expensive one, about 100 Turkish Liras (around $75). Personally, I think some big companies and date traders exploit peoples religious beliefs and they put more price on dates than their actual value. And this has nothing to do with Islam or humanity.

When you go to a restaurant for dinner during Ramadan, you see that there are one portion dates (totally free) on each table ready for muslims to break their fast. You can’t see this after or before Ramadan. When people hear imam’s voice, they have a date first, then they drink water and then start their meal.

Despite all positive sides of dates, it’s not so common to eat dates except the month Ramadan. While we can easily find dates everywhere during Ramadan, we can find them in some rare shops in other months. As a sweet tooth person, I love dates and I buy dates not just during  Ramadan but I eat more during Ramadan. I think they are great alternatives to candies and chocolate. I guarantee they are not less desirable for kids than candies or chocolate.

By the way, there is an interesting tradition in my hometown. Old women don’t waste date seeds, they wrap one date seed with a small piece of cloth, give it a triangle shape and attach it on clothes of new born babies with a safety pin. They believe that it brings luck in their future life. And some people put these seeds in their wallets as they believe it brings money. I don’t have such superstitions, but I love the shape and color of date seeds.

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Suhoor Ramadan 1

Ramadan (Ramazan in Turkish) is a holy month for muslims and they fast during this month as a worship. It started about a week ago and you can feel  the excitement of people everywhere in Turkey now. Although we can’t say that Turkey is a muslim country, a big number of  its citizens is muslim. The time of Ramadan was arranged by Islamic calendar and as this calendar is a moon calendar, it is 11 or 12 days shorter than Gregorian calendar. As a result, the month Ramadan starts about 10 days earlier each year.

Fast (oruc in Turkish) as a term means not eating or drinking anything and no sexual intercourse from sunrise till sunset. So the starting time and ending time of fast changes in each city depending on their direction.
The first step of fast begins after midnight, which is called suhoor (sahur in Turkish). People must prepare for the fast during suhoor. They can’t have any food after they hear the voice of imam calling all muslims to prayer (there are one or more mosques in a neighborhood and imams call to prayer from these mosques with loudspeakers). Imam’s voice is the reminder for the starting time of fast.

Do you think all muslims wind their alarm clocks and they wake up in the very early morning for suhoor  with its striking? As Ramadan is the month of ritual like traditons, there must certainly be something more interesting to wake people up. Believe or not, some men walk around the streets banging  drums during suhoor time to wake residents of that neighborhood. These men are called Ramadan drummer. They share the streets, so each street has its own Ramadan drummer. Although, some people are afraid of the sound of drums during night, this is one of my favorite traditions about Ramadan. When I was a child, I used to love watching the Ramadan drummer through the window every single night of the month. I found them…well…how can I say? Different from others. Maybe they look like people from a different world or maybe I find them so brave. Can you grab a drum and go out after midnight and bang it with all your might? I can’t. But Ramadan drummers can easily do it. I have many times wanted to ask one of these drummers to borrow me their drum and try it once.  However, I could never even dare to ask it. At the end of Ramadan, each Ramadan drummer walks around the street he is responsible for during day time and rings the doorbells to get some tip. And people give them how much money they want. (image source is here)

At suhoor time, people wake up and prepare some food to eat. This is so exciting to wake up at a very unusual time of night and eating some food with all family members. Doesn’t it sound enjoyable? Doctors say that people shouldn’t have heavy foods at suhoor not to have any health problems. And of course they shouldn’t forget to drink enough water at suhoor. People should prefer healthy and filling foods. People sometimes prefer having Turkish breakfast foods such as olive, cheese, sliced cucumber and tomatoes and of course boiled eggs (egg makes people feel full for a long time) and they have Turkish black tea as a drink. They sometimes have a warming soup and rice or bulgur pilaf or a kind of borek (doctors advice borek with vegetable filling, no meat).  And most people follow doctors advice and they always have compote (komposto or hosaf in Turkish) with their meal at suhoor. Compote is a very significant dish at suhoor as it prevents low blood sugar during the fast. When you have compote at suhoor, you don’t have vertigo caused by hunger and low blood sugar during day time. The other importance of compote is that it meets your need of drink during fast.

As we remember how compote is important for our health during Ramadan, I wanted to share how to make compote of cornelian cherries, which we can find during summer.

Kızılcık Kompostosu

Ingredients
-    250g cornelian cherries
-    1 cup sugar
-    5 cup water
-    A few cloves

Put the water in a pot and heat it. When it boils, add sugar. I don’t like it too sweet, so you can add extra sugar if you like. Taste and decide. Boil it for 1 or 2 minutes. Then add cornelian cherries and cloves. Boil it until the color and texture of cherries change, for about 20 minutes. Let it cool and put it in refrigerator. Serve it cold. This can also be a very good cold drink during hot summer days.

What do people generally have first to break their  fast? Do you have any idea? I’m going to tell about this in my next post.

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