Happy Nauryz!

2012 Nauryz flowers, this year with no stitches required.

Nauryz 2011

Today is the Kazakh new year holiday of Nauryz. Like last year, we prepared by doing some spring cleaning. This weekend we filled the back of my car with donations for goodwill. We also went bigger and better with this year's Nauryz flowers.

This year's Nauryz bouquet (more on this in a future blog post).

For dinner tonight I made Plov, another traditional Kazakh meal. I borrowed this recipe from one of my online friends from the Kazakh adoptive community. Maureen has two beautiful boys from Kazakhstan.

Plov

3 Tbsp Olive oil
2 carrots grated or diced
1 onion chopped
2 large chicken breast cubed
1 ½ c basmati rice
6-8 cloves minced garlic
2 c chicken stock
1/2 c water

Sauté carrot and onion in olive oil. Add chicken and a lot of pepper and brown. Wash and drain rice. Layer rice over mixture. Add stock and water over rice. Bring to boil. Set to lowest heat. Cover and cook about 30 minutes. Spread garlic over top and steam 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Rest 5 minutes. Stir in garlic. Salt if needed.

Happy Nauryz!

I'm can't wait until Nauryz falls on a weekend so we can do something a little more elaborate. Another fellow Kazakh mommy blogger has a ton of great recipes and craft ideas, a real Martha Stewart. I would need a week to prepare for her Nauryz feast.

Happy Nauryz!

March 22nd is the Kazakh holiday Nauryz, which is a celebration of spring and also corresponds with the Persian New Year. We celebrated over the last three days with more of the Persian traditions than the Kazakh traditions since many of the Kazakh traditions are a little more difficult to do with a toddler -- horse races and tree planting will have to wait a few years. However, we inadvertently achieved a key part of this holiday Saturday when our cleaning lady came over -- Spring Cleaning. Sunday we performed some more intentional observations of this holiday which included purchasing tulips and hyacinth and shopping for new clothes to wear in the new year. It just so happens that Miranda's 18month winter clothes needed to be upgraded to 24month summer clothes. We also feasted with a french toast breakfast. We continued the feast today with a traditional dish of Sabzi Polo Mahi.

Hopefully we will be able to work in more of the Kazakh traditions of this holiday next year, but it was a successful first Nauryz.