Gabi's Narnia

Cakey season

It's rather time-consuming when you have two holidays at the same time. I really messed up the mézeskrémes' filling and after a weird KM training I stopped by to fetch the promised flódni. (prepared, of course, according to Eszter's instructions) And now only a couple of other cakes left to be made for the family Christmas and I am munching my flódni in the meanwhile. Chag sameach and Merry Christmas. And why is it 2:52AM again?!?!
About something on the inside: God answers prayers. I prayed for this specific thing and my Messiah arranged it accordingly although this outcome is definitely not unto my liking. I am still thankful that He has an ear and He cares for me this much. Always on the yellow brick road... A few more things to go, for sure. I have no clue, once again, what the new year is going to entail. Ah, have I mentioned that I was hoping to spend New Year's Eve all by myself, pondering and reflecting? It seems like some might want to join me in that... Soft to touch, in vain. I want to go Home.

Thank You & you

 Today I had a Sabbath day, yes, on a Thursday. Tomorrow I am going to have another one, it seems like. The latter not just from sunset, but pretty much all day. As for the former, several lessons got cancelled or there was a miscommunication about them, some others I called off simply in order to be able to join this beloved family, whom I haven't seen for such a long time.

American thanksgiving is more or less the equivalent of Sukkot/The Feast of Tabernacles inasmuch that they both celebrate God's deliverance and rich provision.

We indulged in garnishes with promising names I have hardship recalling, like Corn Pudding.

That's where it pretty much stops. You will be able to spot the various meals on the shot once David, who married Yulia, whom I learnt biblical Greek together with, is going to send it to me. I love the Hyatts. They are among the most intelligent, full-hearted people I know. I was very thankful today to be able to sit at one table with 16 other people in their home.

Pumpkin Pie Proof

I am now an official pumpkin pie master, with this recipe. Chinelo sent me a shot, but I saved that on the PC... now I got it. So let me just affirm, that two pumpkin pie gourmands proof-ate from my humble first attempts and I passed with flying colours... although the dough could be slightly less thick and I did put cream into the pumpkin, not only on the top of it whipped!!! The picture doesn't do much justice, the top wasn't this much bursting, it settled and went back to normal. This is I guess the hungry lab rat's (is there a nicer expression in English?!?) devouring instinct, to take a shot of the cooling pie. And you can see part of my vintage oven which works perfectly and is about the same age as I am. 18 that is.

Keeping the measurement, very important!

Well, my first ever (and how beautiful!) pumpkin pie is getting baked in the oven right now. It hasn't started airing a wonderful smell yet, so I have time to share a warning re:whip cream syphons.
Gosh, if you don't remember whether it is double portion of the cream (i.e. two bags) or double cream charger what makes better whipped cream... and you try both at the same time... be ready to add about 15 more minutes to prep time resulting from clean-up requirements.
Hope you won't funk around with it as much as I did, where in the end I could claim with our forefathers that this is a land flowing with milk... hmm.
But it is sturdy whipped cream which can hardly wait to be placed on the top of this delicious pie... now the smell is coming! If you are around, come and welcome!

PS: Oh, no! I forgot to add the powdered sugar... tragedy and slightly more healthy solution!!!

PS2: since my camera got stolen, this is what my mobile managed to capture :)

Hitchcock in the house

Yesterday I brought back home the pomegranate and melon purchased for Tu Bishvat, which was celebrated in Sirály. You can't be more cost-effective than that, unless you were given one for free on your way to the fruit orgy that this festival ultimately is. (The reason is that there was plenty of leftovers, even almost 2 hours after the start... which is the time I managed to get there, oh well :)
Today dinner consisted of a plateful of red berries. Although this sounds overly simplistic, the process how I got there wasn't quite so! Click on the pictures to see for yourself what must have been used as a fake-blood substance in Ancient thrillers. Ancient, I mean King David and alike.

Caffé da Carlo

A real entrepreneurial friend of mine opened with two others a cute little café close to Nyugati (downtown Budapest). It is a real treat... and the cappuccino holds your teaspoon (i.e. it is real thick and as it should be).
Carlo, who is one of the owners is a great people-person. He makes you feel welcome and not only the service is appealing, but the quality of the products also.
Read a Hungary review here.
From Caboodle, the English portal on Hungary, where to find it exactly. Here.
And I inserted the chew.hu post in its entirety below.
So, when are you going to drop by??? :)
I'm happy Tallian Miklos has already been promoting the place and forgive Balint that he only dragged me there now even though I already had a "free cap" voucher...

First oatmeal breakfast

About a year or so ago Lea and Doug filled me in about the intricacies of preparing oatmeal. Finally the time has come and I made the first hot cereal breakfast a couple of minutes ago... and it's almost entirely gone!
It is a good meal if you want to avoid dairy products since milk is not a necessary ingredient. Its high fiber-content qualifies for healthiness even if you add maple syrup and ginger bread seasoning as I did. Well, I also put a bit of chopped walnut on the top. Next time I'll make sure to leave room for the milk, but for a lactose-aware person I am it is not a bad option. If you have favourite recipes (oatmeal I mean) send them in email and I'll keep experimenting!

Pig-killing (a la Hungarian)

For quite some time I have wished to tell you about Hungarian pig-killing parties which take place in cold winter mornings and last through the day until all parts are processed.
Now browsing through the photos of FenyoB I realised it would be great to promote his 645 blog here.
Some photos he took at a pig slaughtering party:
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I have already posted on his abilities here. Worth checking out both the 2CamDudes and the 645 photoblogs as well!!!

Golden poop!!!

Christina and Adrien had their Birthdays last week so we had a little get together where most of the time we shared funny stories.
Like secret agents entering the flat and ordering Adri not to move the curtain until late afternoon because sharpshooters will use their weapons without any warning... all this at 7AM with toothbrush in her mouth, on the day of George W's visit to Budapest. (She lives by the Parliament, oh well).
A highlight was when we cheered with a special champagne... which contained 23 carat golden pieces. Now, I insisted on wanting to poop gold... read all those traditional tales as a child with chicks laying golden eggs. Didn't notice any special digestive mechanism, but it was still a fact since gold is not dissolved in a regular human body :)

Give thanks! I'm giving...

OK, I'm totally bumped out. I mean... devastated. There was a HUGE thing on my heart for quite some time now and the dream just vanished. Totally dissipated and here I am. Depressed? Yes, most probably. I didn't lose it since it wasn't even mine in the first place, but a lot would have been determined by it. It's very unclear, I guess, but it should remain so. Pray for me though. That I would be patient and fully dependent in the Lord in the midst of it. I don't want to complain. Both Palma and Mom said that God did it with a purpose and in His timing He shall bring this to pass, if that's within His design. While I was mourning and at the same time rejoicing over nature's sympathy towards my pain (the Vermezo park is totally gloomy, with grey sky and autumn atmosphere all over the place) it all dawned on me.

It's thanksgiving day today! And I'm doing the shopping for my beloved, dear friends for a delicious thanksgiving meal! Not even Americans eat this proper Thanksgiving menu & I'm going to spend precious hours with these people and it's a day of rememberance of God's provision for us (ok, a good prophet always indentifies with the peoples s/he represents before God)!!! God, MY GOD is going to provide for me and He sees my situation. And IN EVERYTHING I'm supposed to be thankful to Him and let my requests be known to Him by giving Him thanks first! I think the battle is won. In my mind... how does that translate into the practicalities? Not really sure yet.

And the cornbread is ready. Now I'm peeling the boiled roots for the mashed potato and the turkey (breast) is seasoned and in its baking bag ready to be tossed into heat. Sorry if I disappointed you, but my humble company would never devour an entire turkey, with special regards to the fact that if it were my own cooking I wouldn't even eat any other parts!!! The cranberry sauce is in the fridge, Palma is bringing the pumpkin pie. And Jay & Beth are celebrating Thanksgiving next weekend!!!! Come on, could it be that I'm becoming more traditional than Americans themselves??? :) OK, not a real threat on that, but it's a good tradition I'm keen on celebrating. So all of ye' dear Ones, in the distant continent of immigrants and startup companies, we are 6-9 hours ahead of you in eating the harvest-memoirs. And I'm thankful. Really.