Christmas '10

Being home for the holidays was absolutely wonderful! I spent a bit over two weeks home doing barely anything!

I flew home from Forli via WizzAir (a very cheap airline). Going to Forli takes about three hours, and the flight took me one hour. So getting to Forli was an adventure, as usual. I got on the 8:25 bus to Pontassieve, from where I took the train to Florence. I had to buy my ticket in Pontassieve, because I couldn't get in the office in the Villa where we normally get our train tickets from. I used a machine to buy my ticket, which was in Italian. When it asked me where I was going from, I put in Florence for some reason. Where was I going? Florence. It seemed a little strange to me that I had to pay much less than I usually have to. So when I got my ticket and was on the train, I realized what I had done. The conductor was nice and didn't fine me or anything; he just asked me where I am coming from and marked my ticket. (In Italy you have to get your ticket stamped by a machine to activate it. I forgot to do that as well, since I caught an earlier train and ran to catch it.) I got off in Florence and put my bag in the baggage claim to not carry it around with me all day in the city. Off I went. I bought a few more things and just enjoyed the town. I went back to the station, bought my other ticket, which was a hassle because none of the machines I used wanted to give me the ticket I wanted! About the fourth machine finally gave me the option that I needed and I bought the ticket and got on the train. I slept through 95% of the first train ride (almost 2 hours) and changed trains in Faenza. As I was crossing in the station, I saw a familiar man. I did a double-take and realized that it was Danielle, Cecilia's husband! I greeted him and he was so shocked, he didn't recognize me at first. When he did, he was happy and asked me where I was going, etc.. He ended up putting me on a different train than I intended, but it's fine, because I got to where I wanted to go. From the station in Forli, I took a cab to the airport and sat there for hours! I went there so much earlier because basically I had no other option to go at a different time. Oh well. Finally it's time to board the plane. The plane came late from Budapest, so we left late as well. We made in to Hungary only about 20 minutes late. I got off, got my luggage and was out! I was so excited!! My dad picked me up and we went home. We had bread, with salt in it!, and sour cream for dinner. Felt so good!! (Italians are not familiar with the concept of sour cream. I am in pain from that!!)

The following day, I visited Dad at his work place, which happens to be right next to the Parliament, looking over the Danube and onto the Buda Castle. We ate lunch and visited the Parliament. I've been there before, but about 10 years ago, or even more. Wow! That place is incredible! Hungarians sure know how to decorate! We listened to the history behind the Sacred Crown, which was very interesting. After the tour, he went back to work and I met with Gorondi Reka. We caught up quickly and than parted, since she had many things to take care of. I went back to the apartment and waited for Dad to come back and for us to go to Debrecen! We went to the station, while meeting with my brother and his family and meeting my sister, Reka, at the station. We took a nice 2 and a half hour train ride to Debrecen and we were hoooooomeee!! I hugged my mom for a very long time. We packed all our bags in the car and she took the men home. Us three girls, Reka, my sister-in-law, Tunci, and I started to walk home. Aaah, Debrecen is sooo pretty in the winter. The street was nicely decorated and it really did feel like Christmas. When we got home Anna was waiting for us with turos csusza! Yay for more sour cream!! Aah, home.







The next day, I met with my Anna and Zsofi over a cup of tea and hookah. After that, also with Peti. The same night, I went out with Anna to a folk pub, in hopes of a folkdance house. Yeah, it just ended up being folk dancers sitting around drinking and smoking. But it was fine, Anna and I caught up on many things and went on a walk in the lit town. The next day was Christmas Eve, which was spent at home. We decorated the tree, I played with my nephew, who clung to me like a monkey, literally. The entire family dressed up nicely and we all went to the Christmas Eve service. It was the first time for me in the freshly renovated Nagytemplom and it felt so right! The service was beautiful. My godfather, the head pastor, said the sermon and after that, the youth of the congregation put on a very nice Christmas show. It included all sorts of poems and songs. Since our usual place in the church is a little bit towards the back of the church, Marko sat in my lap to see the play. At first he was interested, but for a seven year old it ended up being a bit long, so he fell asleep in my lap. The kid was so adorable! After the service we all went back home and started the preparations for dinner. We set the table for 10 people and waited around for Aron and Ancsa to arrive. After they did, we all sat around the table. I was so very happy and content to have everyone sitting around the table once again. We stuffed cabbage (finally!) for the first course and as second we ate shark with mashed potatoes and a beet salad. Dessert all'Ancsa, a piskota cake with rasperry cream inside. Mmmmm! :)
In our family the tradition is that the kids do the dishes and cleaning up after dinner. During that time the Angles brings the presents under the tree. When we hear a bell ringing, that's when we know that the room is ready to be entered into. The presents are usually put underneath the tree and covered with a big, white cloth. When we all take our places, we read the Bible, sing Christmas songs, and pray. Marko sang a song all by himself, all four verses. We were so proud of him! Present time! The MC, aka Mom, folds up enough cloth to uncover one present at a time.The person gets the present and opens it up. After one is done, the next present comes and arrives in the hands of its rightful owner. Marko was so adorable. He named himself the present carrier. As soon as Mom took out one present he was eager to deliver it to the owner. She didn't even say the name, but he was off already. This Christmas was so special to me. Having the entire family together, plus the attachments, on Christmas Eve has not happened since 2000! Insane! It meant so much to me that we were all together finally.

The following days passed by quickly. Christmas Day we went to church and had communion. In the afternoon we went out to my aunt's house where we had Mom's side of the family gather together. Again, everyone was there! All 20 of us! We couldn't fit at one table, so the kids got the "Cica asztal" (kitten table), just like in the old days. It was so fun to have all my cousins around and just spend time with them even if it was just a few hours.
The 26th, my parents, Reka, and I drove up to see the other side of the family. We visited Dad's parents, where we had lunch (Mama's amazing chicken soup with csigateszta, stuffed cabbage, and rolled meat. Pure perfection for me!) and went to church after. After the service, we drove to my father's brother's house and spent some time there as well. Ah! I saw my entire family within the span of 24 hours!

The days in between Christmas and New Year's went by fast. I took care of some things in the city, had a sleepover with Zsofi and Anna, had dinner with my sister Anna's friends, and just enjoyed being home. New Year's Eve was spent with the dancers of the Debreceni Nepi Egyuttes dancing and laughing all night long. The first of January I went to a concert with my parents where we met with good friends of ours, who came over for dinner. Ah! So many people in such short amount of time!

I went up to Budapest a few days before my flight for several reasons. On my mother's side of the family there is a family reunion every summer, but not everyone goes, and it's usually the only time of the year we see each other. Therefore we decided to have a cousin reunion other than that! It wasn't big, just five of us, but so good to be together with them! Following day Reka and I went to the translating office, which was not a successful event. We met Miklos for lunch and got Marko from school that afternoon. Unfortunately, my stay in Hungary ended the next day. I got on my flight and flew back to Italia. I had to stay in a hotel, because my flight arrived late and there were no trains at that time. There is a nice hotel right next to the airport that I have already stayed at, so it was no biggie. I watched several episodes of Sex and the City on TV and slept pretty well. It was so warm in the room that I only slept with a sheet! So strange! (In CC, I usually sleep with a sweater and a scarf on and a sheet, two throws, and a feather blanket on me. It gets cold here!) I ate breakfast in the morning and went to the station. Got on a different train than I intended, but it's ok, I made it where I wanted to be! Got back to Casa Cares safely, with Rike waiting for me at the bus stop.

The Making of Dobos Torta

Sounds awesome right? It has to be one of the weirdest baking moments of my life.

For Christmas I bought Drew a Hungarian cookbook (he wants to be a chef). It has the most basic Hungarian foods in it, from gulyas leves, Jokai bableves, rakott krumpli, paprikas krumpli, turos csusza, szilvas gomboc, to Dobos torta. Of course there are many more things in there, but these are the ones that pop into my head right now. Now, Drew is not a person who likes sweets a whole lot, but Dobos torta immediately stood out for him. Perfectly understandable. For those who are not aware of what this is, it is a layered sponge cake with chocolate mousse type of filling in between the layers and on the outside. It is topped off with a layer of hard caramel. Incredibly delicious if it is done correctly.

So, Drew and I decided that we will try to make Dobos torta. We went and bought the eggs (we needed 11!) and began. Since we didn't have 6 23cm round pans to bake each layer, we decided to adapt and do it twice and cut each cake into three layers. (It seems like adapting to the situation is something we do very often here at Casa Cares.) When we poured half of the batter into the pan, it seemed like a very little amount, so we poured the entire thing and decided to cut that into layers, not necessarily 6. Well, when it baked, it had a huge bubble on the top, that did end up deflating, but it was still very thin! So we skipped the whole cutting into layers and decided to just quarter the cake and have a very small cake. Now comes the filling. The recipe said to melt the chocolate and cocoa powder together. That wasn't happening. It was this clumpy mess that would not melt into smooth chocolate. So we put it in to microwave. It still wouldn't melt. So we just put it with the butter and finally it was a smooth liquid. I think the only thing that we did do right was the egg white part. We had to whip it with sugar into stiff peaks and fold it into the chocolate and butter. Now we had the filling. But it was definitely TOO much for that little cake. So we put as much as possible on the inside and outside and we still had at least half of the icing left over. I am currently working on licking the bowl, but it is soo rich! It takes like chocolate marshmallow. I have a glass of milk next to me and the bowl, so we shall see what happens. (We have normal milk now! Elisa introduced us to actual milk and Drew and I also bought some more of that today. The milk we normally have is not so great.) I might not be having dinner tonight...

When the cake came out of the oven, it smelt a lot like eggs. It smelled fine to me, since it was supposed to be piskota, but Drew was concerned. Hmm. The "cake" was to thin to slice into several layers, so we just quartered it and stacked them on top of each other. We spread the icing on it and called it a cake. We stuck in the fridge to set and went to get Rike (she spent the day in Florence, so she didn't get to experience this mess!). After we ate dinner, we decided to try the cake. Oh goodness. Our reactions were simply priceless. Eating a "cake" that tastes like frittata (basically, an omlette) that has the texture of polenta (a corn meal dish) covered in chocolate? You be the judge of that. The picture of the Drew and Rike explains all: As we were attempting to eat this concoction, tears were rolling down from our eyes, because we were laughing so hard. We ended up throwing it out because we were afraid of eating more of this and getting sick. Plus, the original plan was to take a slice to Paul, who is in the hospital recovering from a hip surgery, and we simply can't take something like this to him (he LOVES pastries!)!

We had plenty of the cream left over, but that was fine. We all kept eating it, either alone or with some cookies as a cookie sandwich. I even put it in my coffee. It was like eating chocolate marshmallows. :)


Making of Dobos Torta-Attempt #2

We felt so awful for the previous disaster, so we just had to try again! We looked up another recipe online, which claims to be the original one, and decided to go with that. But, it's not that easy. For lunch Drew made deviled eggs. We needed 15 eggs for that recipe and he left 14 eggs by accident, using too many eggs at lunch. So we decided to use the "original" recipe for the dough and the cream will the same as last week, so we were fine the number of eggs. Everything turned out fairly ok this time. The dough was nice and fluffy, the way it should be. Now the only problem was how to bake them. We decided the simplest way to do them would be like making crepes. So we put the batter into the pan and cooked them. We couldn't spread them completely into the pan to get a perfect round shape so we came to the conclusion to make individual one. So we cut little rounds with a cup and spread the chocolate cream in between. To get the hard top, you have to melt sugar and spread it on one of the layers. Well, I melted the sugar and poured it on top of the individual tops. Since this is caramel, it hardens quick! And that is exactly what happened. I was able to get one of the rounds off the plate before the sugar hardened completely, but the others stuck! We tried to get them out by using a sharp knife, but that only broke the sugar and the layer along with it. So, we stuck it in the microwave to melt the sugar a bit so we could get it off, and that was perfect! Rike frosted the layers in between, Drew the outside, and Rike again with the tops. The results were wonderful. Here are some pictures of the entire process.