Be Grateful, Be happy!

Most people look at others who seem to have it all and think – well of course they are grateful-they have everything that makes them happy, but that is not how it works, it is those who are grateful, no matter what they have or don’t have that are happy.  Being grateful makes you happy.

So today on Thanksgiving Day, back in Missouri, I feel grateful for all the people I met on my travels, the ones who helped me find the right bus and right metro.  The Austrian train conductor who got off the train and came over to tell me I was on the wrong platform, the young man who helped carry my backpack down the steepest, fastest escalator I ever saw in Budapest.  For the Benedictine monks who blessed me every night before bed, the family in Poland who welcomed me into their hearts, the rabbit who gave his life for my delicious dinner, the young girl who had the courage to come forward and hug me when I needed a human touch, my Chinese hostess Mrs. Gao who always made me feel welcome and comfortable, the two young Mormon missionaries in Eger, Hungary who sat with me and had a muffin and let me talk non-stop. The nice pediatrician I met on a train who took me to a great hostel in Vienna and then brought her family for coffee the next day. A new friend in Sopron who took the time to make a Hungarian lunch for me, the young girl in Budapest from Kazakhstan who took the time to read my blog and sent the most heartfelt note to me

Thankful for my friend in Germany who took me in and was my private tour guide, for JT in the Netherlands who took me in and fed me and played a great basketball game- winning just for me!

And to all the people back home who reached out in e mails, phone calls and text to encourage me to keep going.  Some were strangers I never met who found my blog through friends of friends. To my three children who encouraged me, kept telling me how proud they were of me and all the photos they sent of our dog Roxie. My daughter said if I could travel alone in  Europe she could run the NYC Marathon and she did! To the Benedictine sisters in Fort Smith and Clyde who sent prayers.

Feels great to be back home. The next month will be filled preparing for Madagascar. I have already started some language training via computer. I have a few more stories to post and then it will be about Madagascar.

Here are a few recipes from my Hungarian cooking classes:

Lecso!

In the summer when the gardens and markets are filled with ripe peppers and tomatoes, Hungarians like to make lecsó, a tasty and healthy green pepper and tomato stew that is easy to prepare. Lecsó comes in many variations and it can be served as a main dish or used as a base for other dishes, like meat stew. In addition, lecsó can be stored in jars and preserved for consumption later in the year, when fresh ingredients are not in season. The recipe below is only one of the many ways that lecsó can be made.

The ingredients: (for 4)

2 lbs of green Hungarian peppers, 1 lb of tomatoes, 1 large onion, 2 slices of smoked bacon, salt, 1 teaspoon of paprika, a little oil for cooking

The how-to:

Remove the seeds and membranes and cut the green peppers into slices. Peel and dice the tomatoes. Cut the onion into rings and then cut the rings into halves.

Dice the bacon and fry it in a saucepan. Add the onions. Add the paprika and stir in the tomatoes and the green peppers. When most of the water has evaporated lower the heat, cover and simmer until tender. Serve on rice or potatoes and you can  add cooked meat  or cooked chicken.

Hungarian Fried Bread -Langos

A very popular Hungarian street food specialty, lángos. It’s a deep fried flat bread made of a dough with flour, yeast, salt and water (a kind of bread dough). Lángos can be made with yoghurt, sour cream or milk instead of water, a dash of sugar along with salt and sometimes with flour and boiled mashed potatoes, which is called potato lángos. It is eaten fresh and warm, topped with sour cream and grated cheese, garlic or garlic butter, or doused with garlic water. Lángos can be cooked at home or bought at markets and street vendors around the country. The name comes from ‘láng’, the Hungarian word for flame.

Traditionally, lángos was baked in the front of a brick oven, close to the flames. It was made from bread dough and was served as breakfast on days when new bread was baked. Nowadays, lángos is deep fried in oil. Lángos is also very popular and known as a fast food at fairs and in amusement parks in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Germany Serbia and Romania.

The ingredients (makes about 10 lángos, depending on the size) 300 g all-purpose flour -roughly  1 and 1/2 cups – if you make heaping cups it will be right

7 g dried (instant) yeast – 1/2 tablespoon

250 ml water – 1 cup and a few more drops as needed

1/2 teaspoon salt

sunflower oil (for frying) toppings: sour cream, grated cheese, garlic

In a mug, dissolve the salt in the water. In a bowl, combine the sifted flour with the yeast. Add the salty water to it and stir thoroughly (if it’s very sticky, add a little bit more flour). Work the dough with a wooden spoon or with your hands until the dough is smooth and no longer sticks to the bowl. Leave the dough in the bowl, cover with a clean cloth and let it rise for 30-40 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

Once it is rested, carefully tip out the dough onto a floured surface, stretch it out into a square and cut out about ten 4 inch round shapes with a big glass (a big cookie cutter also works). Stretch out each piece with your fingers into a round shape with the center being thinner than the edges. Let the pieces rest for another 30 minutes on the floured surface.

In a saucepan, heat sunflower oil. Place the lángos into the hot oil, fry it on one side until golden brown then turn. Repeat with the remaining lángos dough.

Serve while it’s hot. You can eat it simple  topped with grated cheese and sour cream or make it sweet with cinnamon sugar.

I realize this is like any other cultures “bread” food – pizza dough, flour tortillas, pita bread, but it does taste a little different. I guess adding paprika to the dough or sour cream might make it more “Hungarian.”

Jó étvágyat!    Bon appétit!

 

If the only prayer you ever said in your whole life was, thank you, that would suffice.  Meister Eckhart

Never let the things you want, make you forget the things you already have!

There is always, always, always something to be grateful for!