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Treasured Hungarian Family Recipes™ 1, 2 and 3 are English language, Hungarian cookbooks  I authored earlier this year.  I am very proud of my Hungarian heritage and wanted to share our history rich culinary world with those who are passionate about cooking and food in general.  

Hungarian cuisine was influenced by many cultures throughout our turbulent past.  Although Hungarians always used a large collection of spices, our most dominant spice and the symbol of Hungary is Hungarian Red Paprika Powder.  You will be surprised to learn that the bright red powder did not originate in my country.  Hungary fell under Turkish rule in 1526, and the occupation lasted for 150 years.  No wonder Turkey’s influence still echoes in our culture and dishes.  They brought with them a variety of exotic spices, and the still treasured coffee, that made Budapest Cafe Houses flourish in later centuries.  In the beginning the paprika plant, brought  to Hungary by the Turks, were mainly used for decoration, but eventually it also started to bring colour and fire into the very inventive kitchens of Hungarian pheasants.  The experimenting of our ancestors created a spice that became the symbol of a nation.  Its pungency ranges from extremely sweet to fiery hot, depending on the  type of pepper the powder was produced of.  By the time we reached the 19th century,  red paprika became the most dominant spice in Hungarian kitchens all over the country.    Today, Hungarian red paprika touches the lives of many people daily.  Such famous dishes as Hungarian Goulash, Hungarian Goulash Soup, Hungarian Fish Soup, Hungarian Cabbage Rolls and of course one of our most famous dishes, Hungarian Chicken Paprikash get their wonderful, bright red colour from the famous powder.  Interestingly enough, Hungarian Cabbage Rolls are not made with tomato paste as in many other cultures.  We use garlic, a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and red paprika to finish this magnificent dish. 

Austria’s influence is also very dominant in Hungary,  because of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy between 1867-1918.   Such specialities as their snitczels, sausages, wieners, vegetable main dishes are still a staple of  the traditonal Hungarian kitchen even today.   The Hungarian aristocracy always maintained a French style of cooking, so there is tremendous amount of French influence in our gourmet dishes as well.  One of our most famous desserts is the fiery Gundel Crape, speciality of the Gundel Restaurant still found today in Budapest.   Hungarians are very proud of their variety of crape recipes passed down from generation to generation in their families.  It is believed that the most popular dessert in Hungary is the crape which could be filled with jam, sugared cocoa powder, cinnamon sugar, cottage cheese, walnuts, poppy seeds and many more unique but equally tasty creations.   Once filled, it is rolled up and served with a delicate dusting of powdered sugar.  Children demand these tempting  sweet treats at least once a week.   However, there is also a large variety of savoury crapes, that could also be breaded, filled with Foie Gras, pate or cheese. 

Our King Mathias of the 15th century has introduced Italian culinary methods into the traditional Hungarian kitchen.  He married an Italian princess, Beatrice of Naples.  She brought with her exotic cheeses, pastas, and unique spices.  Turkey was also introduced to Hungarians at the same time.  It is even a large part of agriculture today.  My family always had a large turkey farm in the country and our birds were contracted all over Europe.  I have many found memories as a child taking weekend trips from the city. 

As you see the Hungarian culinary world is full of variety, imagination, passion, fire, history and tradition.  Our restaurants, cafe houses and cake shops created such lasting treasures as Dobos Torte, Eszterhazy Torte, Jokai Torte, Sacher Torte and Hungary’s answer to the Walnut Roll, “Beigli” in Hungarian.   I hope that your curiosity was sparked by my article.  If you would like some free recipes, please visit my website.

An answer to that question really requires that you also ask why someone should write poetry at all? Why not just write paragraphs and say the same thing? The simple answer is that it wouldn’t be poetry, it wouldn’t have the same impact and it probably wouldn’t have the same meaning to each person who reads it.

To understand, “Why does Shakespeare use iambic pentameter?” it’s important to understand that poetic forms and rhythms aren’t there to limit the writer. They are there to help shape the writer’s words into something better, and to make them mean more together than they do apart. Think of someone using a set of paint-by-numbers. You wouldn’t look at their canvas and ask why there was a drawing and what all those numbers mean. It’s clear that they’re there so the artist can create something in a pleasing shape with the right color combinations. The lines and numbers help you create a beautiful picture.

Through iambic pentameter,  Shakespeare or any other poet accomplishes the same purpose. They help shape their thoughts and words into a pleasing form that’s easier for other people to see, understand and appreciate. The melodic tones of the voice speaking lines in a poetic meter captures the attention of the audience, and holds them in its rhythm while the poet’s point is communicated.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” from a famous Shakespeare sonnet would have far less impact if he had pushed aside the idea of iambic pentameter and written, “Should I look at you and compare you to an afternoon in the summer time?” As you can see, the way Shakespeare wrote it is by far the better line of poetry. And if you use a paint-by-numbers set, following their color choices or similar ones, and staying within the lines will help you produce a much better picture than if you neglected that framework and just start slapping paint on the paper.

The entertainment genre of fan fiction is gaining great popularity. Many great novelists or writers in other mediums created characters and situations that people never tire of visiting. These are authors who are no longer creating their works, so those who have read their original works over and over long for sequels and more stories using the characters and eras they fell in love with. Authors whose original works have generated fan fiction include Margaret Mitchell, Ray Bradbury, Jane Austen and creators of a complete, realistic future such as Gene Roddenberry. Various TV miniseries and hit movies recently on Jane Austen novels have brought in many more new fans to discover her original works and yearn for more stories using her wonderfully interesting and lovable or despicable characters. Imaginative authors abound who have come up with ways to fill this fan need, always making sure they include the characters that the fans most want to see continue.

Some writers have incorporated more modern obsessions, such as the horror genre zombie theme, into the Austen era. Seth Grahame-Smith is the author who managed to incorporate zombies into fan fiction but he did not really create new stories–he just added zombies to already well-known Austen scenes in somewhat contrived manners. He is  not the only author who thought Jane Austen fans would enjoy seeing how zombies could work out in the lives of her characters, using them in a “prequel” to one of Austen’s novels, just adding the words “and Zombies” to the classic title and a subtitle, “Dawn of the Dreadfuls.”

The Star Trek TV series did not last all that long compared to many TV shows, yet its popularity lives on in conventions, movies, spin-off TV series more long-lived than the original and hordes of fans who still love the seemingly real future world created by Gene Roddenberry. Many fan fiction sequel novels also hope to capture the ardent interest of “Trekkies.”

“Gone With the Wind” is another novel whose characters and stories are now part of the American fabric, much as Jane Austen’s classics have become. Alexandra Ripley wrote a sequel to the novel, called “Scarlet” to answer some of the questions the novel left readers with after Rhett Butler’s famous exiting line.  So powerful is this novel in American literature with the constant references to the characters that the estate of Gone with the Wind’s author, Margaret Mitchell, had to give permission to Ripley to write and publish the sequel. The estate seeks to control all uses of the Gone With The Wind name and theme, filing lawsuits against the publishing of a parody called “The Wind Done Gone” which told the same story from the point of view of a slave. The book was published in 2001, a year after the first attempt to publish it.

Jane Austen’s universal classic appeal can be seen in the numerous eras and generas JA fanfiction now encompasses. If you want to know the definition of a true classic, one need look no further than the fanfictions and novels stretching the boundaries of her characterizations into time travel, zombies and yes, even vampires. If you are a classic Jane Austen purist, how about a more traditional Regency Pride and Prejudice fanfiction? One of my favorites is Gaby A.’s Lost in the Deep which tells the story of how Georgianna Darcy, comes to find true love in an unexpected place.

About the Authoress- Jane Austen and Her Classics

Author Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on December 16, 1775. She was home-schooled in her younger years and soon attended the Abbey School in Reading, Berkshire. She started writing at an early age. She wrote about her observations on culture and society with humor, irony and sophistication and her works have stood the test of time even to the present.

After her father’s death, the family moved to Southampton. In 1811, she published her first novel—Sense and Sensibility.

Jane Austen suffered from bovine tuberculosis and died on July 18, 1817.

In 1832, Richard Bentley purchased the copyrights of all of Austen’s novels and published them as part of his Standard Novels series. Since then, The Jane Austen Sequels have stayed in print.

The Important Characters

Elinor is the eldest daughter of Mr. Dashwood by his second wife. She loves to draw and design. She is silent of her desires.

Marianne is the second daughter of Mr. Dashwood by his second wife. She loves to read. She is very expressive of her emotions.

Novel Summary

Before the death of Mr. Dashwood, he bestows his estate to his son from his first marriage and leaves his second wife and three daughters in uncomforting circumstances and only a small income. Their lack of fortune makes it hard for Elinor and Marianne to get married. But in the end, the two find love after all.

The Review

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen that was published in 1811. It is a story of two sisters that are complete opposites especially on matters of the heart. Elinor proclaims that it is only right to marry for money and position than to marry for love while Marianne claims that one should only marry in the cause of love.

The novel is written with actual and hypothetical language, private desire and public voice, epistolary and objective narration. It values female experience and aims to convey the difference of women with sense (logic) versus women with sensibility (emotion) so as to challenge customary ideas on female authority and power.

So much for the classic novel, you can now enjoy numerous Jane Austen sequels  including Regencey era Jane Austen sequels from Sense and Sensibility. If you can never quite get enough of Austen’s ever loved classics, now is  you chance to see where the story goes next.

In Avatar Book 3, the main character Aang is injured and the capital of the Earth Tribe, Ba Sing Se, has been destroyed. Aang awakes to find that he is on a Fire Tribe ship, but that he and his friends are disguised as Fire Tribe members. Sokka, a friend of Aang’s and also a warrior of the Water Tribe, wants to invade the Fire Tribe forces and capture the Fire Lord. A solar eclipse is supposed to happen and that is when Sokka wants to attack because no firebending will be possible during the solar eclipse. The attack is to be done by all warriors and Benders that Aang met and made friends with along his journey in the earlier books.

The attack goes as planned, but the Royal Family were evacuated earlier in the day. The royal Family had prior knowledge of the attack, therefore, were staging their own attack on Aang and his army. The Fire Lord’s son, Zuko, finds his father hiding and uses the solar eclipse to his advantage and proclaims to his father that he will join forces with the Avatar Aang. Meanwhile, the Fire Lord’s army attacks Aang’s army and destroys all of their ships, leaving them no way to escape. Aang only has his air bison, so he leaves with all of the children, leaving the adults to be captured.

Zuko finds Aang at an Air Temple and asks to join forces with Aang, stating that he will teach Aang firebending which would complete Aang’s mastery of all of the elements. Aang and Zuko go on a quest to unlock all of the firebending secrets of previous warriors.

After Aang and Sokka regroup with all of the rest, Sokka plans another attack. Sokka wants this done because the impending approach of a comet named Sozin would allow the Fire Lord virtually unstoppable and this is the main thing that Aang had been trying to prevent since Book 1. Aang goes to an island to meditate and is taught the ancient art of energybending, which can be used to defeat the Fire Lord without killing him. As the Fire Lord claims the power of the comet, Aang returns in Avatar State and proceeds to fight the Fire Lord, using energy bending to defeat him. With everything over, Zuko is crowned Fire Lord and promises to keep things in peace forever.