Thanksgiving Dinner

So many folks have asked about how we celebrated Thanksgiving that I decided I had better add a blog entry about our day.

I’m sorry we don’t have more and better pictures, but we were so busy preparing and then eating that we forgot about our cameras.

We decided on a pot luck menu and each student signed up for a dish that they wanted to contribute.

I agreed to do the turkey, gravy, and pies. The students signed up for stuffing, squash, corn, bread, wine, pumpkin bread, fresh hot applesauce, and don’t forget the green bean casserole. There may have been more things that I'm missing. We had a lot of food and it was all yummy.

The student wing of the dorm has three kitchens. The only things that work in the first kitchen are the sink and the fridge!



This is the 2nd kitchen in the boys’ apartment in cleaner days at the beginning of the semester. It is the best equipped with a working electric stove, sink and fridge (in the background) along with fairly adequate counter space.



Here's an earlier photo of the 3rd kitchen eating area. You can just see the counter with the burners and sink in the background. There are two sets of burners built into the counter top and a sink and two large refrigerators, but no oven. This arrangement caused challenges.

In the 2nd kitchen we had the turkey breasts—four of them—in the oven with two per pan on two "racks". A visiting family brought sage to make the turkey taste just right.

I should mention that this oven, just like the one in our apartment and the ones on the higher floors of the dorm, has just one rack and then if you are careful you can make the broiler pan stay in the holders along the sides of the oven to make a second rack. They can hold nothing much larger than a 9 X 13 pan.

The 2nd kitchen was also the scene of a great deal of pealing! The students pealed an unknown quantity of kilograms of apples and potatoes. Then they had large pots of applesauce and potatoes cooking on the top of the stove.

Meanwhile the ingredients for the stuffing were being carefully chopped on the table of the 3rd kitchen in the girls’ apartment.

It smelled wonderful—onions, mushrooms, celery, etc. Salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning were added to this and the dry bread crumbs along with bouillon. All that went into 3 flat pans. Now we had to search for more ovens!

We found out that there were two gas ovens each on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the dorm that we could use. They didn’t all work, though! But we did manage to light 3 of them.

We put one pan of stuffing into one of the ovens of the 3rd floor and the other two pans into the 2nd oven in the 3rd floor kitchen. These ovens had no numbers on the thermostats, but straight up seemed like a good choice.

A pan of seasoned potato wedges went into the one oven that worked on the 2nd floor for the roasted potatoes.

The traditional green bean casserole had been made earlier that afternoon and the squash had also been roasted earlier. There were two kinds of squash—plain and another wondeful pan with honey and brown sugar. They were warmed again. I know the corn was cooked, but I have no recollection of where!



While all this was going on, the tables were arranged and set in our 3rd floor classroom. We had to use disposable plates and glasses because there were not enough of the washable type. But we did manage to pool our resources for enough regular forks. You just can’t use plastic forks on Thanksgiving. There were 11 Calvin students, plus one friend from Dordt, our Hungarian teacher, three Hungarian students and Corwin and me. That's a total of 18.

The rest of the Calvin students were traveling that weekend and other Hungarians that we had invited were not able to attend.



Then the gravy was made, pictures taken and we were ready to eat! It was just past 5pm.



Food and wine was passed and passed. When we began the large blue pot was about 2/3 full of mashed potatoes and the smaller white one was quite full of hot applesauce.



Seconds were available.

The mashed potatoes tasted like home.



We had a lot of good conversation to go with the good food.



Our Hungarian teacher remarked that this was a true 'pot luck' with the pots right on the table. We have almost no serving dishes.



The plate of pumpkin bread was gone quickly.



I don’t have any pictures of the pies, but we had several.

Another visiting family brought us canned pumpkin for pies. It was then that I realized I had never seen evaporated or canned milk of any sort in Hungary. Thank goodness for the Internet! I found a recipe that used melted vanilla ice cream instead of evaporated milk. Everyone thought they tasted just fine.

We had to have a sour cream raisin pie for Corwin (his favorite). It looked funny with no meringue but since we had no mixer, meringue was out of the question. Fortunately, they do sell aerosol cans of whipped cream, so we used that instead.

Hungarians don’t really make pie. There was one Pyrex casserole lid in our apartment that I could use as a pie pan, but I had to buy new ones for the pumpkin pies. I found one store that sold them.

For the last ‘pie’ I made my Mom’s apple squares in a lasagna pan. This pan was huge and I think the recipe was tripled! But they were gone before Friday I was told.



The middle two students in this picture are Vera and Melinda. They will be coming to Calvin for the January 2009 interim.



Our last pictures are of us toasting with small glasses of palinka, a spirit native to Hungary, distilled from fruit grown on the great Hungarian plain. It's very potent stuff. We’re toasting here with our Hungarian friends, Vera, Melinda and Istvan (Steven).







Here you can see how very little was left from that huge pot of mashed potatoes.

It was a great Thanksgiving.

The Christmas Market

I am so excited because the Christmas Market opened yesterday in Varosmarty Ter. That's the square where the high-priced fashion stores are located as well as the Gerbeaud Chocolate Company's shop.

We went for the first time last night which was the first day it was open. But it was raining and since we live here, Corwin talked me into coming back when the weather was nicer. Today it was not raining, but snowing! It was fairly cold in the mid-30s.



So we went back today to have lunch and look around. Boy was it fun. It's like the folk art market they had at the Castle last August, but now it's cold and snowing and not 90 degrees! I much prefer today's weather but I can't say the same for Corwin. However he warmed up to the idea when we found the hot mulled wine booth. Later we learned that there are many of these spots. You can just see the wine crock pots in the lower, middle right of this picture and the sausages cooking in the very lower right corner.

You get a mug full of hot, mulled wine for about $5.50--$2.50 for the mug and $3 for the wine. You can return the mug for a refill or refund--your choice. Corwin chose 3 refills and felt a whole lot better about shopping. In fact he thought he prefered this to sitting at a football game in similar weather. Hot, mulled wine would do a lot for football.



They were also cooking all over the market. Here you see sausages, but they also had stuffed cabbage, pork cutlets, thin fried beef steaks, shish-ka-bob, french fries, breads, rolls, pickles, slaw, pastries--you name it.



All over the market, whether you were shopping or sitting down to eat, you could hear the singing and music from the stage. The people changed every 30 minutes or so, but each group presented traditional Hungarian music.



Then we walked closer to the large tree. It's covered with ornaments that are about 10"-12" in diameter. They don't look that big here, but they are. It's a big tree. The boots and hearts are cut out of a vinyl fabric and stuffed.



There are several creches around the square, but this one, under the tree, is my favorite. It's all made of felt. The sheep are the best, but the wooly shephard's coat is neat too. This creche is about 3'-4' tall.



One booth had the traditional pastry that looks a lot like a really large (8"-10" long) creme horn or creme curl. First the lady in the booth next door rolls the dough.



Then she cuts it in a patern so that it will wrap around the mold.



Then she winds it around the mold.



Then she rolls it so the seams seal themselves. These are handed to the people in the next booth with the charcoal fire.

They spin them as they bake. You can see the ones at the top are more brown and almost ready to eat. When they are done, they slide off the mold. There was a long line waiting every time I came near this booth.



I could barely get close enough to take the pictures because there were so many people in line to buy the pastries. I haven't tried one of these yet, but I plan to when the line isn't so long.
Note: We went back again today, Sunday, November 23 and had one of these. They taste like really good sweet dinner rolls. They are brushed with oil or butter before they put them over the coals and then sprinkle them heavily with either sugar, cinnamon, or walnuts. It was delicious!

There were so many booths it's hard to describe them all, but here you see baskets,

carved trays from the burl of the wood,



sweaters, sox, slippers,



knitted hats and scarves,



pottery,



more pottery,



mistletoe which grows wild in the trees,



marionettes,



lavendar and herbs,



felted hats and other items,



more felted hats,



These trays were carved in the shapes of deer, cows, sheep, horses, and pigs. We were trying to figure out if we could get one of these home. They are about 24"-30" long.



It wasn't too crowded today, but still busy.

By the time I left it was almost 4pm which is when the sun sets here and it was getting dark. Corwin was in the metro station where he had been for a while. It's much warmer down there!

I'll be back again and probably several times before Christmas eve day when the market closes.

We plan to go to Barcelona for a weekend in early December. They have a Christmas market too! Stay tuned....

Anniversary of October 23, 1956 Hungarian Revolution

Hungarians visit and decorate the graves of their loved ones around November 1st, All Soul’s Day. Many Hungarians visit the Municipal Cemetery in Budapest on or about October 23rd since that day is the national holiday in Hungary that commemorates the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.



To get to this cemetery we took tram #28 to the end of its route. Forming a solid line along the tram route for several blocks as we approached the stop we saw lots of tombstone and monument dealers.



After the gravestone and monument dealers there were lots of flower stalls. These flower stalls also stretched for several blocks before the cemetery gate.



People use mostly fresh flowers but you see a few silk flowers here and there.



Businesses such as these surround the entrances of every cemetery in the city and since this is the largest cemetery in Budapest, this one is no exception.




In this picture you can see the cemetery entrance in the background.

We went through the gate with the many others who were there that day. (We visited on Saturday, October 25th.)



We had to walk to the very back of the cemetery to view the 1956 revolution graves and memorials. We passed many graves in this large cemetery.



As we walked we noticed that nearly every grave in this very large cemetery was decorated. Most of them had fresh flowers on them.

We saw many visitors taking away wilted or dead flowers, sweeping or raking the area around the grave or just sitting quietly near a grave.



It seemed that the majority of the visitors drove to the cemetery and there was considerable traffic as cars waited for an opening to turn into or out of the main stream of traffic.



The guide books were accurate with their estimate of a 30-minute walk to the back of the cemetery to the plots where the 1956 revolutionaries were buried.

To get to plots 300 and 301, the plots where the 1956 victims were buried, we certainly noticed that these plots were in the very farthest corner where the government officials thought they would not be detected.

We were happy to see any signs for plots 300 & 301 since the road became very quiet and secluded. There were occasional cars and a few folks walking along with us.



Many thousands died during the revolution and thousands more were arrested, tortured and later executed.

The bodies of the leaders of the uprising were buried in secret mass graves at the very back of the Budapest Municipal Cemetery on the southeastern edge of the city.

Of these thousands, some are honored with their pictures displayed at the cemetery.







Hungarians began placing flowers at this remote spot in the 1970’s.

In 1990 after the fall of Communism, the bodies were reburied with a state ceremonial funeral and memorial markers were placed to mark the site.





Notable is the grave of Imre Nagy, who was the prime minister of Hungary in 1956. He was arrested, tortured and shot to death after a bogus political trial in 1958.



We had seen videos on TV of the current Hungarian prime minister and his wife bringing flowers to his grave on October 23rd.



Most of the victims who were not killed during the revolution were arrested, tortured and executed later and have a 1958 date of death listed on their tombstones.



We couldn’t help but notice that there were several women and young people among those whose pictures were displayed at the cemetery.