What Santa brings..

I tried to introduce a gift free Christmas this year or at least to limit consumption. Early in October I wrote an email to my family to propose different solutions – such as only giving one, to collect money for a common trip, etc etc.. Maybe I should have written directly to Santa Claus because finally we were having gifts :) Maybe a bit fewer, but all so very nice and thought through!

The best of the best, was the dress made in silk that my sister had knitted for me. I almost cried of happiness when I saw what she had prepared for me.

Designed by K.

Other nice gifts
I will not list all the gifts, but just mention a few because even if I wrote they were fewer there were still quite a lot :)

My sister brought yarn from Argentina, which was also a very nice gift for my other sister and mother. They are very creative so I'm sure they will make something nice out of it. There were also other very nice handmade things in wood prepared by my sister's boyfriend.

I was most pleased with the gift I had for little V. It was a handmade train, not made by me but from the Christmas market in Budapest. It was very nice and also pedagogic and he seemed to like it, and his mother did as well...:)


So I was receiving so nice gifts, that mine, even if they were selected in India felt a bit poor.. :) So for next year, I will not propose not to have gifts. It's so nice to find out what to give, and to see the happiness of the one who receives it. So, next year I'll also make my own gifts at least some of them. If people only get half as happy as I got, it's already great!

coming home..

This year I actually for once had some Christmas feelings already in Budapest with Lucia celebration, some you tube clips with Christmas songs in different languages and I even prepared Christmas cakes and chutney. So, I was well prepared and really looking forward to going home for a couple of weeks. It has been an intense year with lots of happiness but also some sad and difficult moments, so being home for a while is probably good for me. Anyway, it's always good so I try to go once in a while.

Same procedure as last time...

Every time coming home follows more or less the same procedure. I always arrive just in time to the airport in Budapest, then I always sleep on the flight and I wake up in Denmark. At Copenhagen airport, the visitors are always welcomed by the smell of Røde pølser. Then I catch the train to Sweden, I’m always surprised how expensive it is and I always think of how good it would be to follow my mother's advice to refill the discount-travel card before leaving next time and remember to take it with me....

Correct, informative and user friendly..

These adjectives are quite well describing how things are generally working in Sweden. The train is no exception, it's clean and modern, and will most likely be in time. This time it stopped twice for couple of minutes and a friendly voice informed us that „We have now stopped for a stop sign, and we are waiting for permission to continue” I smiled a bit, of course it's very nice of them to inform the people so that they wouldn't worry but I'm also sure that most people didn't even realised that we had stopped before they announced it. And once they finished their sentence, the train started to move again. Anyway, a small thing like this makes me realise that I'm home again so it's time to re-adapt to Scandinavian way of doing things , for the good and for the bad..:) At the train station, my parents will come to meet me and it’s always a very happy moment and we always go home to have a cup of tea.

Alla talar svenska

Arriving in Sweden, there is one sentence always popping up in my head “Alla talar svenska” This is the text for Disney movies to inform that everybody speaks Swedish in the film. It’s also a bit strange to me, and in the first few days I add some English words here and there. I’m sure some people believe I do that to be snobbish or interesting…:)

So until here it's always the same, and then it will depend on if I'm staying for longer or only for the weekend. If it’s only for a few days normally there is a reason like a celebration so time is passing really fast.

If I stay for longer, I'll get a little restless quite soon. I’m used to much higher tempo, and even if I know it’s good for me to slow down and relax, I need a few days to find the good rhythms, to adapt to the silence and calmness. And even when I feel little restless, I enjoy to have some time to think, and also to knit together with my sisters and mother. It's very inspiring and I become much more creative at home. The first two evenings I made a pair of sandals while enjoying to spend some time with my parents. And now, I'm already half way with the next project :)

Sandals, made of the left over yarn from the hats I prepared for me and some friends last year, posing in the snow

So, for the next few days, I will continue with having a good time, playing with little V, spending time with family and friends and do some knitting and reading. After those first little restless days, I know that time will pass very fast. It always does, and when the day to go back arrives, I'll surely have the feeling that time at home was not enough... like always. Time is such a strange thing.

sauteed apples better than appels cooked in butter

Sauteed apples is one of the ingredients in a new recipe for cakes that I just learnt to make. It sounds quite sophisticated, right?? It also sounds French and it's not a secret that I'm fascinated by all that is French. Actually before moving to France I kind of thought that everything was good there, and to me it sounded like everybody speaking French is really intelligent (hehe, actually it still does to me.. :) Now I know that not ALL is good and great there, and also not all French people are very clever, but I keep my fascination and still think that everything can get little improved by adding something French :) :) If so only the name...

Sauteed apples would normally have scared me a bit, but with the new inspiration from the cooking course, I was happy to give it a try. And, after a quick search on Internet I realised that it is very easy to prepare. I tried several versions, each time little different but still very good. One good piece of advice would be to choose sweet apples, and then not adding any sugar (or only very little).

Sauteed apples

1/4 cup butter
4 apples
2 teaspoon corn stand
1/2 cup cold water
some brown sugar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

How to make it..
Melt the butter, cut the apples in pieces and add them to the butter. Stir until tender (approximately 5 min). Dissolve the flour in the water and add it together with (the sugar) and the cinnamon. Stir while it's cooking together for a couple of minutes

Ready..

Other versions..
In some other recipes, they also included apple cider, honey, juice from a half lemon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. I tried different versions, and it's hard to tell which one is best. Already the simple one was really good. It is melting in your mouth and if there is not too much sugar it still keeps the fresh taste.

So it sounds sophisticated but it's really basic to make. Maybe sauteed apples is a very good illustration of how everything gets improved adding some French to it. I mean, apple cooked in butter sounds already less appetizing...

Sauteed apples is delicious warm or cold, on it's own, with chocolate, with banana split, for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner or in between...:) You see I tried it all...


Dessert for Sunday brunch... Bananasplit with sauteed apples

listen to the silent crying

Once in a while for quite some time, I could hear some crying noise in the background. Some low intense almost silent crying asking for help. Actually, the complaining crying came from my back where I had some pain and I started to think of all kind of possible sicknesses that I could possible have... Now, when the pain is gone, I know that it was some of my approximately 600 muscles who were crying from the overall bad treatment and from the everyday sitting in front of computer. They tried to tell me that it couldn't go on like that, and their small initial protests got worst and worst.

They were not always crying with the same intensity, some days they even stayed quiet. Anyway, what ever they tried with, I just kept on ignoring them.

Massage Swedish style (picture from Internet)

One evening in June, I was out walking in my neighborhood and I felt terribly miserable for different reasons. Walking there feeling sorry for myself, I passed a beauty salon and I impulsively I went in and asked for a massage. Luckily, the lady was there and happy to receive me. It felt like somebody let me out of prison when her soft strong hands helped my tired and blocked muscles to relax and they stopped to cry. Since then, I'm going there every Wednesday and only being out of Budapest would stop me from that. In November, I was lucky to try massage in both Malaysia and India.

Malaysian/Chinese massage
In Malaysia, I had a Chinese massage. It was absolutely great, but would have been even greater if the girl didn't look that sad. I'm sure she wished to be somewhere else. She did a fantastic job, but afterwards I saw her sad eyes. She didn't speak any English, but her body language told that she was very unhappy. Probably she found it hard to be far from home, and likely she didn't get much of the 20 euro I paid for the one hour massage.

Ayurvedic massage in India
In Rikikesh in India, I had the most wonderful ayurvedic treatment. I combined shoriada with oil massage. You are completely naked and it's very intense and oily. In the massage, no muscles are forgotten and the pleasure is complete and really great.


Oil ayurvedic massage (picture from Internet)

The shridara treatment is a facial massage, part of the ayurvedic treatments. The dropping hot oil on the front heat makes you feel like the head is disolving and disappearing in a very pleasant way. I think you simply must try, very difficult to put in words, but when I close my eyes I can recall the feeling.

Shridara treatment (picture from Internet)

So surely next time I'm going to India, I'll try some similar treatment. But, in the meanwhile I'm still very grateful to have such a nice massagelady just a few blocks away.

She is such a sunshine, and her positive warm energy is transmitting to every muscles she touches. Writing this reminds me of my sister who use to tell speak about every-day-luxary (vardagslyx). The massage qualifies well, but I actually don't think of it as something luxary any longer. It became such a natural part of a survivial and wellbeing strategy and it is completely needed for someone who spends the days in an office. I guess I will discover what a luxary it is the day I move to a place where I cannot afford it anylonger..

My young body....
Speaking of massage always makes me think of a girl in Albania who, when I mentioned that I had an excellent massage in Tirana, told me "I hate massage, and my young body doesn't need it" Hehe, such a strange statement and maybe she meant that my old body does need it. And she didn't actually know how right she was...:) This saying "my young body.." has since then became a saying at my workplace.. It still makes me smile..

And now I know that it was not only the muscles that were crying in the summer time, it was actually me. I guess it's just easier to accept muscle pain than some psychological pain, fears and worries. But the good news is that massage is helping for both...:)

creative meditation

Knitting is creative and at the same time very relaxing. Kind of meditation. I enjoy it very much. Sometimes it goes all without thinking and sometimes full concentration is needed. In any case nothing else will take the concentration and attention, and thoughts are not wondering around, so complete peace is absolutely possible.

German/Turkish slippers made in Hungary
At the Christmas market in Frankfurt, I found some really nice wool yarn and a description of how to make slippers. The description was from a German company (http://www.coatsgmbh.de/Selbermachen/Stricken/) and the wool was from Turkey. Luckily the nice lady kindly explained the necessary steps and they were actually very few. It turned out to be really easy and actually almost too fast to make :) Also time passes so quickly in good company and a cup of tea...

How to make slippers
First of all, this may be the best for beginners to start with as possible mistakes can not even be seen...:) I used wool yarn and needles number 8. The instructions below can be followed approximately as the final size and shape will largely depend on the washing and shaping after wards..

For slippers size 38, the instructions would be as following (my free translation)

Start with 38 stitches and knit 32 rounds on two needles (1 row garter stitch, 1 row purl stitch, 1 row garter etc etc)
After having made 32 rounds, divide the stitches on four needles and continue only with garter stitches. After 26 rows, start to decrease for the toes. Stitch 1; lift the last but one, knit one, and lift the knitted one over. Stitch 2; knit together stitch 1 &2. Stitch 3 as stitch 1 and stitch 4 as stitch 2. Continue like that until there is 2 stitches on each needle.

Saw together the heel - done!

The slipper was now 35 cm long each, and it looked really big!! Make the second one as the first one, and put them in the washing machine together with some jeans or towels. It was written 40 degrees but after the 1st washing my pink sandals were still size 48 or something :)

Luckily my mum knew the solution, so I washed them again in 60 degrees, and after this wash they were proper size for a quite small kid.. But with help some newspaper and my own feet I managed to make them bigger again and they became exactly my size :)


I guess I don't have to tell that I' m quite proud of them.. I hope to start the second pair soon. This was great fun!!

Knitting is cool not only because of the peace and calm, but also because it's such a good feeling to create something with the hands without using computers.... It’s also very nice to knit together with other people, somehow it’s good for talking…

Stuffed Salmon Fillet with Creamed Avocado

So, as promised in the last blog post Angelic cooking, I'll post the receipts so that you can also try! First one will be the Stuffed Salmon Fillet with Creamed Avocado. It was really really tasty and not difficult at all. Some of the photos repeat from the previous post as I'm speaking about the same yummie stuff. The receipt should be for 6 people.


Ingredients:
350 g white fish
150-200 g ground, skinned almonds
100 cream cheese (philadelphia or similar)
juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
1tbsp. chopped fresh parsley and chives
4 tbsp. light olive oil
2 5 inch pieces of salmon fillets
1 leek
salt, pepper

For the creamed avocado:
1 large avocado
salt, pepper, lemon juice
100 cream cheese
1 glove pressed garlic


How to make the fish:
Puré the white fish with the ground almonds, cream cheese, lemon grind and juice, green herbs, salt and pepper and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Season the salmon fillets and sandwich them together with the white fish mixture. Cut long strings from the leak and use them to tie the fish parcel together. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tbsp. of olive oil on top and bake in a moderate oven for about 40 minutes.

Take out the bones in the salmon fillet with a pair of tweezers - one of the small little tips I learnt at my cooking course...:)

..and how to make the avocado cream
Skin the avocado and discard the pip. Mix the flesh with salt, pepper, a little lemon juice, garlic and cream cheese. Serve with the fish.

Enjoy!!! It's really really yummie - trust me!!



We ate it with Green bean salad and baked Fennel with Parmesan. I'll post these receipts little later

and if you have some filo pastry at home, you can easily prepare the little bags we made with the left overs of the white fish. They looked quite pretty, and it was sooo tasty!

Angelic cooking

I admire people who knows how to cook well.

A very good friend once told me that love is one of the most important ingredients when cooking. I totally agree, love and attention is absolutely needed to succeed in the kitchen. This also goes very well with what I'm currently learning with the yoga; to be present in the present and to enjoy what you are doing in the moment.

Angelic cooking course
I have realised how good food is very important to feel good. It helps to stay healthy and it is also so great to enjoy a good dinner together with friends. I have the love and attention to put into my cooking but I thought it could be also useful to get some inspiration and useful tips for cooking. So, I signed up for a reform cooking course. It's always so nice to learn new things, and to learn something useful and tasty which even looks nice is even better.

The very best thing with the course is that I get inspiration for every day cooking and I again found the great pleasure of cooking! Finally it is actually not that hard to prepare good healthy food and it is relaxing to take the time to eat at home.


We only cook vegetarian dishes, including fish which suits me perfectly. The teacher is really great and I feel so inspired every time! She gives us tips on cooking and also where we can find ingredients in Budapest.

Small useful tips on how the best way to get out the bones from Salmon fillets

The menu is very varied and yesterday we learnt to make:

• Stuffed salmon Fillet with Creamed Avocado
• Green bean salad
• Baked Fennel with Parmesan
• Florentine
• Christmas Chutney
• Spicy Christmas Cookies
• Mini Filo Baskets with dried Fruits Filling

Grean beans, stuffed salmon, Fennel and Avocado cream - yummie yummie!

Creative cooking
She makes us discover new things, and her attitude to cooking is very relaxed and creative. Also the most simply things becomes really tasty. She is not a slave under receipts but flexible and a really good attitude to food! It is more about take what you have, but make sure to have quality products at home. Yesterday we also made some kind of "bags" as the we had some fish filling left over from the fish dish and the filo pastry - so very tasty and also pretty!

what a simple but good idea: tasty bags with fish filling

Not only cooking but also learning Hungarian
It is also a good practice in Hungarian. The teacher speaks good English but as I'm the only foreigner, she explains everything in Hungarian and translates some parts for me. Maybe I miss a few things, but I don't mind at all. I also understand while we are cooking and I learn both how to cook and some Hungarian at the same time.. :) I get the receipts English and in Hungarian which has the good advantage that I can bring it to the market while doing my shopping and easily get exactly what I need.

Enjoying all tasty things we prepared

When I tell people that I attend a cooking course the reactions are different, but always positive. And, I guess I don't have to tell that I really suggest to attend a cooking course!

Later I'll post the receipts here on the blog to share some culinary inspiration

my new way of learning Hungarian

I find it a bit tricky to learn Hungarian I must admit. Or not only tricky but actually very difficult. Other languages I tried I have learnt relatively quickly, but maybe I just don't match with Hungarian. Sometimes I'm thinking of how fast I would probably have learnt the language if I would have been in almost any other country.. Anyway, now I somehow feel more motivated to learn. This doesn't mean that I will learn but at least the attitude is the right one.. :)

The good places to practice..
So far I liked to practiced at the market on Saturdays. There, the topics are limited to "are the apples good" "how much does it cost" or asking for something that I cannot see directly on the table... Even if I really like to practice with these small and friendly ladies, the topics are limited however.

Lehel market - quite a good place to learn Hungarian

I also practice with the taxi drivers and the people working in my little shop down the street. and other friendly people I come across. Maybe I should take a course, I have been thinking of it, but my level is so strange. I know many words, I understand quite a bit, but my capability of putting together sentences is limited... so which level to join??

A new way of learning
Anyway, the last month I found the perfect way of learning!!! I go for manicure and pedicure every week and this is my hour to practice Hungarian. The girl is really friendly and she doesn't speak English which makes it the perfect occasion to do conversation practice and the topics are more varied than at the market. She is also very patient, and together we do communicate quite well I must say.

my nails are not as nice yet.. but soon soon! :)

Today we were speaking about my trip to Frankfurt and she asked what I bought. I didn't know the word for candle so I told her that I bought a "kis naturel lampa" :) :) and imitated how to light a candle with matches. She smiled alot and told me the Hungarian word: gyertya. I then could tell her that I found those wax candles at the market that we use to have at home when I was a child and we continued speaking about many other small things.. like weekend plans, company christmas parties, and more..

I feel very happy about this new way of learning. Of course some studying would also do good, but right now I'm quite satisfied with my little progress I'm doing at the Szepsegszalon ...:) As she is listening to me, repeating and talking in a comprehensive way I'm gaining confidence with this Magyar language. Also she is very friendly and the best is that my hands and feet are being taken care of at the same time...:) so I think 8 euro is well worth the money!!