The Best Summer Pea Soup

pea soup recipe

We planted peas among our roses to improve the soil, and we actually are getting a nice little crop of fresh peas right now! The kids love to spot the chubby pods that are ready to pick, and they’re still at the age when shelling peas is more fun than work. This recipe is most […]

Valeria’s Potato Torte (Cake)

There is not a mistake in the title – yes, it is Valeria. Valeria was my grandmother, who I never met, but I was named after her. Everybody in the family remembers her as an amazing cook and queen of Hungarian recipes.  During the war (WWII), she ran a small workers’ kitchen, and her cooking […]

Buttered Lentils – Lencse-főzelék

Főzelék is a special category in Hungarian cuisine. It’s not  quite a soup, but neither is it a stew. They are made in many ways and provide a cheap source of nutrition and yuminess. There is a potato főzelék, green bean főzelék, bean főzelék, spinach főzelék, pea főzelék, lettuce főzelék, squash főzelék and many, many […]

Hungarian Potato Bread

Many of our recipes end with the sentence: “Enjoy with a good rustic bread”. Bread is the staple food of Central Europe. We eat bread with everything. One of the challenges of moving was to find an everyday bread –  frankly, supermarket “sandwich” bread here is pretty bad. Sorry my friends, it is the truth. […]

Roasted Duck with Red Cabbage and Czech Dumplings.

czech roasted duck with caraway seeds

I had a great day in Sonoma tasting some wine. I specifically went to try out the Cline cellars, since I was very excited about trying their wine; I had it for the first time on the way to California on the BA flight. I love the idea of grapes grown on 100 year-old vines. […]