Hungarian Easter

Easter (Húsvét) holds great significance to the people of Hungary. This is a special time where celebrations are marked by folk traditions and religious observance.

Elaborately decorated eggs, dousing rituals, church ceremonies, prayers, and special foods are common practices leading up to and during Easter in Hungary.

Here are a few of the most popular customs.

Lent
Hungarians regard “Lent” as the Great Fast for Easter. Since meat is forbidden during Lent, the day before Ash Wednesday is called “Húshagyó Kedd“, which means “meat abandoning Tuesday”. On Holy Saturday, what is known as “Nagyszombat” in Hungary, people take food baskets filled with kalács, red eggs and salt to the church, to be blessed by the clergyman. This blessed food is eaten in the Easter dinner after the resurrection ceremonies are over.

Easter Eggs
The art of decorating Easter eggs in Hungary was originally a Pagan ritual but was carried over with the acceptance of Christianity. Eggs are decorated with simple geometric shapes or ornamented with swirls of plants and flowers. The color red is often used as it symbolizes the blood of Christ. Many eggs also carry the embroidery of Hungarian designs that are a part of the traditional dress. Painted wooden eggs are also displayed in many Hungarian homes.

Flower Sunday
Centuries ago on Palm Sunday it was customary to bless not only branches but also the various flowers of the season. Today, the flowers are still mentioned in the antiphons after the prayer of blessing. Thus, the name Flower Sunday or “Virágvasárnap” is used in Hungary.

Sprinkling
Sprinkling is a very popular Easter custom in Hungary, observed on Easter Monday, which is also known as “Ducking Monday“. On this day, boys playfully sprinkle perfume or perfumed water on girls. Until some time back, young men used to pour buckets of water over young women’s heads. Now it is more common for men to spray perfume, cologne or just plain water, and then ask for a kiss and a red egg. This ritual is associated with fertility, healing, and cleansing rites.

Happy Easter!

Hungarian recipe made healthier

I used to love Hungarian food that my mum and dad made. Then, when I came to Australia, I did not cook any Hungarian food because all the ingredients tasted so different that whatever I cooked, nothing seemed to work or taste the same. I spent a year eating at the Canberrra Shopping Centre Food Court and at the staff canteen at uni in lunch time and I discovered that Chinese, Indian and Thai food are the closest to Hungarian so I was happy.

Now, twenty years later, I just started to cook Hungarian food again, taking the liberty of changing the recipes to suit my taste, diet and needs.

Tonight I cooked something that is very easy, quick and I used to love it! In Hungarian we call is "fasirozott". It is a meatball. Normally we would use pork meat but I must say, can't stomach pork meat here in Australia except made by Asians. This meat ball does not work well with beef,  in my opinion it is too strong meat so this time, I made it with chicken meat mince. However, don't be shy to try this meat ball recipe with beef or even lamb mince! I am sure it is delicious!

I chopped a brown onion, peeled a few cloves of garlic, pulsed them in the food processor, then added 500g chicken mince, added Himalayan Pink Salt, pepper and paprika and an egg. Mixed them well in the food processor and transferred the mix into a glass container with a tight lid and left it stand in the fridge for the night.

Next day, before to prepare my dinner, I peeled three zucchinis. I grated them and sprinkled them with salt and let it stand for 20 mins. I washed the rockets and drained them, put the salad in a bowl, added a few small Roma tomatoes cut into small pieces. Then, squeezed the zucchinis out of the juice and 2/3 of it I mixed with the meat to make it lighter. 1/3 of the zucchini I added to the salad. It has a lovely juicy texture and tastes lovely with the rockets and tomatoes.

Now, that I had the zucchini mixed with the meat, I put some almond meal in a small bowl, shaped a small ball out of the meat mix, rolled and rounded it with my palms and covered the meat ball with the almond meal. Because the meat mix with the zucchini is quite moist, the almond meal sticks to it nicely!

Just that you would not feel disappointed when you see the original recipe of "fasirozott", it supposed to be coated with freshly made breadcrumbs! But because I could not find breadcrumbs as I have not used any for years although I know, it is hiding somewhere there on the top shelf, a genious sudden idea came in my mind to use almond meal instead!

I made 4-5 small balls for dinner and had plenty of mix left for tomorrow! You even could freeze it and use it later! I started my Airfryer which means that without using any oil I can fry the meat balls! However, I am sure they are absolutely delicious fried in oil or baked in the oven! While the meat balls were getting cooked in the Airfryer, I sprinkled the remaining almond meals from the coating ball on the salad, added the juice of half of a lemon and sprinkled some Flax seed oil as a salad dressing. Feel free to use olive oil, avocado or any good quality cold pressed oil you like!

I hope you will like "fasirozott"!

Here I included the original recipe of "fasirozott" for your information! Enjoy!

Hungarian cabbage salad - using food processor

I am not a big cook. Definitely not a big baker. However, this summer, the weather was not hot and we had quite a few overcast and rainy days. This encouraged me to stay home, get on with my book writing and new business set up. Between works, it was really nice to get in the kitchen, cook a great vegetable curry, make a big pot of chicken soup or lately, experiment with some healthier desserts like using coconut flour and making raw vegan delicious slices. 

This tendency is rather funny, because my brother back in Hungary is a chef and makes incredible things. His older sister, cooks very, I mean VERY rarely! But this might be changing...especially, since second time I invested into a food processor. First time when I had one, I was working full time, no, rather in one and a half positions. My new food processor did not even get to that stage that I would have experimented with it and learnt how to use it. But now, my eating habits and my lifestyle was much more suitable to have a food processor and create great recipes with it. I am eating much more fresh produce, so slicing, chopping and mixing with it is helping me eating even better. 

When my food processor has arrived, I checked YouTube for videos to see how others use the processor and what it can be done with it. I was very impressed! It was so versatile that I knew, I will be using my food processor a lot!  

I did not make cabbage salad for ages because I could not bother slicing a whole or half cabbage with knife. But the food processor did this in a second! Wow! So next day, I went shopping for cabbage!

One of my first recipe that I made was a simple, raw Hungarian cabbage salad. It is extremely quick, easy to store in the fridge in a container and goes well with any meat dish, rice and potato dish. I remember, on hot summer days I even used to eat it just itself, it was so refreshing!


This cabbage salad is something my family very frequently made and kept in the fridge. 

Ingredients:

1 medium cabbage, shredded

1 teaspoon good quality sea or rock salt

1 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon oil (optional, I don't use oil)

2 tablespoon white vinegar

pinch of caraway seeds, celery or cumin seeds (optional, for me without seeds it just does not work!)

Pink Himalayan Rock Salt and black pepper to taste if you like
Directions:

Slice the white or red cabbage finely with a knife or with your magic food processor, using the slicer. Put shredded cabbage in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and vinegar and let it stand for a few hours or at least for 20 minutes.. When the cabbage softens, squeeze out the juice by hand and place the cabbage into a large bowl. 
In a mug or bowl add the water, vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt (be careful adding more salt, cabbage can be already salty enough for many after the 20 mins). Mix until sugar is dissolved and pour it on the cabbage in the salad bowl. Sprinkle with caraway seeds and mix the salad well. 
Taste for seasoning, add pepper and oil if you like and cover the bowl or put the salad in a container to let it mature in the fridge for a few hours before tossing again and serving. 

Note:
You can add more or less vinegar, or more sugar, make your dressing tangy or sweet, add garlic to it, go crazy. Perfect salad to go with meat and mashed potatoes.

Cabbage is a cheap, refreshing, nutritious food, very versatile and can be stored well in the fridge so use it and enjoy it!

Give presence

Christmas is approaching.
As we grow up and get older, things become less and less important and we realise that the most important things are not available in shops.

I teach music and I am lucky because many times the parents are sitting here with us at lessons. Most of them keenly follow every minute of the lesson. Proudly watching their child reading music, decoding the beautiful mystery of a new melody as the black notes are scattered on the staves. Making sense of these dots is like a snake charmer, inviting the melody to come to live note by note. It is one of the most wonderful skills one can have. It opens up a magical world both for the player and the listener. What a wonderful way to spend time and create something out of nothing!

In this technology focused and fast paced world even parents forget to connect with their children. Sitting behind us many times they spend the whole lesson playing on their phone, answering texts and disconnect from what is happening in the room.  Missing an opportunity to catch the magic, the moment when learning takes place, when a piece is played first time with both hands, when a composition finally performed first time without a mistake and when the dots come to live and the piece is not just played correctly but comes to live from feelings and expression, when real music is born.

No Facebook posting or text message can compete with these moments. These moments will never return. Just like the first words and the first steps of a child.

As a teacher, I am very much aware of the change in the energy in the room when we all focus on the player. We are all one, our energy united. There is harmony in the room and the player is supported. But when someone in the room watches his/her phone and is disengaged from the work that takes place, the circle of energy is broken. It is extremely destructive to both of us. It is very hard not to ask the parents to put down the device and focus on the work. To make them realise that they are missing an incredible opportunity to connect with their child on a very different level.

It is an every day problem. We are more connected than ever and at the same time more disconnected from each other, from our friends and families and from society than ever. People are more lonely than ever. The depth of our relationships and connection to other human beings have tragically  changed. Connecting to another person and listening, truly listening to another has always been an Art. The knowledge of the few. Now more than ever. A person, who truly listens and pays attention is very powerful.

What we teach to kids is very important here. How we relate to our loved ones and to our friends carries a very powerful massage about our values. The approaching school holiday and Festive Season is a wonderful opportunity to connect again. To connect and to spend quality time the right way. Having some "no technology" time is scary at first. But if certain days or hours can be limited to quality time without devices, the rewards will be huge and Christmas more wonderful than ever!

When we look into someone's eyes, listen to them and connect on a deeper level, we send a very powerful message. That they are important to us and we want to connect and put them first. Nothing is so precious than your presence. Your true presence. So this Christmas, give presence!

Benefit of Sole - Pink Himalayan Rock Salt Sole

Sole (pronounced so-lay) is an ancient Ayurvedic liquid solution for flushing toxins from the body. It’s one of the most basic and accessible remedies available to humans, is simple and cheap to create and allows for a quick detox flush of the entire digestive tract, not just the colon (like colonic irrigation and enemas). It’s also a natural method of detoxification.

Traditionally made using Himalayan salt crystals, sole, when taken daily can:
* Balance pH levels in the body, bringing you to a more alkaline state
* Flush heavy metal toxins such as mercury and lead
* Increase energy and restful sleep
* Clear skin conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis
* Improve circulation and reduce fluid retention
* Improve mood and reduce anxiety
* Increase hydration.

Sole is made by dissolving unrefined salt in water, creating a charged molecule (or electrolyte). Electrolytes are important for maintaining hydration and assisting the kidneys to maintain fluid balance. Professional athletes and even marketing campaigns will often use the electrolyte angle to promote certain drinks (think Gatorade, Powerade and even coconut water).

The electrolyte bit is completely relevant. The additive/preservative commercial bit is crap. Just think of how much money you can save by making your own version of an ultra hydrating, completely natural and healthy drink!

To make sole

Making sole is really easy, all you’ll need is:
* A large clear glass jar with a lid
* Murray river salt flakes or Himalayan salt crystals (definitely NO table salt)

* Purified water

Fill the jar with the water and start by adding 1 tablespoon of salt. Stir until dissolved. Repeat this once or twice per day until no more salt will dissolve in the water. You’ll know when the water is completely saturated because the salt will no longer dissolve and undissolved pink salt crystals will be visible at the bottom of the jar (this is why you need to use a clear jar).

To top up sole so you have a continuous supply, keep adding water and salt so that there is always undissolved salt crystals at the bottom. This is how you will know that the liquid is completely saturated.

Using sole

Sole is added to water to make a sole solution, which can be used for various purposes. I personally add one teaspoon of sole to a glass of water each morning. I drink this on an empty stomach and it acts as a detox flush. Sole can also be added to bathing water to relax muscles and can be applied as a skin cleanser for conditions such as acne and psoriasis.

The mystic world of Chinese Medicine

I have been struggling with some back problem for a long time. I am familiar with most alternative methods of healing as I am not  a big believer of Western Medicine when there are more gentle alternatives that are non-invasive and no drug related. 

I developed a very good relationship with chiropractic treatments and I took forty sessions since April to achieve an improvement that was much needed. However, the pain that I went through with healing and re-aligning my spine was pretty taxing on my daily life. Because I was much less active than normally, weekly yoga and every second day swimming were out of question for a while as it just aggravated my condition, I started to develop terrible muscle spasm. I was using one side of my body much more to protect the other side. 

I started to live on painkillers and daily use of deep heat cream. I was not fan of these things and tried not to overuse them but sometime the pain was just unbearable. 

Just before the holiday a dear friend, a mum of a very talented student of mine, suggested to see an acupuncturist to manage pain. Even my massage therapy was an agony and did not help enough, I was ready to try anything. 

My first visit to my acupuncturist was an eye opening experience. I have had acupuncture in the past, just once but not with a Chinese doctor. It was in Hungary, in my hometown but was not followed by more visits. 

This Chinese Medical Centre was a very modest place, like most Chinese places. Simple and functional. My Chinese medical doctor, is a highly qualified, extremely approachable and knowledgable professional. She is an expert in neurological disorders, pain management (this is what I needed!), internal and gynaecological diseases. She has been practicing Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine for more than thirty years here and in Germany. 

While I was waiting, I had to fill in a new patient form. My doctor was attending to another patient. In the waiting area there were many shelves with hundreds of bottles of Chinese herbs and big bottles of strange looking things like roots and seeds. The whole area had this active messiness that comes from being used all the time. In the middle stood a scale that had papers on their plates. Doc Fei had a list in her hand and started to measure one after the other many different herbs. Once there was the required weight on the paper, she folded the paper towel containing the herbs and poured in to the bottle that contained the required mixture. This went on for minutes, selecting the herbs and measuring them one after the other. I have never seen anything like this. It was pretty amazing. 

When it was my turn, Dr Fei invited me to her room and started to take a very detailed history. She also took physical examination that is part of Chinese traditional examination like looking at the tongue and taking the pulse. Dr Fei was the third practitioner who said that my body was absolutely exhausted. Despite that since April I have been resting much more than ever in my life!

She took my pulse on both hands.  I was amazed to discover that there are twelve different ones, six in each wrist. These pulses are measured by checking the regularity of the beat in three different places on the wrist at a superficial and deep level. In the right wrist there are heart, small intestine, bladder, gall bladder, liver and kidney pulses. In the left wrist there are pulses for the colon, lungs, stomach, spleen, 'triple heater' (the body's thermostat) and 'heart protector (the body's emotional defence system). The pulses give information about these twelve main meridians in the body.

Once she established enough about my condition, she asked me to strip off and lay down on the treating table. She had traditional bamboo cups to do cupping. She used a cotton ball dipped in alcohol then lit fire and with that she created vacuum sticking the cup to my skin. I really liked that feeling! Then she inserted a few needles at different points of my body, including my leg, hips, back, neck and even the top of my head! I hardly felt anything! There was one point on my back that was sensitive when she inserted a needle into my spine and I cried out! During the whole procedure I started to feel more and more relaxed. Dr Fei also used a little heater to direct heat to certain part of my body to keep it warm during the procedure. For the time all the needles and cups were in place, I was almost sleeping. The needles stayed in place for a long time, maybe 20-30 minutes. Dr Fei checked on me frequently. As the vacuum started to release, the cups fell off. Then she removed the needles, massaged the whole are then moved to massage specific points on my forehead. 

In the afternoon I felt terribly relaxed. I was sure that I will be sleeping like a log. For my greatest surprise I had a twelve-hour sleep after my first treatment. That was rather unusual. For decades I have been operating on four-six hours sleep. If for nothing else, for the quality and length of my rest the treatment was worth! Fortunately, the pain management and muscle spasm aspect of the treatment worked too, so I will be going back regularly!

Other positive outcome just after one session was that I was feeling more energised again, gaining back some of my speed and more relaxed muscles!

I had no chance to finish this post so I am continuing today. I had my third acupuncture session. The benefits are even more obvious. Don't expect miracles but nice and steady improvement in all areas. Continuos good sleep, very different from the short bursts of restless sleeps in 1.5-3 hours blocks with Facebooking between! In myself I feel much more the way I used to feel. My energy is returning and the speed of my actions is increasing. More and more of my spastic muscles are getting under control. No need to mention that at the same time, for long months, I have been taking nutritional supplements directed by my naturopath based on a hair analysis and other examinations. The more I work with my wonderful Chinese doctor, the more appreciation I am gaining about this ancient healing profession. The last months I have been exploring different alternative healing options and I must say, I am very grateful for this incredible experience, despite the unpleasant set backs. Thanks to the Internet and my circle of friends who recommended their medical connections, I established an incredible medical team around me. Working with them taught me a lot about myself, about my body, about having options and finding the right solution to heal and hopefully for prevention and anti-ageing. The more I allowed my body to guide me, the better decisions I made and I feel that the closer I get to where I want to be. 

Someone could say that the last six months or much more have been hard. Yes, but it taught me to stay positive and be grateful every single day! 

"A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results." Wade Boggs

Sea today

I live near the sea and one of my favourite passtime is to have a walk on the beach. In good weather I like to swim in the sea and in bad weather I just pull up in the car park and watch the ever changing colours of the sea and sky. Frequently, I try to read but nature is much more exciting! Today is a good example for the incredible and quite dramatic colours of the sea and the sky. I just can't get enough of it! You know that photos never really can give back the real feel of the sea but here is one to enjoy the colours and the drama!