Today was my daughter's and my day to bake our
Hungarian pastry called kalacs. My father had translated
the recipe given to him by my Nana into English from
Hungarian. Several years ago Donna said we needed to
continue the tradition, even if we had never made kalacs before.
We have had a great deal of fun doing this once a year.
My father made several kinds of kalacs. Here are some
of the ingredients Donna and I used today. We just love to
experiment with different fillings and mixtures.
Donna is holding the Kalacs bible. We have preserved all
of the recipes with comments by her grandfather into this
book. Donna has continued the tradition of writing down what
works and what is "No Good!"
Donna is showing off her newly knitted mittens made by her
Aunt Valerie. She does have to take them off and get to work
mixing up the dough! Now that is hard work.
Here I am mixing up the walnut filling, getting ready to
spread it on the dough over my left shoulder.
Donna loves to be silly. Gee, I wonder who she
gets that from!
On the phone with Valerie in Rhode Island, letting
her know everything came out just fine.
Here you see Donna finalizing the notes from
today's baking into the Kalacs bible. She even
brought her own color coded pens for precise
note making. Ah, such a teacher!!
Back to being silly!
When all was said and done, we had made four batches. We
had 20 kalacs in five different flavors. That was the most
we have ever done as a "team". And to think
my father used to do this whole process alone
is absolutely remarkable.
Jean, Suzanne and Donna Hardin, and Donna
holding some of what was baked today.
After waiting nearly a year since I purchased the Christmas
Yes, there are 1,000 lights on this seven foot tree!
