Hey guys, sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted. But let’s get to it.

Neal, Jonathon, Maia, Valarie and I formed a sort of dinner group tradition. Each week on Wednesday we get together and cook up yummy Hungarian food. Using Neal’s Hungarian cookbook we’ve really ben able to sample the flavors of Hungary for ourselves as well as enjoy good food and good company. This weekly tradition has sort been unofficially dubbed Wednesday Family Dinners. So here today I’m going to share with you all the things we’ve made. It’s a lot of looking into pots, though.

These are mostly in chronological order but some of the meals I didn’t take pictures of, so this is what I got. To start, the second week I joined (Maia and Jon and Neal had cooked the week before that) we made bean casserole. It had this amazing filling that none of us have successfully re-created since, but it smelled divine:

I had to put this one in here 🙂
There’s the beans boiling away
Yeah, we’re cool
Next we deviated from the Hungarian cookbook and we tampered with my families manicotti recipe. Considering the ingredients we made do with, it turned out tasting pretty awesome.
And here’s where we start the soup craze. For about four or five weeks we made soup. I’m not complaining though, they were some of our favorite dishes. 
Sauerkraut and sausage
Val and Neal planning our trip to Prague
A sort of potato soup with lebbecs (noodle chunks)
Do they ever work?
We made a soup/stew thing with chicken where we had to “melt bacon” whatever that meant. Come to find out it wouldn’t be the last time we’d be “melting” bacon.
We are now bacon melting experts to say in the least.
Yummy chicken and vegetable soup/sauce
We went big that week, and made pumpkin bread too
I took a lot of pictures this week to make up for the lack in others
A super attractive photo. I’m sure they’ll love me for this
On top of bread we also made cookies! – we were fattening up for Israel I guess
Bam! It was glorious.

As for the rest I didn’t have photographed, they were pretty tasty too. You know that statement I made at the beginning about limiting the food pictures? Well, that’s totally gone out the window. Food has been the foundation for bonding and hanging out with people and it’s what occupies my time when I’m not traveling or studying.

I’ve appreciated getting to cook with all these people over the past couple of months. With the occasional guest and the constant experimenting we’ve really managed to turn it into something memorable. It’s something that’s given my time here meaning. Like my bible study and my church, Family dinners are what has made my study abroad experience worthwhile. It’s lent itself in helping make Budapest more homey and less strange. To Jon, Neal, Val, Maia and anyone else who joined us, thank you. Cooking with you has been an honor.

-Natalie