Hungarian Hillbillies Part TWP

Last night the computer was dead, although no services were held, i went to sleep, completely confused, why, why working perfectly for the first ten days of the vacation, it would restart after charging from the night before. The nite light at the pug in point went on, but the main switch which lights up wouldn't go on....and nothing at all worked. it seemed completely dead. No one touched it, dropped it...and even if it was attacked by the worst virus , the thing should have turned on at least and then, malfunctioned.
This morning i tried again,,,open the battery case and closed it a few times, pushed on all the wires again.....and this time ...well it was resurrected......and went on...and then a screen came up and said to click here if you want to FORCE CLOSING open programs....which I did and , well...here I am again typing, on this mysterious behaving computer....not connected to the internet because.....there is no WI FI, no phone line,.....and no paved road up this mountain for over a mile.

I was very anxious last night to sit down and write for several reasons...One, the satellite dish television doesn't work, and all the movies Benno has on tape are in FRENCH...and even if they were in ENGLISH...I dont think I wouldn't want to watch them anyway...So I could have entertained my self wile writing and my words were popping out of my brain and fingers after a very heart warming evening with Benno and the locals.....and a text message that he got from his brother in SPAIN, which read" ARE YOU OK....just heard about the Catastrophe in HUNGARY.....?Benno texted back...."what catastrophe?>> and the return message was vague.
I called my strore and asked RICH to check on the COMPUTER....it too was vague and said that 7 villages....were burried by some kind of chemical contaminated mud slide caused by some huge industry''and they mentioned the TOWN of SOPRON..where a relative owns a fancy hotel and restaurant....some places were over 2 feet buried in this contamination....people were killed....cars overturned.....and I was supposed to have gone and visited them!!!
Benno doesn't even have a radio that works......to find out what happened..but then again...even if it did I DONT UNDERSTAND ENOUGH HUNGARIAN TO LISTEN TO A FAST SPEAKING NEWS COMMENTATOR....NOT EVEN A SLOW SPEAKING ONE.
SO, NOW ITS 11 IN THE MORNING,,BENNO IS OUT WITH THE WORKERS WHO AREREBUILIND HIS PROPERTY...I STILL DO NOT KNOW...WHAT HAPPENED....but i think it was in another party of the COUNTRY......

So I sit here on top of a mountain, on an unpaved road, without tv,radio,internet and all the time in my cell phone was used up....which is impossible because.....according to FRANK, it is only 15 cents a minute.....and i just put in 25dollars.....and spoke no more than 20 min on the phone.... Either Frank was wrong, or they cheated me...put in a few dollars and pocketed the rest...So when BENNO returns, and we go down the mountain..we can find out, if the rest of the world is still there, and we haven't been invaded by Aliens, attacked by terrorists....or all just dreaming

Last night Benno invited a local family to dinner. Thomas, the DADDY is his main helper in the area....His wife, a very long haired and attractive Gypsy.....and his three children, who were between and and 12...were very cute and well behaved....and Grandma and Grandpa... The locals here all have something in common...they are poor, and s\smoke and drink heavily, and have a good sense of humor and love to be silly and laugh....something that your author inherited from being part of Hungarian bloodline...I really think it is genetic....From stories that I heard about my grandfather, remembering COUSIN GEORGE who was always drinking and laughing hysterically, my self, my nephew CARY ....we all seem to have a touch of the ridiculous, love laughing, cooking, all kinds of creativity.....and then there is the serious side, which comes out in our writing, political stance, and sense of right and wrong..Of course the word LIBERAL can be ascribed to us,we might have been liberal if we had been Italian or Peruvian as well, who knows.

Earlier in the day Benno was defrosting the chicken that he was gong to cook...But this chicken seemed to have four legs instead of two.....When I questioned him it turned out it wasn't a chicken at all, but it was a rabbit.......actually two rabbits that Thomas, father had given to him......they raise rabbits..which they sell and it makes up part of their meager income. Well, I like animals...and cute furry little rabbits is no inlcuded in my normal diet, nor would I order rabbit in a restaurant.. I pet rabbits not eat them...but when in ROME one must do what the ROMANS, do (or if you are in Alaska, when in NOME....do what the Nomans do..and that includes having sex with Eskimos...)the last joke was contributed by JOhn...who is now in cha
rge of the store while I am gone....as he told an ex employee who now lives in NOME

Sorry for going off on tangents, but that is so typically me...........

Back to the rabbits......Benno sauteed them first...and the put them into larger pots, adding water, tomatoes,green pepper,paprika (of course PAPRIKE this is HUNGARY home of PAPRIKA) salt,pepper, rosemary and thyme, red wine. onion, carrot,......and it cooked for two hours.....oh, and some huge mushrooms......cant leave them out...and it smelled wonderful......but to my dismay, it still was RABBIT..and instead of the bunny eating the carrot...they were cooking together side by side.......................................

While Benno was dong his thing with the BUNNYs.....i was peeling apples and winter pears that we pulled off the trees earlier...I then sauteed them in Current Juice, sugar ,lemon juice,cinnamon,grated lemon rind and orange rind..until they were soft, but not mushy...and put them too cool

Benno made a great salad with greens, tomatoes, black and green Spanish olives,and fresh blue cheese....and a pot of rice large enough to feed everyone in the country....I sauteed a n onion till it was almost black to put on top of the rice..to give it some flavor.....

But the best was yet to come...I made Palacintas..the traditional Hungarian pancake...or crepe or blintz.... Instead of coming to Hungary to eat them, i made them...and to the surprise of the locals.....they were fabulous.....
I took farmer cheese that is a cross between cream cheese, ricotta.......and mixed in sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and sour Hungarian Cherries called MEGGY....if i had some almond flavoring i would have added that too... The topping, was half a jar of these sour cherries and its juice..cooked up with lemon juice, orange juice, and both of their grated rinds..then thickened with a teaspoon of flour.....
So i made the thin crepes, fillld them with the cherry cheese mixture, and put the thicked cherry sauce on top. served with the Pear Apple compote with real whipped cream....the desserts were masterpieces...that you would expect in a Gourmet establishment, the RABBIT as well.....and the dinner was a FOUR STAR meal, in a kitchen that doenst have a fridge...(its in the wine cellar)

The Grandad, that gave Benno the Rabbit, brought in a bottle of his new Wine...in a soda bottle. It was a month old....and tasted like carbonated grape juice, but it had a little kick to it......It was hardly wine....yet not a a soft drink.....but to my surprise...they added COKE to it.....I didn't get it...it added nothing to the taste, but took away the nice grape taste??? Well when in ROME>........

Other wine was brought out...white wine, red wine, and some local beer....and a bottle of COMPONA....a drink that was creamy chocolate cherry......hmmmm i had a few shot glasses of it, a little of the new red wine ,and it made me relaxed.

I forgot to mention that the boy MARCO, about 12...is already a veggie-tarian....He wouldn't eat the rabbit.....and didn't want the mushrooms in the stew, but i think he ate the rice and sauce and salad....and he didn't want to eat the PALACINTAS with the cheese and cherries...just plain pancakes and JAM.... Being poor in one way helps being a vegetarian...because here...meat is so much more expensive than veggies....but i pray he remains healthy.....In Budapest...the Socialized medicine seems to work, but in the backwaters...in the mountains, far away from the large city...it doenst. Grandpa needs a new hip..he limps and is in pain.....and they wont help him.

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