We Three Hungry Hungarians

A pair of friends from grad school (who knew the other two Tarts back in the day) and I have joined the Fort Collins Public Library book club. Not content just to read the book and discuss it with other bibliophiles, we decided to enhance the literary experience by having dinner together before the meetings, with each meal inspired by the book, author, or subject matter. Last month was Embers by Sandor Marai, set in 20th century Hungary. Here is, of course, what we started with:

Steven, our whimsical host, prepared chicken paprikash in the crock pot. It was simple and delicious!

The fun part was watching the dumplings bob up and down as they boiled in their bath:

For the Hungarian side dish, Kelly had prepared a cabbage salad with apples and fennel seed. She was convinced that it was atrocious, but we liked it. Plus it was purple.


And thanks to the loyal readers of Three Tarts, I had found a recipe prosaically and redundantly entitled "Hungarian Dessert Cake" which actually made me think of Paris and allowed me to bust out my two (count 'em) electric crepe pans:

One crepe after another is layered with whipped cream,

finely grated chocolate,

and apricot preserves,

then sprinkled with toasted almonds and baked.


That's the most work I've put into a cake in a long time, perhaps ever. But it was extremely luscious and great fun! We had a fabulous Hungarian meal, and I plan on making the paprikash myself later. As for the "Dessert Cake," well, I'm already wondering what could happen if I substituted Nutella for the plain chocolate and varied the flavor of the jam!